Biography

Rakesh Awasthi is an Associate Director in the Pharmacokinetic (PK) Sciences department (Oncology Therapeutic Area) at Novartis (East Hanover, NJ). Joining Novartis in 2015, he has been instrumental in providing scientific and strategic directions to oncology drug development projects. Rakesh has also been appointed as the Scientific Leader in PK Sciences for Cell Therapy, where he spearheads the development of PKS strategy for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy projects at Novartis. 

Rakesh received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences with an emphasis on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics from the University of Iowa. His expertise extends to the clinical pharmacology related aspects of CAR T-cell therapy. Rakesh has contributed to regulatory submissions for Kymriah across multiple indications. Moreover, he has co-authored seminal papers on CAR-T therapy in prestigious medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, and Clinical Cancer Research, garnering nearly 5000 citations collectively. Rakesh has been invited to speak at various international conferences and forums, where he shares insights into cellular kinetics of CAR-T therapy. 

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