Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the appointment of Thomas Lackner as Senior Vice President, Head of Europe. Prior to joining Apellis, Thomas was responsible for developing the global commercial strategy and launch organization for Prothena Biosciences in Europe, for their first global launch in a hematologic rare disease (AL amyloidosis). In his new role, Thomas will build out the launch organization for APL-2 in Europe as the company expands operations with two clinical programs in Phase 3: DERBY & OAKS for the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA) and PEGASUS for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Thomas will also be responsible for overseeing the establishment and development of Apellis’ new office in Zug, Switzerland. Thomas has extensive experience launching pharmaceutical company operations in new geographies. Previously he was Biogen’s Vice-President and Managing Director of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. His experience also includes P&L responsibility in other European geographies as well as the global launch of FampyraTM in multiple sclerosis, together with Acorda Therapeutics where he also chaired the Joint Commercial Committee.