Clinical-stage gene therapy company Axovant has announced the addition of five senior team members to strengthen its expertise in the development and commercialization of gene therapies.

Main aim of these appointments is to expand Axovant’s capabilities in gene therapy manufacturing, vector optimization, operations, clinical development, regulatory affairs and commercialization.

Pavan Cheruvu, chief executive officer of Axovant said, “I am very pleased to announce the addition of several accomplished leaders in gene therapy to the Axovant team. Together, they bring decades of experience in gene and cell therapies, which will further strengthen our ability to quickly and effectively deliver on our potentially best-in-class gene therapy pipeline. At Axovant, we are passionately focused on the delivery of transformative new gene therapies for patients with severe neurological and neuromuscular diseases. These new team members embody these characteristics and I am excited to welcome them to Axovant.”

Greg MacMichael joins Axovant as senior vice president of technical operations with responsibility overseeing manufacturing of Axovant’s pipeline of gene therapies.

Dr. MacMichael received his Ph.D. in microbiology/biochemistry from Mississippi State University, his M.S. in microbiology/biochemistry from North Carolina State University and his B.S. in microbiology from Pennsylvania State University.

He previously served as the global head of biologics process development at Novartis, leading the chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) aspects of Novartis’ acquisition and transfer of Kymriah® from the University of Pennsylvania, including building the supply chain for plasmids, lentiviral vector and production capacity.

Parag Meswani joins Axovant as senior vice president of commercial strategy and operations. He has over 17 years of experience in the biopharma industry, having served in various commercial and medical affairs leadership roles at Novartis, Pharmacia, Biogen, and most recently, Spark Therapeutics.

Dr. Meswani earned his M.B.A. from Columbia University and his Pharm.D. and B.S. from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University.

Paul Korner joins Axovant as senior vice president of clinical development. He has 20 years of experience in clinical development and medical affairs, most recently serving as vice president of medical strategy and clinical development at Sarepta Therapeutics focusing on the development of precision genetic medicines focused on rare neuromuscular diseases.

Dr. Korner received his M.D. from Loyola University, his M.B.A. from Kennesaw State University and his B.S. in biology with honors from the University of Illinois.

Greg Stewart joins Axovant as senior vice president of vector delivery and optimization with responsibility for ongoing clinical refinement of Axovant’s gene therapy programs.

Dr. Stewart has over 25 years of experience in drug development for neurological conditions from preclinical discovery to phase 2/3 clinical trials, most recently serving as chief scientific officer at Pairnomix.

He received his Ph.D. in neural sciences from Washington University in St. Louis and his B.S. in neuroscience from Texas Christian University.

Sean O’Bryan joins Axovant as vice president of regulatory affairs. He previously served as vice president of regulatory affairs and quality assurance at Lysogene.

Sean has more than 20 years of regulatory experience across a range of categories including biologics, gene therapy, CMC and medical devices and holds a B.S. in biology and analysis and policy from Boston University and is regulatory affairs professionals (RAPs) certified.