RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Dec. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), a leading, clinical-stage adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy company, today announced that its President and Chief Scientific Officer, Jude Samulski, PhD, has been honored as Triangle Business Journal’s (TBJ) 2020 Business Person of the Year.
“My passion to help people is reflected in the work we do every day to bring much-needed treatments to patients and their families who are affected by genetic disorders, and I am grateful to my co-founder, Sheila Mikhail, and the AskBio and Viralgen employees who work alongside me,” said Samulski. “I’m humbled by this recognition and hope that, in this particularly challenging time, my work inspires others in the healthcare space to expand their efforts to improve the lives of patients.”
TBJ’s Business Person of the Year award recognizes executives working in the Triangle area who have consistently driven business success while also demonstrating the power of corporate citizenry. The winner is selected based on their accomplishments over the past year and how this has translated into a broader good for the community, as well as charitable and nonprofit work. Samulski played a key role in Bayer’s 2020 acquisition of AskBio for up to $4 billion, a deal that includes the company’s AAV-based technology and gene therapy pipeline aimed at accelerating the development of treatments for patients in areas of medical need. He is also the Chairman and Chief Science Officer at Columbus Children’s Foundation, a nonprofit he co-founded to ensure equitable and affordable access to gene therapy solutions for children with ultra-rare genetic diseases.
“This was a particularly tough year for the Triangle Business Journal editorial team because there were so many deserving candidates,” said Sougata Mukherjee, Editor-in-Chief of the Triangle Business Journal. “We are thrilled to have selected Jude Samulski as our 2020 TBJ Business Person of the Year after an arduous selection process that lasted almost two months.”
This is the third accolade in 2020 for Samulski, who was honored as one of TBJ’s 2020 Life Sciences Award winners and was named one of PharmaVOICE Magazine’s Most Inspiring Leaders in Life Sciences. Nearly four decades ago, he was the first to successfully clone AAV for use as a vector to deliver therapeutic payloads as potentially curative treatments for genetic disorders. Since co-founding AskBio in 2001, Samulski has maintained an unwavering commitment to patients by creating and leading teams dedicated to challenging the status quo by pursuing new solutions.
TBJ is the leading provider of local business news for the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. The Triangle is the fifth fastest-growing life sciences market in the nation. There are currently nearly 600 life science companies in the area, with a collective local workforce of about 60,000, according to data from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
About AskBio
Founded in 2001, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG, is a fully integrated AAV gene therapy company dedicated to developing life-saving medicines that cure genetic diseases. The company maintains a portfolio of clinical programs across a range of neuromuscular, central nervous system, cardiovascular and metabolic disease indications with a clinical-stage pipeline that includes therapeutics for Pompe disease, Parkinson’s disease and congestive heart failure, as well as out-licensed clinical indications for hemophilia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. AskBio’s gene therapy platform includes Pro10™, an industry-leading proprietary cell line manufacturing process, and an extensive AAV capsid and promoter library. With global headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and European headquarters in Edinburgh, UK, the company has generated hundreds of proprietary third-generation AAV capsids and promoters, several of which have entered clinical testing. An early innovator in the space, the company holds more than 500 patents in areas such as AAV production and chimeric and self-complementary capsids. Learn more at www.askbio.com or follow us on LinkedIn.