Lisa Deschamps of AviadoBio and Richard Wilson of Astellas discuss the field of AAV gene therapy, and their partnership on AVB-101, an AAV gene therapy for frontotemporal dementia (FTD)

Lisa and Richard describe the unmet need for frontotemporal dementia and their partnership on AVB-101, which is administered directly to the thalamus. They describe the unique perspectives and skill sets that larger and smaller companies bring to the table in these types of partnerships, and discuss their thoughts on making it through times of change for the benefit of patients.

The Experts

Lisa Deschamps is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Board Member at AviadoBio.

Prior to joining, Lisa served as Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Novartis Gene Therapies, a unit of Novartis where she was responsible for strategic planning and worldwide commercialization of the pipeline and in-line assets across the extensive gene therapy portfolio; including the world-wide commercialization of Zolgensma. Her career at Novartis spanned for more than twenty-five years, during which she brought products from the clinic to commercialization across many therapeutic areas, including highly specialized, rare and ultra-rare disease areas and has led teams across U.S, Europe, LatCan and Asia/Pac in strategic, functional and general management roles.

Richard Wilson is Senior Vice President, Primary Focus Lead (Genetic Regulation) at Astellas.

He leads the Primary Focus strategy for genetic regulation activities at Astellas, working alongside Astellas Gene Therapies leadership to drive the company’s efforts in adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapy programs. He joined the company in 2020 as vice president, Portfolio, Program & Operations Strategy, to lead the creation of the Gene Therapy Core Team operating model, and he also helped to lead the transition of Audentes into Astellas Gene Therapies.