LSIPR 50 2018: Sandy Macrae
Name: Sandy Macrae
Organisation: Sangamo Therapeutics
Position: CEO
Last November, Sangamo Therapeutics made medical history by treating the first patient with an in vivo genome-editing therapeutic, delivered intravenously to ‘edit’ cells within the patient’s body.
At Sangamo’s helm is Sandy Macrae, a physician-scientist with over 20 years of industry experience, who has engineered the turnaround of the California-based biotech.
When Macrae took the reins of Sangamo in June 2016, he restructured the organisation, expanded the breadth and depth of expertise of its leadership team, and focused the company’s business on clinical development of gene-based medicines—underlined by a symbolic name-change to Sangamo Therapeutics.
In his first 18 months, he built a team that together initiated four clinical trials across multiple indications, expanded its core zinc finger protein technology library to precisely target any base pair in the genome, and established transformative collaborations with biopharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Kite-Gilead.
"In February, Sangamo entered into a collaboration with Kite Pharma."
Macrae’s top priority is patient safety, which has led Sangamo’s scientists to work closely with leading physicians and the Food and Drug Administration to carefully evaluate safety and ethical issues to mitigate potential unintended harm to a patient’s genome.
He appreciates the responsibility that comes with permanently changing a patient’s DNA. As Macrae constantly reminds the public: “This is the cutting edge of molecular medicine, and it is a privilege and a responsibility to do it. We’re taking our time to do it carefully, so we can deliver the best possible medicines to patients.”
In February, Sangamo entered into a collaboration with Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company, under which the companies will develop next-generation engineered cell therapies to treat cancer.
