Leadership

Philip Astley-Sparke is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Replimune and has served as a member of our Board since our formation in 2015. Previously he was the President and CEO of BioVex Inc, which developed the first oncolytic therapy which was approved in the U.S. and Europe in 2015. Philip relocated the Company from the UK to the US in 2005 before Biovex was acquired by Amgen for up to $1bn in 2011. Subsequent to BioVex/Amgen, Philip was President at uniQure where he established their US infrastructure including the world’s largest gene therapy manufacturing facility and served as the Company’s Chairman from 2016 until June 2021. Philip also previously served as Chairman of the board of directors of Oxyrane Limited, a biotechnology company, from 2012 to 2020. Philip is currently a Venture Partner at Forbion Capital and serves on the board of Forbion European Acquisition Corp. Philip received a BSc in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from Bristol University UK, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen and was a healthcare investment banker with Robert Fleming / Chase H&Q.

Robert Coffin is Founder, President and Chief Research & Development Officer of Replimune. Previously he was Founder & CTO of BioVex Inc, a spin out from his research group at University College London in 1999. BioVex was acquired by Amgen in 2011 where Rob was VP Global Development until 2013, before co-founding Replimune in 2015. Rob was awarded a PhD in virology from Imperial College London prior to his move to University College London in 1991.

Colin Love is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Replimune. He has over 40 years of experience developing and launching biotechnology products and led development teams for Medeva, Serono and Amersham, prior to joining BioVex. Colin was SVP of Product Development at BioVex from 2000 until it was acquired by Amgen in 2011. Following the acquisition, he remained at Amgen as VP of R&D Operations working on T-VEC until it was approved in 2015. Dr. Love is a member of the board of directors of Freeline Therapeutics Holdings PLC. Dr. Love received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Glasgow University.

Pamela Esposito has served as Chief Business Officer since the inception of Replimune. Pamela has held a variety of strategy, investor relations, commercial and business development positions in small biotech companies over the past 20 years, playing lead roles in transformative deals for each company. She has raised more than $1 billion in capital for these companies.  Previously, she was Chief Business Officer at Ra Pharmaceuticals. As a member of Ra’s senior management team, Pamela played a leadership role in strategy, helping Ra transform from a discovery platform to a clinical stage company and raising its Series B mezzanine funding round. Prior to Ra, she was VP of Business Development at Biovex and led the negotiation of the acquisition of the company by Amgen. Early in her career, she was a director at Bioduro based in Beijing, China and Vion Pharmaceuticals in New Haven, CT. Currently, Pamela sits on the board of directors of Accent Therapeutics, Inc., and Kymera Therapeutics, Inc. Pamela earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics from Tufts University School of Medicine and a B.A. in Biochemistry from Dartmouth College.

Sushil Patel joined Replimune as Chief Commercial Officer in May 2021 and transitioned to Chief Strategy Officer in December of 2022. Sushil brings move than 20 years of experience in the biotech industry including pre- and post-launch commercialization strategy and execution in both US and global markets. Most recently he served as the Franchise Head for Lung, Skin, Tumor Agnostic, and Rare Cancers within Global Product Strategy at Genentech. Previously to that he served as the global launch lead and lifecycle leader for Tecentriq in lung cancer. He has been involved in more than 8 product launches (>20 indications) in various roles of increasing responsibility across marketing, sales, and franchise management. Prior to joining Genentech, he worked as a strategic management consultant and at IMS Health in their Pharma Strategy Group. Sushil is a member of the board of directors of Revolution Medicines, a clinical stage oncology company developing novel targeted therapies for RAS-addicted cancers, since June 2022. Sushil obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology and a Master of Sciences in Biotechnology from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London.

Chris Sarchi joined Replimune as Chief Commercial Officer in December of 2022. Chris brings over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with 28 years dedicated to the field on Oncology working at GSK, Roche/Genentech, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and most recently at Sanofi where he served as the General Manager and Head of Oncology in the US. He has been involved with 9 new product launches in oncology covering multiple tumor types, as well as supportive care products. Among these milestones, Chris led Libtayo’s launch as a new standard of care in CSCC, and was also involved with the launch of Erivedge in Basel Cell Carcinoma while at Genentech. Chris received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Maine. 

Tanya Lewis joins Replimune as Chief Development Operations Officer. Tanya has a career that spans more than 20 years in drug development. She has held leadership positions at several companies, including Tesaro and Millennium. Most recently she served as Executive Vice President, Chief Regulatory Strategy and Strategic Operations Officer at Karyopharm Therapeutics. Her past accomplishments include the successful negotiations for registration trial designs and /or approval of VELCADE®, INTEGRILIN®, VARUBI®, ZEJULA® and XPOVIO®. Tanya holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Northeastern University and a Master of Science degree in Regulatory Affairs and Public Health from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Science.

Kostas Xynos, MD, PhD, MBA, Joined Replimune in December 2021 bringing over 15 years of global biopharmaceutical experience in hematology and oncology drug development and medical affairs. Dr. Xynos joined Replimune from Deciphera where he spent the last three years, as Vice President of Global Medical Affairs. Prior to Deciphera, he spent nine years at AbbVie and three years at Astellas in increasingly senior global roles in oncology and hematology development as well as medical affairs. Dr. Xynos after receiving his BS in Biology at the University of Illinois, earned his MD at Aristoteleion University of Thessaloniki and his MBA at Strathclyde University in Scotland. He completed his internal medicine residency and fellowship at the University of Athens Alexandra hospital where he served as a researcher and has practiced clinical medicine for several years.

Emily Hill was previously the CFO of PTC Therapeutics where she supported the company’s growth from clinical to commercial stage. Ms. Hill joined PTC shortly after the IPO to lead investor relations. Prior to joining PTC Therapeutics, Emily was Director of Investor Relations of Warner Chilcott where she was responsible for leading the function. Additionally, Ms. Hill was Senior Manager of Investor Relations at Genzyme Corporation. Prior to Genzyme, Emily was a Biotech Equity Research Associate at Summer Street Partners. Ms. Hill has an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Fordham University, a Master of Science in Pharmacology from Tufts University School of Biomedical Research, and a BA from Hamilton College.