Date: Jan 22, 2016 Source: Fierce Biotech (
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Avanir Pharmaceuticals named Rohan Palekar its CEO this week, replacing the outgoing Keith Katkin, who will transition to a role on the board of directors. Palekar first joined Avanir in March 2012 as chief commercial officer; he was appointed COO in March 2015. He brings more than 20 years of biopharma experience to the role; before his Avanir positions, he served as chief commercial officer at Medivation ($MDVN) and spent 16 years at Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) in various management roles. "I am excited by the opportunity to lead Avanir as we continue to successfully commercialize our first FDA-approved product, Nuedexta, transition to a two-product company with the potential near-term approval of our migraine candidate, AVP-825, and advance the development of our pipeline of products for CNS disorders," he said in a statement. Avanir was purchased by Otsuka in December 2014 for $3.5 billion.
