David Acheson

David Acheson is an accomplished senior commercial executive with over 20 years of commercialization success in both established and start-up organizations. David currently serves as the SVP, North America for Apellis Pharmaceuticals, a fast growing biotech leader committed to developing transformative therapies for people living with a broad range of debilitating diseases by controlling complement, specifically targeting C3 in the complement cascade. Since November 2019, David has been responsible for leading both the Rare Disease franchise as well as the Ophthalmology Business. David joined Apellis Pharmaceuticals from Circassia Pharmaceuticals, an Oxford UK based pharmaceutical and device diagnostics company, where he served as the SVP & General Manager for the U.S. region within the global organization, providing leadership in a start-up company that grew from $15 million in revenues to over $250 million in revenues within four years in the U.S., through both organic growth, partnerships and eventually an in-licensing deal with a large pharma organization.

Prior to his senior level leadership roles, David worked in multiple levels of responsibility in both well-established pharma organizations as well as several small pharma and start-up companies, working in roles of National Sales Director, VP Sales & Market Access, hospital and specialty Account Management, and has significant strategic experience in Patient Access, Reimbursement, Channel strategy and Distribution.

David holds a BS in Business from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, and is based in the Apellis Pharmaceuticals headquarters located in Waltham, MA.