Anjarium Biosciences expands board of directors

Anjarium Biosciences AG (“Anjarium”), a biotech company focused on creating and delivering a new class of non-viral gene therapies, today announces the expansion of its Board of Directors with the appointments of Gaurav Shah, MD and Douglas Fambrough, PhD as independent Non-executive Directors. Gaurav Shah is also named as Chairperson of the Board.

Stephen Yoo, Anjarium’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am thrilled that Gaurav and Doug, two highly experienced biotech leaders, will be joining the Anjarium Board. Their combined experience in growing innovative gene therapy companies and the breadth of their strategic and operational expertise will be highly valuable at this formative time for Anjarium. Their appointments further strengthen a Board that represents a vast range of specialisms that will be vital to Anjarium’s future success.”

Gaurav Shah, Chairperson of the Board, commented: “I am delighted to join the Board of Directors at Anjarium. The Company has an innovative approach to non-viral gene therapy and its unique Hybridosome technology demonstrates significant potential to optimize gene therapies for serious genetic diseases. I look forward to working with the experienced Board and Anjarium’s expert leaders in advancing a promising pipeline of gene therapies that could have real impact for patients.”

Douglas Fambrough, Non-executive Director of the Board, added: “Conventional viral-vector based gene therapies have several limitations, and new approaches are needed to provide patients with more predictable and enduring, re-dosable treatments. Over the last year Anjarium has demonstrated exciting progress in building its business and developing its non-viral gene therapy platform, positioning it well for success in this exciting space.”

Gaurav Shah, MD
Gaurav Shah is an experienced gene therapy leader with over 15 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He is the founding Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Pharma, which is developing gene therapies for rare inherited diseases incorporating both adeno-associated viral vector (AAV) and lentiviral vector (LVV) approaches. Prior to Rocket Pharma, he served as Global Program Head in the Cell & Gene Therapies Unit at Novartis where he led the pivotal CAR-T studies for patients with leukemia and lymphoma.

Gaurav started his career in industry at ImClone, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly, as a Medical Director, responsible for the clinical development of novel monoclonal antibodies in oncology. He received his MD from Columbia University and also holds a degree in Behavioral Neuroscience from Harvard University. He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and oncology fellowship training at Memorial-Sloan Kettering.

Douglas Fambrough, PhD
Doug Fambrough co-founded Dicerna, a company developing medicines to selectively silence disease-causing genes using RNA interference (RNAi). He served as Dicerna’s President and Chief Executive Officer for almost 12 years, successfully leading the company through a highly successful IPO, multiple major corporate collaborations, and ultimately through its $3.3 billion acquisition by Novo Nordisk in 2021.

Prior to Dicerna, Doug was a General Partner at Oxford Bioscience Partners where he had a strong track record leading investments in life science technology companies. His investments include first generation RNAi pioneer Sirna Therapeutics, which was acquired by Merck, and Solexa, inventor of the world’s dominant DNA sequencing platform, which was acquired by Illumina.

Doug holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an AB degree in Biology from Cornell University.

The Anjarium Board of Directors is as follows: 

• Gaurav Shah (Chairperson), CEO, Rocket Pharmaceuticals
• Bali Muralidhar, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Abingworth
• Bram Vanparys, Managing Partner, Gimv
• Dina Chaya Moghrabi, Advisor, Omega Funds
• Douglas Fambrough, Former CEO Dicerna Pharmaceuticals
• Joël de Beer, Founder and CSO, Anjarium Biosciences
• Stephen Yoo, CEO, Anjarium Biosciences