AveXis, Brian and Allan Kaspar
Earlier this month, Novartis and its wholly-owned subsidiary, AveXis, were put in the spotlight after the FDA’s announcement about data manipulation issues during the development of Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi), which were revealed less than three months after the product’s approval by the agency.
In a brief statement released only one week later, AveXis announced that its founder, Brian Kaspar (pictured), and his brother, Allan Kaspar, who had held the positions of AveXis’ CSO and SVP of R&D, respectively, had been removed from the company.
Specifically, the announcement stated that the two executives “have not been involved in any operations at AveXis since early May 2019 and are no longer with the company.”
Novartis executive of 10 years, Page Bouchard, who most recently was the global head of preclinical safety for Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), was appointed SVP of research and CSO, effective August 5, 2019, replacing AveXis’ founder and his brother.
