Forge Biologics, a gene therapy-focused CDMO, has added three key leadership roles to further the Company’s growth as a manufacturer of genetic medicines. Chris McPherson has been appointed Vice President of GMP Manufacturing, Taleen Barsoumian will serve as Vice President of Client Development, and Adam Davis, Ph.D., was promoted to Vice President of Analytical Development.
 
Chris McPherson will oversee clinical and commercial cGMP manufacturing operations of Forge’s 50L to 5,000L bioreactors in 20 cGMP suites. Mr. McPherson has more than 25 years of industry experience in commercial biologics manufacturing, technology transfer, validation and BLA/MAA preparation, and brings expertise in continuous improvement for efficiency and compliance, problem solving, and scale up of client processes in a contract manufacturing environment. Previously, Mr. McPherson helped to scale processes and complete the technology transfer from 20L to 15,000L of biologics manufacturing. He’s held technical leadership positions in industry as Director of Manufacturing, Principal Scientist for Validation, Audits, and Inspections and Head of Clinical Manufacturing with Guilford Pharmaceutical, Cambrex Bioscience, WuXi Apptec, Biotest Pharmaceutical and Samsung Biologics. 
 
Taleen Barsoumian will lead client development strategy and new business operations across Forge’s suite of manufacturing solutions. Ms. Barsoumian was previously the U.S. Director of Sales and Business Development for Cell and Gene at Barkey Corp. and brings 18 years of experience working with partners in academia, biotech, pharma, government, and diagnostics. Prior to joining Barkey, she was the BioScience Western Regional Sales Manager for North America at Greiner Bio-One, following seven years with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where she was Senior Cardiovascular Sales Consultant. 
 
Adam Davis leads the in-house analytical development and testing team supporting clients throughout product development and manufacturing. Dr. Davis joined Forge in 2020 after 15 years of experience in recombinant adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector product development, process development, and manufacturing. His teams lead the phase-appropriate development, qualification and validation of analytics to support the production of pre-clinical and clinical recombinant gene therapy vectors. Prior to joining Forge, Dr. Davis was the Director of Manufacturing at Abeona Therapeutics, he held the position of Manufacturing Scientist at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, and completed his post-doctoral work in gene therapy development and manufacturing at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
 
“Our team has built one of the largest genetic medicines manufacturing facilities in the world, with the ability for end-to-end AAV production of 50L to 5,000L,” said Timothy J. Miller, Ph.D., CEO, President, and Co-Founder of Forge. “Expanding our leadership team with these strategic hires, and the caliber of experience each member brings, supports our vision for growth and the value we provide to our more than 30 partners as we continue to expand our leadership in gene therapy development and manufacturing. I am delighted to welcome Mr. McPherson and Ms. Barsoumian, and congratulate Dr. Davis on his new role.”