Azafaros announces two executive appointments

Clinical-stage, Netherlands-based biotech company Azafaros today announced two appointments to its executive management team.

Silvia Ragno joins the company as chief operating officer (COF) and Henrik Torp Nielsen as head of finance. With 35 years of combined experience in the pharmaceutical industry, they join as Azafaros prepares to start a Phase II clinical study, the RAINBOW study, with its lead asset AZ-3102, treating, for the first time, patients with GM2 gangliosidosis and Niemann-Pick disease type C.

Dr Ragno worked in the global pharmaceutical industry for 20 years before joining Azafaros. She co-founded Stargazer Pharmaceuticals and acted as COF for the company leading the pre-clinical and clinical program strategy for the development of a new treatment for the rare genetic Stargardt’s disease. She successfully raised the first tranche of Series A funding from Novo Holdings, the founding investor of Stargazer, while working as senior director, external asset leader, for Takeda’s (TYO: 4502) Development Centre Europe's TAKcelerator, an incubator-like group accelerating transformative therapies for people with rare diseases. Prior, she worked at Novartis Pharmaceutical UK as global program team director, leading various programs in several therapeutic areas.