Aurealis Therapeutics and Xbiome Partner to Develop AUP-16 Cell & Gene Therapy in China

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About us

Our Mission

We exist to develop curative solutions that achieve total and faster healing for non-healing wounds and other complex inflammatory diseases with our four-in-one biologic drug, AUP-16.

Our Vision

Our goal is to create solid Phase 2 clinical efficacy data in diabetic foot ulcers and non-clinical proof-of-concept data in other inflammatory diseases by end of 2022, and to engage with strategic partners to ensure that this game changing technology benefits millions of patients.

Leadership Team

Juha Yrjanheikki
Juha Yrjänheikki
CEO
Thomas Wirth
Thomas Wirth
CSO
Haritha Samaranayake
Haritha Samaranayake
Medical Director
Igor Mierau
Igor Mierau
Director of CMC

Board of Directors

Roger Meier

Roger Meier, Chairman

Serial Entrepreneur,
Board Professional and
Biotech Business Advisor
Silvio Inderbitzin

Silvio Inderbitzin

Biotech Investor, Senior
Executive and Board Professional

LAURENT DÉCORY

LAURENT DÉCORY

Senior Advanced Wound Care
Executive with Extensive Pharma and Medtech Experience

Iain Buchanan

Iain Buchanan

Senior Pharma/Biotech Executive and Board Professional with Exit Experience

Juha Yrjänheikk

Juha Yrjänheikki

CEO

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About this
Life-changing
Technology

Contact us

Hochbergerstrasse 60C, CH-4057

Basel, Switzerland

 

Microkatu 1, FI-70210

Kuopio, Finland

info@aurealistherapeutics.com

Ⓒ 2021 Aurealis Therapeutics. All Rights Reserved.

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January 28, 2022

Basel Switzerland, Kuopio Finland, and Shenzhen China – January 28th, 2021. Aurealis Therapeutics, a synthetic biology company developing groundbreaking four-in-one cell and gene therapies and

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Juha Yrjanheikki
Juha Yrjänheikki
CEO

Juha has MSc. in biotechnology and PhD in neurobiology. He is a serial life-science entrepreneur, seed investor, Board professional and a Professor-of-Practice with extensive experience in growing and facilitating successful exits of biotech start-ups.

 

CEO and co-founder of Aurealis Therapeutics AG. Previously CEO and co-founder of Aurealis Pharma AG 2013-2020. Prior to that CEO of Charles River Discovery Services Finland 2009-2012, CEO and co-founder of Cerebricon Ltd 2001-2009, which was acquired by Charles River Laboratories in 2009. Co-founder and former Chairman of the Board of Nostetta Ltd, a pre-seed and seed stage technology investment company. Juha is a Professor-of-Practice at the Faculty of Health Sciences of University of Eastern Finland. A former Board Director at Pharmatest Ltd and Fennogate Finland Ltd, and current Board Director of KPY Novapolis Ltd.

 

Juha got his MSc. in biotechnology (molecular biology) from University of Kuopio in 1997 and his PhD in neuroinflammation of stroke and ischemia from University of Kuopio in 2000. He was a research scientist at the AIV Institute of University of Kuopio in 1999-2001 and a visiting researcher at Stanford University, School of Medicine, Dept. of Neurosurgery in 1997-1998.

Thomas Wirth
Thomas Wirth
CSO

Thomas has a PhD in pharmacy. He is specialized in gene medicine based therapies and molecular oncology and has extensive knowledge in tumor biology.

He worked in Lombardi Cancer Centre, Georgetown University for his PhD. After that he worked as a Research Manager at Ark Therapeutics Group PLC leading the Kuopio based R&D department and held a position of an Adjunct Professor at the University of Eastern Finland leading multiple research projects.

Haritha Samaranayake
Haritha Samaranayake
Medical Director

Haritha is a MD, PhD with wide experience in clinical oncology and biopharmaceutical research and development. He possess MSc in biotechnology from University of Kuopio and a Molecular Medicine doctorate from University of Eastern Finland based on cancer gene therapy.

