30 September 2020 - - Swiss biotechnology company Anokion SA has appointed Patricia "Patty" Allen to its board of directors and chairperson of the audit committee, and Kristin Neff as vice president, clinical operations, the company said.

Allen was most recently chief financial officer of Zafgen, Inc. (now Larimar Therapeutics) from 2013 to 2020 where she raised over USD 300m and led finance, human resources, investor and public relations, and information technology.

Allen has over 25 years of financial leadership experience in the biotechnology industry at both publicly traded and private companies.

From 2011 to 2012, she provided independent consulting services to biotechnology companies in a variety of areas, including interim CFO services, fundraising, deal structures, financial planning, organizational structure, investor relations and business development.

Previously, from 2004 to 2011, Allen served as the vice president of finance, treasurer and principal financial officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company, where she had significant interactions with the investment community and was influential in raising over USD 900m via the company's initial public offering, follow-on common stock offerings and multiple business development transactions with top-tier pharmaceutical companies.

Prior to Alnylam, Allen was at Alkermes, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company, most recently serving as the director of finance.

Allen began her career as an auditor at Deloitte and Touche, LLP. Allen also serves as a director on the board of directors of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals and is the chair of their audit committee. Allen graduated summa cum laude from Bryant College with a B.S. in business administration.

Neff joins Anokion from Venthera, Inc., a BridgeBio company, where she served as vice president, clinical operations and oversaw all activities supporting the early stage development of the company's topical PI3K inhibitor.

Prior to Venthera, Neff served as director, clinical operations, program leadership at Biogen, Inc., where she led the strategy, planning and implementation of the global clinical development programme operations in MS.

Before that, she was vice president, clinical operations and project management at ImmusanT, Inc., where she led the global Phase 2 study of a vaccine to treat celiac disease.

Earlier, Neff held various clinical operations and clinical affairs roles at InVivo Therapeutics, Taris Biomedical, Inc., ConforMIS, Inc., HeartWare, Inc., Boston Scientific Corp., Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Parexel International.

Neff began her career at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where she was a technical director in the Asthma Research Center.

She holds an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Boston University and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she graduated cum laude as a Commonwealth Scholar.

Anokion SA is a Swiss biotechnology company that aims to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases by restoring normal immune tolerance.

The company is focused on both prevalent and rare autoimmune diseases, including celiac disease, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.

Anokion's distinct approach leverages the company's immune-based platform, which targets natural pathways in the liver to restore immune tolerance and address the underlying cause of autoimmune disease.