# Sandy Macrae

> Sandy Macrae is a Scottish physician-scientist who has led Sangamo Therapeutics, the Brisbane, California gene-editing pioneer, as President and CEO since June 2016. Trained at Glasgow and Cambridge - where Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner supervised his PhD - he ran emerging-markets R&D at GSK and was Global Medical Officer at Takeda before staking his career on zinc finger technology and genomic medicines for rare and neurological diseases.

- **Role:** President and Chief Executive Officer at Sangamo Therapeutics
- **Organizations:** Sangamo Therapeutics, Takeda Pharmaceuticals (former), GlaxoSmithKline (former)
- **Nationality:** British (Scottish)
- **Education:** BSc in Pharmacology, University of Glasgow, MB ChB (with honors), University of Glasgow, PhD in Molecular Genomics (supervisor: Sydney Brenner), King's College, Cambridge
- **Known for:** Led Sangamo through its transition from zinc-finger nuclease pioneer to clinical-stage genomic medicine company, Built Takeda's first Global Medical Office spanning medical affairs, regulatory, pharmacovigilance and outcomes research, Created GSK's first-of-its-kind Emerging Markets R&D group for Asia-Pacific entry

## Career timeline

- **2001-2012** — GlaxoSmithKline, rising to SVP Emerging Markets R&D (2009-2012)
- **2012-2016** — Global Medical Officer at Takeda Pharmaceuticals
- **2016** — Named President and CEO of Sangamo Therapeutics, succeeding founder Edward Lanphier
- **2024-2025** — Pfizer ends hemophilia A gene-therapy collaboration; Sangamo regains full rights to giroctocogene fitelparvovec
- **2025** — Sangamo focuses on neurology pipeline and Fabry gene-therapy BLA submission

## Achievements

- Led Sangamo through its transition from zinc-finger nuclease pioneer to clinical-stage genomic medicine company
- Built Takeda's first Global Medical Office spanning medical affairs, regulatory, pharmacovigilance and outcomes research
- Created GSK's first-of-its-kind Emerging Markets R&D group for Asia-Pacific entry
- Member of the Royal College of Physicians

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Pfizer formally returns hemophilia A gene-therapy program (giroctocogene fitelparvovec) to Sangamo as collaboration terminates.
- **2025** — Sangamo advances Fabry gene-therapy program toward a potential BLA submission in second half of 2025 and pushes wholly-owned neurology pipeline.

## Links

- Website: https://sangamo.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandymacrae
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/SangamoTx/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sandy-macrae
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-15