Health and Healthcare

Why DBV Technologies Is Changing Up Senior Leadership

Chris Lange

Published: January 3, 2019 9:50 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 1:02 pm

DBV Technologies S.A. (NASDAQ: DBVT) shares made a handy gain on Thursday after the company announced that it would be making some changes in its senior leadership ahead of its anticipated resubmission of its Viaskin Peanut Biologics License Application (BLA).

Following recent interactions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), global manufacturing industry leader Julie O’Neill has been engaged, effective immediately, to direct all product development, manufacturing, supply chain, quality assurance and end-to-end process optimization at the company. Most recently, O’Neill was executive vice president of Global Operations for Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

O’Neill, who was appointed to DBV’s board of directors in 2017, will continue serving as a director while overseeing the anticipated resubmission of the Viaskin Peanut BLA in children four to 11 years of age.

Essentially, the firm announced the following changes to its leadership team as it strengthens organizational competencies in the development of the Viaskin platform:

DBV’s Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), Dr. Hugh Sampson, will also assume the role of interim Chief Medical Officer (CMO) effective today. Dr. Sampson succeeds Dr. Lucia Septien-Velez, who has decided to leave to pursue other opportunities. As CSO and interim CMO, Dr. Sampson will lead both the scientific and medical teams at the Company and will report to Daniel Tassé, Chief Executive Officer of DBV Technologies. Dr. Sampson is an accomplished leader and physician, and his research and scientific advancements have had a significant influence in the field of food allergies and immunology over the last 40 years.

CEO Tassé commented:

These operational changes mark an important transition for DBV as we continue to evolve from late-stage research and development into a potentially commercial-stage company. We believe Hugh and Julie bring a critical set of skills that will strengthen our ability to deliver innovative Viaskin product candidates to patients and families worldwide. They will work closely with our regulatory team to potentially bring Viaskin Peanut to children suffering from peanut allergy as quickly as possible.

Shares of DBV Tech were last seen up about 10% at $7.70, in a 52-week range of $3.60 to $26.98. The consensus analyst price target is $20.92.

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