Novartis dismissed the top two scientists at its gene therapy division shortly after CEO Vas Narasimhan learned of internal data falsification that has since snowballed into a damaging scandal, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday.
The company previously said it was “in the process of exiting” scientists who were responsible for the scandal but did not identify them. In a statement on Wednesday, Novartis said that it had appointed a new chief scientific officer for AveXis and that other scientists, Brian and Allan Kaspar, “have not been not been involved in any operations at AveXis since early May 2019,” without elaborating.
The person familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the departure of the Kaspars, who are brothers, was connected to the disclosure of data manipulation related to the gene therapy Zolgensma.
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