Paris, France and Cambridge, MA, USA, July 26th, 2022 – Ariana Pharma, the leading eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI) drug development company, announce the appointments of Dr. Marion Soto as Vice President, Business Development and Bertrand Lellouche as Chief Financial Officer. The financial and commercial experience of Marion and Bertrand will further drive Ariana’s accelerated growth.

Marion and Bertrand will be bringing their commercial and financial experience to further structure Ariana’s exponential growth, as the company continues to expand its xAI-driven drug development partnerships in Oncology, CNS, auto-immune, gastro-enterology and other therapeutic areas, as well as its Real-World Evidence business leveraging its 8 Billion+ records patient data assets.

Bertrand Lellouche is an experienced financial and business development executive. Prior to joining Ariana, Bertrand was the CFO of Promethera Biosciences, and led the company’s first European Listing Validation on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2020. Over the past three decades, Bertrand has acted as CFO & Executive Advisor for innovative and growing companies, with an emphasis in the Life Sciences, and has been involved in significant M&A, financing, and IPOs on the largest markets (USA-EU-Asia). He holds a Master of Science in International Management.

Dr Marion Soto joins Ariana Pharma as Vice President of Business Development. Prior to Ariana, Marion was Director of Business Development, leading business activities and strategy for Ysopia Bioscience, a clinical-stage microbiome biotech. Prior to her business development role, Marion was Drug Development Lead, driving preclinical programs to clinic, including the Ysopia’s lead program in metabolic diseases. A former fellow of the Harvard Medical School affiliated Ronald Kahn Laboratory at Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, USA, Marion has a decade-long experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical business development. A graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, she holds a Ph.D. in Nutrition & Neurobiology from AgroParisTech, Paris-Saclay University.

 “We are delighted to have Bertrand and Marion on board. Both bring significant skills and experience to the company at a pivotal time. These two appointments will be key in supporting the growth of Ariana Pharma and enabling the next phase of the company’s exciting journey” commented Mohammad Afshar, Chief Executive Officer of Ariana Pharma.

About Ariana Pharma

Ariana Pharma is a leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) drug development company. Using its KEM® Artificial Intelligence (xAI) technology, Ariana helps its partners introduce personalized medicine clinical trial design into their protocols and optimize clinical endpoints, identify biomarkers of therapeutic response and potential synergistic therapies. Ariana routinely collects and combines clinical data with omic data, immunological readouts (such as Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting (FACS)), microbiota, Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) as well as Real World Evidence (RWE) data. Combining advanced data analytics, drug development, and regulatory expertise, Ariana helps translate findings into innovative clinical development plans and regulatory approvals. With a growing number of successful therapeutic development programs, KEM® is an FDA-assessed technology that systematically explores combinations of biomarkers, producing more effective biomarker signatures for precision medicine. Ariana has developed Onco KEM®, the most advanced, clinically tested, oncology therapeutic decision support system. Founded in 2003 as a spin-off of the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, the company operates a subsidiary in the United States since 2012. Further information is available at www.arianapharma.com.