Avacta Group, developer of affimer biotherapeutics and research agents, has hired Dr Philippe Cotrel as chief commercial officer.

Cotrel joins the firm from Abcam where he held the post of commercial operations director. He has also held senior positions at Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Oxford Glycosciences and Affymetrix.

Dr Alastair Smith, chief executive of Avacta, said:  “I am delighted that Philippe has joined the team at Avacta to drive the commercial strategy and lead the commercial operations for the affimer technology. During the past year we have made considerable progress demonstrating the power of the affimer technology as both a research tool and as a therapeutic platform both in-house and with partners and customers. Philippe joins us having spent over twenty years in senior commercial positions in successful life sciences companies. I am very confident that his wealth of market knowledge and experience will allow Philippe to build on our early successes to help deliver the potential of this exciting technology.”

The group has also appointed Tony Gardiner as chief financial officer and Mike Owen as non-executive director and chair of the scientific advisory board. Gardiner was previously finance director at AHR, an international architecture and building consultancy practice, while Owen was senior vice president and global head of research ofbiopharmaceuticals.

Smith said: “The additions to the senior leadership team and to the board are particularly important and I am delighted with the recent appointments”.