Sukumar Nagendran

Suku has more than 30 years of experience in key functional areas, including gene therapy development, clinical development strategy, medical affairs, diagnostics, payer strategy and commercialization of therapeutic products. He currently serves as the President of R&D at Jaguar Gene Therapy. Previously, he was Chief Medical Officer & Senior Vice President of AveXis Inc., prior to the company’s acquisition by Novartis. There, he was responsible for overseeing and driving all clinical development and medical affairs strategy, notably for the company’s late-stage AAV-mediated gene therapy program for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Prior to AveXis, Suku held key leadership positions at Pfizer, Novartis, Daiichi Sankyo, Reata Pharmaceuticals and Quest Diagnostics. During his tenures at these companies, Dr. Nagendran played significant roles in several high-profile product launches and across multiple functions, including clinical trials/operations, field medical, medical product teams, pricing and reimbursement, publications and advocacy. He was also instrumental in building the medical affairs department at Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest lab/diagnostics providers in the world. Suku is a board member of Solid Bio and Taysha Gene Therapies, as well as an advisor for Neurogene, Medocity, Encoded Therapeutics, ANZU Medical and Prognos. Previously, he was a board member and advisor to two SPAC’s, HSACU and Chardan.

Prior to moving to industry, Suku practiced internal medicine, with a focus on diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He is a Mayo Alumni Laureate and founding member of the Robert Wood Johnson Legacy Society. He is also the sponsor for the Fonseca-Nagendran Scholar award at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) to enhance research in minority populations and the sponsor of the Jerry Mendell translational medicine award at ASGCT. Suku received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at Rutgers University and his medical degree at Rutgers Medical School. He trained in Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester. He has was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award at Rutgers Medical School in 2020.