Aristea Therapeutics, a US-based clinical-stage immunology focused drug development company advancing novel therapies to treat rare serious inflammatory diseases, announced on Thursday that it has named Dr Ciara Kennedy as its new chair of the board of directors and Dr Fabio Magrini as executive medical director.

Presently, Dr Kennedy is a member of the company's board of directors and is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Sorriso Pharmaceuticals. She has served as president and chief executive officer of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals until the company's acquisition by Pfizer. She has held the position of chief operating officer at Lumena Pharmaceuticals and as vice president, head of Cholestatic Liver Disease at Shire post-acquisition. She has also held various positions at Cypress Bioscience Inc., where she played a key role in the company's FDA approval and launch of Savella for Fibromyalgia; and at the Program and Alliance department of Biogen Idec.

Dr Magrini brings 20 years of industry experience designing and applying clinical programs in chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases across various therapeutic areas, including neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, and dermatology, to his role. He has earlier held the position of principal medical director, Neuroimmunology and medical director, Neuroscience at Genentech Inc., and as senior medical director at MedImmune LLC. He has served as researcher at Roche and Pfizer Inc. He has worked at Cambridge University Department of Pathology, Human Molecular Genetics, and at Addenbrooke's Hospital as a clinical fellow in Dermatology.