Raya Therapeutic Appoints Juan Carlos Gomez MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer of Shionogi and Company to its Board

Dr. Gomez brings extensive neuroscience and orphan disease development experience to Raya as it plans multiple clinical trials in 2026.

MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, May 8, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Raya Therapeutic Inc., (“Raya”) a mission-driven company focused on the treatment of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Juan Carlos Gomez, MD, MBA, to its board of directors effective April 1, 2025.

Dr. Gomez is Chief Medical Officer of Shionogi & Co., Ltd., a Pharmaceutical Company with Headquarters in Osaka, Japan, that is focused on the development of innovative treatments for infectious diseases, and pain/CNS disorders.

Before joining Shionogi in 2019, Dr. Gomez had a long career in pharmaceutical drug development, having held senior leadership positions at Eli Lilly and Company and Roche mainly in the areas of neuroscience and neurodevelopmental disorders. He has an MD degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and an MBA from IESE Universidad de Navarra and is a certified specialist in psychiatry from the Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid.

"I am glad to join Raya’s Board, a company dedicated to innovation for people suffering from ALS. This condition is one of the major challenges for modern medicine and I look forward to working with Raya’s dedicated leadership team to bring meaningful advances for people with ALS."

“We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Juan Carlos Gomez to our board of directors,” said Anjan Aralihalli, President and Founder of Raya Therapeutic. “He brings tremendous drug development experience from the field of neuroscience and orphan diseases. We are confident that his insights will help propel Raya as it plans to start multiple ALS clinical trials across its portfolio of 5 compounds over the next 12-24 months.”

On March 3, 2025, Raya revealed that Epertinib (RT1978) received Orphan Drug Designations from both the FDA and EMA for the treatment of ALS. The molecule was originally discovered and developed by Shionogi for the indication of cancer.

Raya would like to thank Mr. Chad Coberly, formerly Chief Executive Officer of Tetra Therapeutics, a Shionogi Group Company for his valuable contributions while a member of Raya’s board of directors.

For more information about Raya, its innovative pipeline, and ongoing fundraising and partnering efforts, please visit www.rayatherapeutic.com or reach out to us at admin@rayatherapeutic.com.

About Raya
Raya is a mission-driven company focused on the treatment of ALS, leveraging the latest techniques for the selection and development of disease-modifying therapies. The company has a robust pipeline of five distinct clinical stage compounds that each target different pathways involved in motor neuron degeneration in ALS. The compounds were in-licensed following a rigorous selection process based on biological plausibility, clinical target engagement and functional clinical effects reflective of efficacy. This diversified approach enables the development of combination therapies, which may have a significant impact on disease progression. To develop further combination therapies, Raya announced a strategic research collaboration with argenx on July 12, 2023: Link. This partnership explores combinatorial effects of combined drug candidates in the hope of developing more effective treatment options for ALS. Raya is also supported by global experts and leverages unique patient-friendly trial designs offering new hope in the fight against ALS.

About Shionogi & Co., Ltd.
Shionogi & Co., Ltd. is a 147-year-old global, research-driven pharmaceutical company headquartered in Osaka, Japan, that is dedicated to bringing benefits to patients based on its corporate philosophy of “supplying the best possible medicine to protect the health and well-being of the patients we serve.” The company currently markets products in several therapeutic areas including anti-infectives, pain, CNS disorders, cardiovascular diseases and gastroenterology. Shionogi’s research and development currently target two therapeutic areas: infectious diseases, and pain/CNS disorders.

For more information on Shionogi & Co., Ltd., please visit https://www.shionogi.com/global/en.

About Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare, progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease that results in the loss of motor neurons in the brain and the spinal cord that are responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement. People with ALS experience muscle weakness and atrophy, causing them to lose independence as they progressively lose the ability to move, speak, eat, and eventually breathe. Average life expectancy for people with ALS is three to five years from time of symptom onset. (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Available at: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als. Accessed: January 2025)

Anjan Aralihalli
Raya Therapeutic, Inc.
admin@rayatherapeutic.com