InVivo Therapeutics Appoints Chief Commercial Officer

InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. has appointed Pamela Stahl to the newly-created position of chief commercial officer (CCO), effective Sept. 14. In this role, she will be responsible for building a comprehensive global commercial strategy that includes developing the company’s sales, reimbursement, and marketing strategies across key market segments to ensure a clear path for growth.
 
Prior to joining InVivo, Stahl served for 10 years in various roles of increasing responsibility at UnitedHealthcare, most recently as CEO, Community Health Plan of Wisconsin. In that role, she was responsible for the largest Medicaid business in the state, providing healthcare benefits and services for more than 160,000 Wisconsin residents. Stahl also held other senior vice president roles at UnitedHealthcare with responsibilities for the Office of the Consumer; sales operations and organizational effectiveness; the women’s health line of service; and consumer marketing.
 
“We are delighted to be bringing such an experienced and seasoned leader to InVivo at this time in the company’s history,” CEO and Board Chairman Mark Perrin said. “We are progressing through our clinical development program and it’s imperative that we further develop the market for the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold as we look toward commercialization. Pam brings three essential skills and experiences: reimbursement, building commercial organizations, and patient advocacy. She has decades of experience in the industry, having worked at all levels of a commercial organization, and I am confident she will be a tremendous asset to the company.”
 
Prior to UnitedHealthcare, Stahl was vice president, sales and commercial operations for Orphan Medical Inc. from 2001 to 2006. She built and supervised a specialty sales force and established the sales operation function, implemented a risk management program, and created the patient affairs department. Before that, she served as vice president, sales and marketing for American TeleCare Inc. From 1992 until 2000 she held various sales and marketing roles of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca, including regional marketing manager, account team leader, customer unit director, product optimization leader, and regional sales director. Stahl began her sales career at Merck & Co. Inc.
 
Stahl has been a contributing member of many organizations including the National Organization for Rare Diseases Corporate Council, National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, National Association of State Controlled Substances Authorities, National Stakeholder Workgroup for Childbirth Connection, and the UnitedHealthcare Women’s Health Scientific Advisory Board (Chair). She has a bachelor of arts degree in biology from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.
 
The INSPIRE Study: InVivo Study of Probable Benefit of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold for Safety and Neurologic Recovery in Subjects with Complete Thoracic AIS A Spinal Cord Injury, is designed to demonstrate the safety and probable benefit of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold for the treatment of complete T2-T12/L1 spinal cord injury in support of a Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) application for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
 
Following acute spinal cord injury, surgical implantation of the biodegradable Neuro-Spinal Scaffold within the decompressed and debrided injury epicenter is intended to support appositional healing, thereby reducing post-traumatic cavity formation, sparing white matter, and allowing neural regeneration across the healed wound epicenter. The Neuro-Spinal Scaffold, an investigational device, has received a Humanitarian Use Device (HUD) designation and currently is being evaluated in the INSPIRE pivotal probable benefit study for the treatment of patients with complete (AIS A) traumatic acute spinal cord injury.
 
InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. is a research and clinical-stage biomaterials and biotechnology company with a focus on treatment of spinal cord injuries. The company was founded in 2005 with proprietary technology co-invented by Robert Langer, Sc.D., professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Joseph P. Vacanti, M.D., who then was at Boston Children’s Hospital and who now is affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2011, the company earned the David S. Apple Award from the American Spinal Injury Association for its outstanding contribution to spinal cord injury medicine. In 2015, the company’s investigational Neuro-Spinal Scaffold received the 2015 Becker’s Healthcare Spine Device Award. The publicly-traded company is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass.