Harbinger Health, a US-based biotechnology company involved in the early detection of cancer, announced on Tuesday the appointment of May Orfali, M.D., as chief medical officer.

Dr Orfali will lead the company's Cancer Origin Epigenetics - Harbinger Health (CORE-HH) clinical trial to advance clinical product development and evidence generation for Harbinger's novel platform technology.

Dr Orfali has more than 25 years of experience across the biopharma industry at companies such as Sigilon Therapeutics, Bioasis Technologies, and Pfizer. She will also charter Harbinger's clinical development program beyond CORE-HH and lay the foundations of commercial availability. The company said that Hutan Ashrafian, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., Harbinger's former chief medical officer and current chief scientific officer of Flagship Pioneering's Preemptive Medicine and Health Security Initiative, will continue to work closely with Dr. Orfali in a clinical advisory role.

Dr Orfali most recently was the Chief Medical Officer at Sigilon Therapeutics. Prior to that, she was the chief medical mfficer at CANbridge Life Sciences, where she led the clinical development and medical affairs group, focused on progressing Phase 1 and Phase II oncology assets in glioblastoma multiforme and oesophageal cancer, and directed the medical review of business development opportunities in the rare disease space.

'May brings a wealth of experience in clinical product development and oncological care that will be invaluable to the advancement of our cancer origin epigenetics clinical trials,' said Stephen Hahn, M.D., of Harbinger Health CEO. 'Harbinger is in a period of rapid growth, and we are on target for our planned clinical milestones, including completion of enrollment of our CORE-HH study by year end. May's expertise will lead us in our next critical steps toward key milestones, with the ultimate goal making early cancer detection easier and more accessible to every patient. I also want to thank Hutan for spearheading our clinical team for the past 18 months and look forward to working with him as Harbinger continues to advance cancer detection.'