Ascend hires Scott Law as COO and continues strengthening foundation

Posted: 24 April 2024

London, United Kingdom, 24 April 2024 – Ascend Advanced Therapies (Ascend), an end-to-end gene therapy development partner, has announced the addition of industry veteran Scott Law as Chief Operations Officer (COO). He joins an experienced leadership team that includes deep expertise in gene therapy from the development and services side with the goal of streamlining operational excellence as Ascend evolves.

Scott brings more than 30 years of global pharmaceutical experience, including senior manufacturing roles at companies such as Telix Pharmaceuticals, Baxter, Emergent BioSolutions, Ferndale Laboratories, and Pfizer. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing and Operations at Telix Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of radiopharmaceutical products.

“This is another step in the development of our organization to bring an offering to the market that supports clients from early development all the way through to commercial production. We have state-of-the-art facilities and highly experienced teams that have an established track record of gene therapy development and manufacturing,” Mike Stella, CEO at Ascend said. “Via our recent acquisition, we now have a Coast to Coast offer in the US, and roots in two leading EU markets. Our brand is in an evolution, including updating our name to Ascend Advanced Therapies to reflect our commitment to being the leader in AAV development and manufacturing. The addition of Scott further elevates our depth of talent in this market, which is a key differentiator and mainstay of the foundation at Ascend.”

The Ascend network is designed to support gene therapy customers at all stages of development across serotypes. Early-stage R&D is carried out at the San Francisco Bay Area site, with process development, optimization and forthcoming GMP QC release capabilities at the Munich, Germany site and now the GMP facility in Alachua Florida.

“I am thrilled to be here, working with a team that is building forward from experience developing therapies and understands what it takes to successfully bring them to market. We know that technology is only one piece of the puzzle. We also must have the right level of expertise and execution to continue growing our position as the leading AAV CDMO,” new COO, Scott Law offered.

The transfer to Ascend Advanced Therapies began in March of 2024, and is now completed at all business levels. The updated company name allows for continued evolution in the space while the new website continues to be developed to offer more opportunity to engage and educate.

The Ascend team will be onsite next month at ASGCT from May 7 to 11 with multiple posters and presentations on advances in gene therapy development. To learn more about what is happening at Ascend, please visit: www.ascend-adv.com or follow us on LinkedIn. Or to schedule some time to chat via email or onsite at ASGCT, reach out at business@ascend-adv.com.

About Ascend

Ascend Advanced Therapies (Ascend) is a specialist adeno-associated virus (AAV) development partner working to bring next-generation gene therapy products to market. Using an acqui-building approach, Ascend hit the ground running in 2023 with operational facilities globally, and a team of experts that offer unparalleled insight and collaboration when delivering products from the bench through to commercialization. The flexible platform supports all AAV serotypes across scales with proprietary and partnered technologies and a world-class analytical toolkit. The team continuously aims higher for the long run when working with partners to balance yield and quality of accessible life-saving therapies. Learn more at www.ascend-adv.com.