November 13, 2023
Walnut Creek, CA; London; Singapore—Dark Horse Consulting Group (“DHC”), the leading global consultancy to the cell and gene therapy (“CGT”) industry, today established an official foothold in the Asia Pacific region—an area representing more than one-third of CGT globally—by bringing on industry veteran John Ng as General Manager of DHC’s new APAC office.
Most recently, John served as Chief Technical Officer of Tessa Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Singapore that was developing a portfolio of autologous and allogeneic cell therapy assets. The company grew from 30 employees to more than 200 during his seven-year tenure.
John joined Tessa Therapeutics as Chief Operations Officer and a member of its executive leadership team in 2016. In 2021, he was asked by the Board of Directors to become the Acting CEO, where he led the company to complete a USD $126M fundraising round.
As CTO, John was responsible for the Operations organization, which includes Manufacturing, Process Development, Quality, Program Management, Engineering, and Global Supply Chain. Under his leadership, Tessa Therapeutics completed a phase 3 pivotal autologous cell therapy trial supplied by in-house manufacturing. Additionally, he led the design, build, and validation of their multi-product integrated commercial cGMP facility (134,000 sq ft). The facility obtained the GMP certificate from the Health Authority of Singapore (HSA) to manufacture cell therapy products in early 2023. He also led the translation of multiple programs with Tessa’s academic partners, executing successful tech transfers and comparability runs.
“As Dark Horse Consulting continues to expand, a natural next step was to ensure that we had local expertise and support for our clients in the APAC region, which is the fastest-growing part of the world for CGT,” said DHC Founder and CEO Anthony Davies, Ph.D. “John’s extensive experience and impressive track record fits well with our model of accelerating progress for our clients by providing deep and differentiated CGT expertise.”
Before Tessa Therapeutics, John served in various leadership roles in Technical Operations in publicly listed companies. He also spent ten years in China, responsible for Procurement, Global Supply Chain, and Program management.
Stated Mr. Ng, "As a former client myself, I am excited for this opportunity to extend DHC’s exceptional services to a broader group of APAC clients. I look forward to growing DHC's presence in APAC to better serve this important and growing region for the CGT industry".
Mr. Ng, a native Singaporean, holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the National University of Singapore. He is fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese.
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About Dark Horse Consulting Group
Dark Horse Consulting Group, a global company with offices in the U.S., U.K., and APAC, was founded in 2014 with the purpose of accelerating cell and gene therapies through unmatched consulting expertise. DHC’s collective knowledge spans product and process development, analytical development, device development, manufacturing operations, quality assurance, facility design & engineering, regulatory affairs, nonclinical development, project & program management, quantitative modeling, market expertise, and diligence & business strategy. DHC offers an unmatched understanding of the challenges faced by cell and gene therapy developers and applies best practices from this and other industries to address a diverse range of client needs.
Above, John Ng is seen providing a 2018 tour of Tessa Therapeutics to China’s then-Premier Li Keqiang and Singapore’s then-Finance-Minister Heng Swee Keat. Find the full article, including a mention of potential cooperation between the two countries in working to advance cancer-fighting technologies, here. (Photo/Xinhua)
