Primrose Bio Appoints Drew Burch CEO

Primrose Bio, Inc. (Primrose) appointed Andrew “Drew” Burch as its Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. 

Burch succeeds Helge Zieler, PhD, who will transition to Chief Technology Officer after having led Primrose for the last two years. Zieler led the company from its formation in September 2023 through the development of industry-leading manufacturing technologies.

Burch brings experience in commercializing biomanufacturing technologies, with a proven track record of leading high-growth organizations that serve the biopharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he served as President of Nucleic Acid Production at Maravai LifeSciences. 

Previously, Burch led various businesses for Thermo Fisher Scientific, including as President of three divisions: Patheon Softgels CDMO, European Drug Product CDMO, and Instrument and Enterprise Services. He served as leader of its Licensing and Commercial Supply business, and as VP of Strategy and Business Development for its Life Sciences Solutions group. 

“I am honored to join Primrose and lead such a talented team,” said Drew Burch. “New modalities and other innovations in biological medicine create tremendous opportunity for high-efficiency production systems like Pfenex Expression Technology and Prima RNApols. I look forward to working with our employees, partners, and stakeholders to continue innovating and broadening the adoption of our powerful technologies.”

“Leading Primrose and our superb group of scientists has been a privilege,” said Helge Zieler. “Drew is the right leader to scale what our team has built. I look forward to supporting him in my new role to deliver powerful protein and nucleic acid manufacturing technologies with even greater impact for our customers.”