Annika Ericsson assumed the position of Chief Scientific Officer at CombiGene at the beginning of August 2024. She is well-prepared for the role, following six years at the company as Director of Preclinical Development and prior extensive experience in drug development and project management, coupled with a research background in gene therapy.
What attracted you to CombiGene?
- CombiGene was a far too exciting company to say no to. I have always been fascinated by gene therapy and find it amazing that I have been involved in the research from the beginning in the early twenties, when the first clinical trials began. Having the opportunity to once again contribute to groundbreaking advances in gene therapy felt like a natural choice for me.
What is your educational background?
- I have a Ph.D. in Medical Biochemistry from the Karolinska Institute, with a dissertation[EGN1] that focused on enzyme and gene therapy for acute intermittent porphyria. After obtaining my Ph.D., I moved to the USA for postdoctoral studies in porphyria and gene therapy at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
What did you do after your postdoc?
- I took up a postion at Zymenex and later at Chiesi, where I was responsible for developing new cell lines, creating analyses, and scaling up production processes for various protein therapies. I also served as a project manager for preclinical studies and developed animal models for several lysosomal diseases, which have since progressed to clinical trials. At Zymenex, I was involved in the development of Lamzede, a life-saving treatment for individuals with alpha-mannosidosis, a severe genetic disorder. Lamzede is now approved in both the USA and Europe.
What have been your main responsibilities at CombiGene?
- When I started working here in 2018, my role included leading the preclinical testing of CG01, CombiGene’s epilepsy project. I have also been the project manager for CGT2, the lipodystrophy project, which we recently decided to discontinue as it did not generate the results we were looking for. Further, I have been responsible for, and will continue to lead, COZY02, our latest gene therapy project targeting severe chronic pain where effective treatment options are currently lacking.
What are you most proud of?
- At CombiGene I have had the privilege of being involved in the out-licensing of CG01 to Spark Therapeutics, a process that has been both educational and exciting. Through close collaboration and numerous meetings, we successfully highlighted the project’s potential for Spark. Unfortunately, due to a strategic decision last year, Spark chose to return the project. Now, one of the first tasks in my new role will be to evaluate the results from the final study that Spark has been responsible for, once we gain access to them later this fall.
What will be your focus area in the coming years?
- Our team has an impressive ability to drive projects forward with high expertise in drug development and gene therapy, allowing us to tackle almost any project. My primary focus will be actively advancing our ongoing pain projects to out-license them to a larger player. I will also play a key role in bringing in more exciting gene therapy projects or academic research collaborations.