New Haven, Conn., USA - May 16, 2013, New Haven, Conn., USA - Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, announced the appointment of David Apelian to the position of executive vice president and chief medical officer, effective May 28, 2013.
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Dr. Apelian brings to Achillion more than 13 years of industry experience from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Schering Plough and GlobeImmune where he focused on hepatology and infectious disease clinical development.
Dr. Apelian was Clinical Director in the Infectious Diseases Group at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), serving as medical co-lead for the clinical development and NDA submission of entecavir for chronic hepatitis B viral infection (HBV). Prior to BMS, Dr. Apelian served as Clinical Director in the Department of Hepatology/Gastroenterology at Schering Plough, coordinating a supplemental NDA filing for interferon alpha-2b and ribavirin for the treatment of pediatric patients with chronic hepatitis C viral infection (HCV).
Most recently, Dr. Apelian served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at GlobeImmune, where he was responsible for clinical development, regulatory affairs, clinical immunology, development of companion diagnostics, as well as target discovery and preclinical research.
Dr. Apelian completed his residency training in Pediatrics at New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center. He received his M.D. from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and B.A. from Rutgers University. He also holds an M.B.A. from Quinnipiac University.
In addition, Achillion also announced the expansion of its clinical operations group with the recent addition of Kevin Kucharski, formerly head of clinical operations at Pharmasset, who will serve as Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations.
Mr. Kucharski comes to Achillion with more than two decades of clinical operations expertise, with a focus on conducting U.S. and global clinical trials, ranging from Phase 1 through Phase 4.
Prior to joining Achillion, Mr. Kucharski was Vice President of Clinical Operations at Pharmasset since 2007, and then at Gilead Sciences following their acquisition of Pharmasset. While at Pharmasset, Mr. Kucharski provided effective oversight and execution of various global clinical development projects including PSI-7977 and PSI-938. Prior to Pharmasset, Mr. Kucharski was Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Altana Pharma US, a Nycomed Company, where he established the Clinical Operations group. ■