14 September 2017 - - US-based biotechnology company Axcella Health has hired Manu Chakravarthy, M.D., Ph.D as chief medical officer and senior vice president of clinical development, the company said.

Chakravarthy comes to Axcella with deep experience in translational medicine, clinical development and therapeutic strategy, and with specific expertise in metabolic diseases.

He will lead Axcella's clinical activities and oversee the execution of clinical studies.

Prior to Axcella, Chakravarthy served as the global head of innovation strategy and external R and D in diabetes and cardiovascular research at Eli Lilly and Co., where he oversaw the identification and evaluation of novel therapeutics and platforms for in/out-licensing, and established academic collaborations to complement and enhance Lilly's internal R and D portfolio.

He additionally served as the industry co-leader of the Innovative Medicine Initiative's LITMUS project, one of the largest public-private consortia efforts to elucidate noninvasive biomarkers for NAFLD.

Before his leadership role at Lilly, Chakravarthy spent more than seven years at Merck and Co., where he assumed positions of increasing responsibility and leadership, ultimately serving as a Distinguished Scientist.

During his tenure at Merck, Chakravarthy spearheaded the design and execution of a variety of clinical trials (mechanistic, biomarker, first-in human, phase 2 POC) in neuroscience, anti-virals, and metabolic diseases.

He also led the Discovery Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology groups within diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases, and oversaw activities that ranged from target identification/validation to studies supporting regulatory filings.

Prior to Merck, Chakravarthy served as an Instructor of Medicine in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Washington University School of Medicine.