ROCKVILLE, Md., May 27, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- REGENXBIO Inc., a leading biotechnology company in gene therapy, today announced the appointment of Jerry Karabelas, Ph.D., to its board of directors.
"Jerry is an experienced biopharmaceutical leader who brings to REGENXBIO more than 20 years of success in key strategic, operational, commercial, research and development, and board roles," said Don Hayden, Chairman of REGENXBIO's board of directors. "We are excited to have Jerry join the board at this important point in the growth and development of the company."
Dr. Karabelas has held a number of senior executive positions in major pharmaceutical companies, including Head of Healthcare and CEO of Worldwide Pharmaceuticals for Novartis AG, where he had full responsibility for Novartis Pharma and Ciba Vision, as well as strategic and operational leadership of R&D. Dr. Karabelas was also Executive Vice President of SmithKline Beecham with responsibility for U.S. and European operations, regulatory, and strategic marketing. Most recently, Dr. Karabelas has chaired the boards of several biopharmaceutical companies, including Human Genome Sciences, Inc., Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and SkyePharma PLC. He currently chairs the boards of Inotek and Polyphor, AG and is a partner at Care Capital. Dr. Karabelas holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacokinetics from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
"REGENXBIO stands out as a leader in the field of gene therapy with novel technology, a promising pipeline and a strong team," said Dr. Karabelas. "I look forward to contributing to the future success of the company as it works to translate encouraging scientific discovery into improvements in patient care."
In addition, the company announced that Daniel Kiser and Michael Gelman have resigned from the board of directors. "I would like to recognize and thank Dan for his sound guidance and for his many contributions as a co-founder of REGENXBIO. Dan played an instrumental role in the early history of the company as a visionary who recognized the opportunity in next-generation gene therapy. Additionally, I thank Michael for his service on the board and his support of REGENXBIO during this period of expansion," said Ken Mills, President and CEO of REGENXBIO.
About REGENXBIO
REGENXBIO Inc. is the leading next-generation AAV gene therapy company, developing a new class of personalized therapies based on its proprietary NAV® Technology platform for a range of severe diseases with serious unmet needs. NAV Technology includes novel AAV vectors AAV7, AAV8, AAV9, and AAVrh10. REGENXBIO has enabled leading global partners including Dimension Therapeutics, Baxter Healthcare, AveXis, Audentes Therapeutics, Voyager Therapeutics, Fondazione Telethon, Lysogene, Esteve, and AAVLife to use its NAV Technology.
For more information about REGENXBIO, please visit www.regenxbio.com.