Abeona Expands Board with Two Appointments

Rare Daily staff

Cell and gene therapy developer Abeona Therapeutics that it is expanding its board with the addition of two independent directors.

The company named to its board Stefano Buono, who had been CEO and president of international radiopharmaceutical company he founded Advanced Accelerator Applications, and Richard Van Duyne, who held executive-level business development positions with multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Buono and Van Duyne join Abeona as the company plans to initiate a late-stage pivotal trial for its EB-101 gene therapy for treatment of the rare skin disorder recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa this year, and also recently announced FDA regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation for ABO-102, its gene therapy in development for the treatment of Sanfilippo syndrome type A.

“They bring extensive expertise in areas of major importance and value for Abeona as we expand and strengthen our organization and work to accelerate our progress,” said Steven Rouhandeh, Abeona’s executive chairman.

Buono is a physicist and alumnus of The European Organization for Nuclear Research. During his tenure at Advanced Accelerator Applications, the company expanded its presence to 13 countries and registered 8 diagnostic drugs and one therapeutic drug both in Europe and the United States. Novartis acquired the company in January 2018.

Van Duyne held executive-level business development positions with Warner-Lambert, Med-Pointe, and Pharmacia, before joining Daiichi Sankyo in 2003 as Global Head of Business Development, working directly with senior management in Tokyo, the United States, and Europe on key licensing and business development projects. From April 2013 through November 2017 he served in a senior advisor role, working with the CEO on special projects. He continues to work with Daiichi Sankyo as a consultant. He serves on the boards of Daiichi Sankyo Inc. (the wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo) and Bionpharma, a privately-held generics company based in Princeton, New Jersey. He received his B.S. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate Division of the University of Pennsylvania, and his J.D. from Stanford University.

May 14, 2018