Axovant snatches Teva and Allergan execs to strengthen management

Axovant has announced reinforcements to its management team with two new additions, snatching up Allergan’s current Chief Medical Officer Dr Gavin Corcoran as its new Executive Vice President of R&D, and Dr Michael Hayden, former Chief Scientific Officer and President of Global R&D at Teva, as Chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board.

"I am pleased to welcome Gavin and Michael to the Axovant team," said Dr Pavan Cheruvu, Chief Executive Officer of Axovant. "Since starting as CEO in February, I have been focused on transforming Axovant into a leaner organisation, introducing heightened standards of quality and excellence throughout the business, and establishing a new pipeline strategy. We are now poised for growth, and I am excited to have Gavin and Michael join us as we look toward expanding our pipeline in the coming months."

Before his time with Allergan, Dr Corcoran occupied the same role of CMO at Actavis, and has overseen drug development processes across a range of therapeutic areas for major industry names including Celgene, Amgen, Bayer, and Schering-Plough.

On the news of his new role, he remarked: "I am very excited to join Axovant at this turning point. I look forward to working closely with Pavan and the senior management team to bring new investigational medicines into the portfolio as we build upon Axovant’s capabilities in research and development. We have a wonderful opportunity to develop life-changing medicines for patients with CNS diseases. I am also eager to leverage the Roivant platform to accelerate the development of Axovant’s pipeline."

New Chairman Dr Hayden also achieved significant impact within the industry even before he stepped into his executive roles at Teva, founding a number of biotech firms including Aspreva Pharmaceuticals. "I share Pavan’s vision of rebuilding the company on a foundation of transformative science and I look forward to expanding Axovant’s Scientific Advisory Board," he commented. "I have been very impressed with the calibre of the Axovant team and am excited about the future growth of the company."

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