AveX­is sci­en­tif­ic founder fires back at No­var­tis CEO Vas Narasimhan, 'cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly de­nies any wrong­do­ing'

Bri­an Kas­par’s head was among the first to roll at No­var­tis af­ter com­pa­ny ex­ecs be­came aware of the fact that ma­nip­u­lat­ed da­ta had been in­clud­ed in its ap­pli­ca­tion for Zol­gens­ma, now the world’s most ex­pen­sive ther­a­py.

But in his first pub­lic re­sponse, the sci­en­tif­ic founder at AveX­is — ac­quired by No­var­tis for $8.7 bil­lion — is fir­ing back. And he says that not on­ly was he not in­volved in any wrong­do­ing, he’s ready to de­fend his name as need­ed.

I reached out to Bri­an Kas­par af­ter No­var­tis put out word that he and his broth­er Allen had been axed in mid-May, two months af­ter the com­pa­ny be­came aware of the al­le­ga­tions re­lat­ed to ma­nip­u­lat­ed da­ta. His re­sponse came back through his at­tor­neys.

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