Aristea Therapeutics on Tuesday announced the appointment of Nihar Bhakta as chief medical officer. Bhakta, most recently project team leader at Gossamer Bio (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GOSS]]), has also held roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: [[ticker:BMY]]), Roche, and Ardea Biosciences, which was acquired by AstraZeneca (NYSE: [[ticker:AZN]]) in 2012. San Diego-based Aristea, a clinical-stage company launched in December to develop therapies for serious inflammatory diseases, is in Phase 2 testing of its lead program, an experimental treatment for a rare chronic skin condition called palmoplantar pustulosis.
Author: Sarah de Crescenzo
Sarah is Xconomy's San Diego-based editor. Prior to joining the team in 2018, she wrote about startups, tech and finance at the San Diego Business Journal. Her decade of full-time news experience includes coverage of subjects including campaign finance, crime and courts as a reporter and editor at outlets throughout California, including the Orange County Register.
She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature at UC San Diego, where she wrote for the student newspaper and played collegiate lacrosse. In 2019, she earned an MBA at UC Irvine.
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