CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Garuda Therapeutics (Garuda), a company creating off-the-shelf, durable blood stem cell therapies, today announced the appointment of James Desiderio, Ph.D. as Chief Regulatory Officer. Dr. Desiderio previously served as Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Acceleron Pharma.
“We are thrilled to have Jim join the Garuda team and work with us to deliver rapid and broad access to consistent, durable, HLA-matched transgene-free blood stem cell therapies,” said Dhvanit Shah, Ph.D., Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Garuda. “With more than thirty five years of biotech industry experience and a successful track record of managing complex development programs, Jim’s expertise will be invaluable as we work to democratize blood stem cell transplants and ensure this vital, and often curative, therapy is made accessible to any bone marrow transplant eligible patient in need.”
To his new role, Dr. Desiderio brings experience in research and development of small molecule and protein therapeutics and a successful track record of managing complex development programs leading to more than a dozen currently marketed products. Most recently, Dr. Desiderio was Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Acceleron Pharma. Prior to Acceleron, Dr. Desiderio served in a variety of roles at Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences and Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Desiderio received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, his MS in Veterinary Medicine also from Cornell and a BS in Biology from Southampton College LIU.
Garuda’s platform for generating off-the-shelf, self-renewing blood stem cells is designed to provide patients with rapid and broad access to consistent, durable, HLA-matched, transgene-free blood stem cell therapies. Currently, patients seeking a blood stem cell transplant, must find a suitable human donor as a source of blood stem cells. Racial minority patients face greater barriers than white patients in finding suitable blood stem cell matches. Like bone marrow transplants, Garuda’s technology has the potential to address, and possibly cure, more than 70 diseases.
“The potential of Garuda’s breakthrough platform technology is immense, and I am pleased to be join the team that is striving to bring this potentially life changing therapy to patients,” Dr. Desiderio said. “Current options for blood stem cells are limited by many factors that present significant barriers to treatment. Garuda’s off-the-shelf platform technology has the capacity to help so many people, and I’m lucky to be a part of the team.”
About Garuda Therapeutics
Garuda Therapeutics seeks to create a world that eliminates the dependency on donor or patient cells for blood stem cell transplants. Our platform technology for generating off-the-shelf, self-renewing blood stem cells is poised to provide patients with rapid and broad access to consistent, durable, HLA-compatible and transgene-free blood stem cell therapies. Like bone marrow transplants, our technology could provide potentially curative therapies for more than 70 diseases. https://garudatx.com/
