Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi) has announced the appointment of Lydia Abad-Franch, MD, MBA as Senior Vice President, Head of Research, Development and Medical Affairs (RDMA), and Chief Medical Officer.

Lydia Abad-Franch has been in this role on an interim basis since June.

“Lydia is both an accomplished leader in rare diseases and an esteemed practicing medical doctor,” says Guido Oelkers, CEO of Sobi. “In addition, she has deep knowledge of the Sobi business as she has been with us for almost four years. This makes her the ideal RDMA leader for us as we continue building our pipeline to bring new medicines to patients, expand our existing products into new indications and regions where they address unmet medical needs, and gather real-world evidence for available products.”

Lydia Abad-Franch

Dr Abad-Franch holds an M.D. from the School of Medicine, University of Valencia, Spain, and an MBA from the University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain. She brings extensive experience and knowledge from the global pharmaceutical industry as well as from being a practicing medical doctor and clinical investigator.

Prior to joining Sobi in 2020, she led medical affairs teams for Baxter-Baxalta-Shire-Takeda, successfully introducing new innovative rare disease treatments after starting in the pharma industry as medical lead for Novo Nordisk. She will continue to report to CEO Guido Oelkers and be a member of the Sobi Executive Committee.

“I am very excited to lead the research, development, and medical teams at Sobi, where we have a strong portfolio of transformative medicines for people with rare diseases. I look forward to working with my colleagues across Sobi, our external partners, patients, and physicians to advance science and address critical unmet needs of patients with rare diseases,” says Lydia Abad-Franch.

Photo of Lydia Abad-Franch: Sobi