Assembly Biosciences, Inc. has appointed John McHutchison, AO, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. McHutchison, who will also join Assembly’s Board of Directors, succeeds Derek Small, who co-founded Assembly Biosciences in 2014. Mr. Small will return as managing director of his venture creation firm, Luson Bioventures, and will continue to serve on Assembly’s Board as a Director and senior advisor.
 
Dr. McHutchison most recently served as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research and Development at Gilead Sciences. During his nine years at Gilead he led the organization in the successful filing of numerous New Drug Applications (NDAs) across multiple therapeutic areas including the curative treatment regimens for chronic hepatitis C (HCV) and treatment of chronic HBV.
 
Dr. McHutchison received his degrees in medicine and surgery, completed an internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship, and a post-doctoral fellowship in Liver. He is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and in 2018, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), recognizing his “distinguished service to medical research in gastroenterology and hepatology, particularly through the development of treatments for viral infections, and to the biopharmaceutical industry.”
 
“I am very pleased to welcome John to Assembly and could not think of a more fitting leader to guide the transition of the company into a global development stage organization,” stated Derek Small. “As we now have four development candidates across our HBV programs and microbiome platform, including our lead core inhibitor ABI-H0731 completing its Phase 2 studies and ABI-M201 in a Phase 1b study for ulcerative colitis, it is an ideal time to pass the torch to a visionary leader who has an extensive track record of moving important therapies through to approval and out into the hands of physicians and patients.”