KITE , A GILEAD COMPANY
“ We ’ re the only company that has end-toend standalone research and development , manufacturing , and commercialisation of a potentially curative treatment ”
CINDY PERETTIE EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND GLOBAL HEAD , KITE
It still sounds amazing when you stop and explain it to someone – taking a patient ’ s own T-cells , flying them across the country to a special lab to modify them , flying them back again and re-infusing the modified cells into the patient to fight their cancer .
“ It ’ s been 30 years since a curative therapy was approved prior to CAR T ,” says Cindy Perettie , Executive Vice President and Global Head of Kite . “ The unique piece about CAR T is what we call a one-and-done treatment – it is a one-time treatment . It ’ s your own armoured white blood cells with the potential to cure .”
Kite ’ s impact has rapidly scaled from being able to treat hundreds of patients per year to now having treated 19,500 since Kite ’ s CAR T therapies have been approved . Given that each cell therapy is uniquely designed for each patient , manufacturing is central to how Kite delivers their therapies ,
CINDY PERETTIE
TITLE : EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND GLOBAL HEAD
INDUSTRY : BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH
LOCATION : UNITED STATES
Cindy Perettie serves as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Kite , a Gilead Company , and is responsible for overseeing the cell therapy business .
Cindy joined Kite in 2023 with more than 20 years of scientific and commercial leadership experience in global biopharmaceutical organizations . Most recently , she served as Head of Roche Molecular Lab Solutions where she oversaw the PCR ( polymerase chain reaction ) and Sequencing Business . Prior to that , she was Chief Executive Officer at Foundation Medicine . Before joining Foundation Medicine , Cindy was Head of Global Oncology Strategy at Roche ’ s Oncology Unit . In 2012 , Cindy joined Sarah Cannon Research Institute as President of Global Development Innovations where she gained invaluable insights into the day-to-day care of people living with cancer . She started her career at Johns Hopkins University as a senior research associate .
She holds an MBA from Saint Mary ’ s College of California and a bachelor ’ s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry from The State University of New York at Potsdam .
80 May 2024