Chief executive of UK's Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult to retire

The UK government-backed Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) has announced that its chief executive, Keith Thompson, is to retire from April 2020.

The CGT Catapult was set up in 2012 with the aim of bridging the gap between academic research and commercialization of cell and gene therapies.

Mr Thompson said at the time that the agency was aimed at solving problems rooted in “what’s getting in the way of the development of the industry,” which he said was “not understood and too risky to attract major investment from either big pharma or venture capitalists.”