CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AVROBIO, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVRO), a leading clinical-stage gene therapy company with a mission to free people from a lifetime of genetic disease, today announced the appointment of Gail M. Farfel, Ph.D., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Farfel brings more than 25 years of pharmaceutical development and regulatory experience in rare diseases with both large and small pharmaceutical companies.

“Gail’s deep experience in rare disease, with a focus on neuroscience, and her expertise in leading global product development and regulatory approvals is highly relevant to our growing pipeline of investigational gene therapies that target lysosomal disorders, devastating disorders that impact both the body and brain,” said Geoff MacKay, president and CEO of AVROBIO. “We’re delighted to welcome Gail to the AVROBIO board. Her experience in advancing therapies from early development through commercialization provides us with additional expertise as we continue to advance our pipeline of investigational gene therapies for the treatment of rare lysosomal disorders.”

Dr. Farfel has been executive vice president and global chief development officer at Zogenix, Inc., a rare disease company, since July 2015. At Zogenix, Dr. Farfel leads all product development activities, including preclinical and clinical development, and regulatory strategy. Prior to joining Zogenix, Dr. Farfel was chief clinical and regulatory officer of Marinus Pharmaceuticals, establishing and overseeing clinical, medical and regulatory strategies for adult and pediatric seizure disorders, including a pediatric epileptic orphan disease. Previously, Dr. Farfel was vice president, therapeutic area head for neuroscience clinical development and medical affairs at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, where she oversaw a portfolio of products for multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Dr. Farfel began her career in pharmaceutical drug development at Pfizer Inc., where she worked in clinical development and global medical affairs, directing programs through all stages of clinical development and regulatory submissions.

Dr. Farfel has authored more than 50 scientific articles in the areas of neuropsychopharmacology and drug effects. She currently serves on the board of directors of DURECT Corporation (Nasdaq: DRRX) and is a director on the Board of the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics. She holds a Ph.D. in neuropsychopharmacology from the University of Chicago, where she received the Ginsburg Prize for Dissertation Excellence and is a director on the Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Board. Dr. Farfel also holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Virginia.

About AVROBIO

Our vision is to bring personalized gene therapy to the world. We aim to halt, reverse or prevent disease throughout the body with a single dose of gene therapy designed to drive durable expression of functional protein, even in hard-to-reach tissues and organs including the brain, muscle and bone. Our clinical-stage programs include Fabry disease, Gaucher disease and cystinosis and we also are advancing preclinical programs in Hunter syndrome and Pompe disease. AVROBIO is powered by the plato® gene therapy platform, our foundation designed to scale gene therapy worldwide. We are headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with an office in Toronto, Ontario. For additional information, visit avrobio.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.