Christopher Vann - Chief Operating Officer
Matthias Alder - Chief Business Officer and General Counsel
Muhammad Al-Hajj - Senior Vice President, Translational Sciences
Nushmia Khokhar - Vice President, Clinical Development
London, 18th July 2017 – Autolus Limited, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of next-generation engineered T-cell therapies for haematological and solid tumors, announces a number of senior leadership appointments in preparation for development and commercialisation of its highly differentiated and innovative T-cell products.
Christian Itin, Autolus’ Chairman and CEO said:
“I am delighted to announce the additions of Chris, Matthias, Muhammad and Nushmia to key roles across Autolus. These appointments complement our existing leadership team capabilities by adding individuals with distinguished track records in areas which will be critical as we progress our products from research, through development and towards commercialisation.”
Christopher Vann, Chief Operating Officer, joined Autolus from Hoffmann-La Roche. Chris brings more than 30 years’ of experience in development and business roles with extensive experience of lifecycle management of oncology products. He has launched several oncology, immunology and transplant products and has a strong track record of implementing marketing strategies at a global, regional and national level. He holds a degree in toxicology and pharmacology from the School of Pharmacy, University of London.
Prior to joining Autolus as Chief Business Officer and General Counsel, Matthias Alder served as EVP Business Development & Licensing, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure he helped establish a late stage development pipeline in orphan and rare diseases through acquisitions and strategic collaborations. He has also held senior corporate development and legal roles at Cytos Biotechnology AG and Micromet, Inc., and earlier in his career was a partner at Cooley LLP, where he advised biotechnology companies in licensing and collaboration transactions.
Muhammad Al-Hajj joined Autolus as Senior Vice President, Translational Sciences from the Burnham Institute in La Jolla CA, where he served as Vice President of Discovery and Translational Medicine. Previously he was Senior Director at GlaxoSmithKline where he led oncology R&D teams developing biologic and small molecule therapeutics from target ID through clinical candidate selection and early development in multiple cancer biology areas. Prior to that, he held R&D leadership roles at MedImmune and Novartis Pharmaceuticals. He holds a PhD in molecular genetics working on DNA repair, and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Nushmia Khokhar joined Autolus as Vice President, Clinical Development from Janssen Oncology, where most recently, she was global clinical leader for daratumumab, leading clinical programs and global regulatory submission for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. In addition, Nushmia also established the daratumumab program in solid tumours and led the Phase 3 registration trial of trabectedin in subtypes of soft tissue sarcomas. Nushmia attended medical school at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan and did a post-doctoral fellowship in the pharmacology and experimental therapeutics laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Washington Hospital Center and a fellowship in hematology/oncology from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
