John Crowley, the longtime leader of rare disease drug developer Amicus Therapeutics and a board member of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, will become the trade organization’s new president and CEO.
BIO said Tuesday that Crowley’s appointment will become effective on March 4. Crowley will step down from the Amicus board in March before taking on his new duties at BIO.
Crowley’s experience includes leadership roles at companies researching treatments for Pompe disease, a rare neuromuscular disorder caused by an inherited enzyme deficiency. In 1998, two of his children were diagnosed with the disease. Crowley co-founded Novazyme Pharmaceuticals, which was developing an enzyme replacement therapy. Sanofi acquired Novazyme in 2001 and now markets its enzyme replacement therapy, Nexviazyme. That journey was depicted in the 2010 movie “Extraordinary Measures.”
Motivated to develop yet another treatment for Pompe, Crowley joined Amicus Therapeutics as its CEO in 2005. Pompe is one of several rare diseases where Amicus focused its research. The company’s first FDA-approved product was Galafold, a treatment for a different enzyme deficiency called Fabry disease. In Pompe, Amicus took enzyme replacement further with an accompanying small molecule designed to improve muscle uptake of the enzyme. Amicus’s engineered enzyme, Pombiliti, and the accompanying small molecule, Opfolda, were both approved by the FDA in September.
Crowley has served on the BIO board for more than a decade. In that role, he has testified before Congress about matters such as the Inflation Reduction Act’s impact on the biotechnology industry. As BIO’s new CEO, Crowley will likely have more opportunities for interacting with lawmakers. He will succeed Rachel King, who has been BIO’s interim CEO for the past year. King stepped into the top spot following the departure last year of Michelle McMurry-Heath, who in 2020 became organization’s first Black woman CEO. Details about her abrupt departure were kept confidential, but she reportedly had clashes with the BIO board.
Last year, Crowley stepped down as Amicus CEO and transitioned to executive chairman. His experience includes also military service. Crowley was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve from 2005 to 2016. In a video posted to BIO’s website, Crowley compared leading BIO to taking on a new mission.
“As BIO’s new CEO, I look forward to breaking down barriers and I will assume my newest mission with the purpose, optimism, and passion that it deserves,” Crowley said. “Because what we do is simply too important to too many.”
Photo by BIO
