Dr. Darrell Sleep has been appointed director of Innovation at Cobra Biologics. The appointment is part of on-going strategic expansion activities underway at Cobra’s Keele, UK site, to increase capacity and capability for clinical and commercial in-market supply of viral vector and DNA products to Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) developers. 
 
Dr. Sleep will lead the site’s innovation team of in-house R&D and process development expertise. The combined innovation team will deliver contract development activities to customers, in addition to driving scientific and technical innovation for new and existing service offerings. Darrell will work closely with Professor Daniel Smith, the Group’s Chief Scientific Officer, to streamline process workflows on the site, and facilitate timely adoption of the latest bioprocess solutions.
 
Dr. Sleep has 30 years biopharmaceutical experience, including 20 years in management positions where he successfully led a team to develop a new technology platform delivering preclinical in vivo proof-of-concept data sets, established techniques to improve therapeutic index and secured the relevant intellectual property to facilitate a number of successful collaborations with major pharma companies.
 
He has managed the development of improved production systems for a product, which following technology transfer from R&D to Operations, successfully entered cGMP manufacture. Furthermore, he is co-inventor of a technology platform designed to improve the circulatory half-life of biotherapeutic drugs, leading to the development of approved biologics, and generating royalties over $30 million by end 2017.
 
Professor Smith said, “The integration of Cobra’s innovation team, headed by Darrell as Director of Innovation, is key to establishing our UK site as a world-leading facility for ATMP production. Darrell’s extensive industry knowledge and expertise will be an invaluable addition to the Keele site management team. I am personally looking forward to working closely with him to continue to drive Cobra’s strong innovation agenda and to further enhance our profile as a leading scientific organization for the production of viral vectors and plasmid DNA.”