He has held positions of Senior Scientist and Specialist Researcher at Ark Therapeutics Group PLC.

Igor Mierau
Igor Mierau
Director of CMC

Igor has a PhD in molecular genetics. He is specialized in microbiology and genetic engineering of lactic acid bacteria with 30 years of experience.

He has worked as project leader and project manager for a biotechnology centre in Berlin, for a research department in the Netherlands of the Japanese company Snow Brand and for the contract research organization NIZO food research in the Netherlands. Furthermore, Igor has worked as Biological Safety Officer for NIZO food research for 10 years.

Roger Meier
Roger Meier
Board of Directors

Roger is a seasoned early stage life sciences board member and assisted numerous start-up and growth companies and projects in their set-up, talent and fund sourcing. He is the founder and owner of Clarena Ltd., a company that serves corporates and executives in the fields of corporate finance, change management, coaching and HR. In his earlier career, he consulted mid to large sized multinational companies at Coopers & Lybrand (later PwC) in the field of financial and risk management. In the 80´s, he helped the US investment bank Salomon Brothers Inc., in the US, UK and Switzerland to establish a Swiss client base with institutional investors.

Before he worked as a trader with a Geneva private bank and in Private Banking at Swiss Bank Corp in Basel. In the past years, Roger has been involved in companies like Piqur Therapeutics, Strekin, Cellestia Biotech and many others as advisor and/or co-founder. He holds a finance degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Basel.

Silvio Inderbitzin
Silvio Inderbitzin
Board of Directors

Silvio has held multiple senior positions in the pharmaceutical industry during the last 20 years. With his origin in pharmaceutical manufacturing, he built a corporate-wide GMP-quality assurance infrastructure as Head of Quality Assurance, and was responsible for product release as a Qualified Person in a medium-sized Swiss pharmaceutical company.

He was later elected to the position of Technical Director and served on the Corporate Management Team, ultimately joining the Board of Directors and becoming co-owner of the privately-held 450 employee company. Prior to the successful sale of the company, he served as a CEO and was responsible for its foreign subsidiaries. He is an active investor, consultant and board member of several life science start-up companies. Dr. Inderbitzin studied Pharmacy at the University of Berne, he holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Zurich/ETH, and obtained an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen.

LAURENT DÉCORY
LAURENT DÉCORY
Board of Directors

Laurent brings to the company substantial experience and commercial leadership both in the Advanced Wound Care (AWC, Medtech) and Pharmaceutical industries. Laurent is the founder and Managing Director of the company BlueJet Consulting, and recently served as Head, Global Commercial Excellence of Essity Health and Medical. Prior to that, Laurent was for 5 years Senior Vice-President, Global Commercial Excellence at BSN Medical in Hamburg, driving both business transformation, product launches, and commercial due diligence. Previously, he held a variety of senior management and director roles at Takeda and Nycomed in Zurich, and Sanofi-Aventis and predecessor companies in Paris, in multiple therapy areas such as Diabetes and Oncology.

Laurent has a MSc. and PhD in Neurosciences & Pharmacology from University of Bordeaux and holds and MBA from the ESSEC Business School, Paris.

Iain Buchanan
Iain Buchanan
Board of Directors

Iain brings to the company considerable experience in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech industries in both executive and non-executive roles. Most recently he served as CEO of NOXXON Pharma AG in Berlin. Prior to that, Iain was CEO of Novexel SA in Paris from its creation as the anti-infective spin out from Sanofi-Aventis in 2004 until its sale in 2009. Previously, he held a variety of management roles including a senior position with Vertex Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for business development activities and for creating the European subsidiary. In the past he also worked for both Cilag AG (a division of Johnson and Johnson) and Biogen SA in Switzerland.

Iain holds a Bachelor of Science in Physiology from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and currently serves as a non-executive director of Synairgen Plc and a member of the advisory board of Allecra Therapeutics.