Oxford Biomedica appoints new finance chief

Cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Oxford Biomedica announced the appointment of Lucinda ‘Lucy’ Crabtree as its new chief financial officer and a member of the board on Wednesday.

The London-listed firm said the transition would take effect on 2 September.

Stuart Paynter, who had served as CFO for almost seven years, would step down from his role and the board, and would transition away from the company following a suitable handover period.

OXB said Crabtree would bring extensive financial leadership experience to the company, having previously served as CFO of MorphoSys, where she led a finance team across the US and Germany until the company's acquisition by Novartis.

Before her tenure there, Crabtree was the CFO at Autolus Therapeutics, a Nasdaq-listed clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.

Her earlier career included roles as an investment professional at several notable institutions, including Woodford Investment Management, Panmure Gordon, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan - originally Bear Stearns, and Jefferies.

Additionally, Crabtree had experience as a board observer at various private healthcare companies.

She holds a first-class Bachelor of Science degree in physiology and pharmacology from University College London, and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the same institution.

“On behalf of the corporate executive team, I am delighted to welcome Lucy to Oxford Biomedica,” said chief executive officer Dr Frank Mathias.

“Her unique skill set will be immensely valuable to us as we enter the next phase of our growth as a pure-play CDMO.

“I would also like to warmly thank Stuart for his dedicated service to OXB.

“Since joining the Company nearly seven years ago, Stuart has been instrumental in its success right the way through to the recent transformation of our business model.”

At 1059 BST, shares in Oxford Biomedica were down 1.31% at 338.5p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.