AbbVie appoints Michael Severino to lead R&D organization and drive continued pipeline advancement

US drugmaker AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) has named Michael Severino as Executive Vice President, Research and Development (R&D) and Chief Scientific Officer. Dr Severino's track record of innovation within the biotech industry aligns with AbbVie's vision as a new biopharmaceutical leader with a quickly emerging pipeline.

Dr Severino's responsibilities will include leading the R&D, Medical Affairs and Regulatory Affairs organizations at AbbVie. Globally, AbbVie has more than 7,000 people in the collective scientific organization dedicated to discovering and developing a steady stream of new medicines for patients. Dr Severino will bring insights and expertise from his career spanning genomics and development within the biotech industry.

Dr Severino most recently served at Amgen, as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, leading the clinical development strategy across therapeutic areas including inflammation/immunology, neuroscience, oncology and cardiovascular disease. In his 10 years with the company, he held numerous roles of increasing responsibility across the R&D organization. Prior to his tenure at Amgen, Dr Severino held increasing levels of responsibility in biologics and genomics research at Merck.