Longeveron announced the appointment of Nataliya Agafonova, M. D., as the Company’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), effective July 1, 2023. As CMO, Dr. Agafonova will lead Longeveron’s global clinical development and regulatory strategy for the Company’s investigational products.
“Dr. Agafonova brings deep pharmaceutical industry experience and an extensive background in successful drug development, and we are delighted to welcome her to the Longeveron leadership team,” said Wa’el Hashad, Chief Executive Officer of Longeveron. “We look forward to working with her to advance our Lomecel-B™ regenerative medical therapy from proof-of-concept, hopefully through regulatory approval and commercialization.”
“I am very excited about the pioneering work in cellular therapies being done by Longeveron, and about the potential of our lead asset Lomecel-B™ in indications such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome,” said Dr. Agafonova. “This Company has scientific and operational excellence at its foundational core, and am delighted to join Wa’el and my leadership colleagues to realize the full potential of these assets.”
Dr. Agafonova joins Longeveron from Otsuka Pharmaceutical, where she served as Clinical Development Lead, Senior Medical Director, and Product Development Chair. Previously, she was the Clinical Development Lead and Senior Medical Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Agafonova previously held several senior leadership positions in clinical development and pharmacovigilance at Ardea Bioscience, Biogen, Amgen, and Genzyme corporation. Dr. Agafonova has extensive experience in therapeutic areas such as autoimmune, hematology, neuroscience, and oncology. Her cross-therapeutic expertise in drug development helped to bring several products to the U.S. and EU market. Prior to her industry experience, Dr. Agafonova served as a physician at Ukrainian Research Institute of Oncology and Radiology. Dr. Agafonova earned an M.D. from the Ukrainian National Medical University and completed her internal medicine residency at Kharkov State University Hospital in Ukraine.
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