David Apelian, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed executive vice president and chief medical officer at Achillion Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Apelian will assume responsibility for the clinical development of the company’s portfolio of HCV compounds. In addition, Kevin Kucharski, will serve as senior vice president of Clinical Operations. Mr. Kucharski was formerly head of clinical operations at Pharmasset
 
Dr. Apelian brings 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. Most recently, Dr. Apelian served as senior vice president of R&D 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.
 
“We are delighted that David is bringing his wealth of hepatitis and drug development expertise to Achillion. His operational and regulatory experience, highlighted by the regulatory approval of antivirals such as interferon alpha-2b/ribavirin and entecavir, will greatly benefit Achillion as we accelerate our development plans and seek to initiate registrational studies with sovaprevir and ACH-3102 during the latter part of next year,” said Michael D. Kishbauch, president and chief executive officer of Achillion.