Allendale, NJ - Minaris announced today the appointments of Dr. Eytan Abraham as Chief Commercial and Technology Officer, Darwin Richardson as Chief Operating Officer, and Dr. Hiroto Bando as President, Japan.
Dr. Abraham has more than 20 years of international cell and gene therapy experience and most recently served as Vice President, Business Head of Cell, Gene, and Nucleic Acids at National Resilience. During his time at Lonza Group AG (SIX: LONN), Dr. Abraham brought patient centric cell therapy manufacturing solutions to market through his roles as Head of CGT R&D and subsequently Vice President, Head of Personalized Medicine. Prior to this Dr. Abraham held various roles in the cell and gene therapy industry including Head of Therapeutic Pipeline development at Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUR). Dr. Abraham holds a Ph.D. in Neuroendocrinology and Developmental Biology from the University of Maryland as well as a post doctorate in cell therapy and tissue engineering from the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center and Harvard Medical School.
Mr. Richardson has more than 20 years of experience in operations within contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Benuvia Operations. Prior to this, Mr. Richardson served as Vice President of Operations & General Manager for Meridian Medical Technologies, which was purchased by Altaris, LLC from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) in 2021 and subsequently merged with Kindeva Drug Delivery in 2022. Mr. Richardson began his career at Baxter International (NYSE: BAX) before holding various leadership roles at Ajinmoto Co., Inc (TYO: 2802), BPL Plasma, and Genzyme. Mr. Richardson holds an MBA from the University of La Verne and a B.A from California State University Fullerton.
Dr. Hiroto Bando joined Minaris in 2020 and led the business through the sale from Resonac Corporation, a subsidiary of Resonac Holdings Corporation (TYO: 4004) (“Resonac”), to Altaris LLC, a transaction that closed in early January of 2025. Prior to Minaris, Dr. Bando was at Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd (NYSE: TAK) and Fujifilm Holdings Corporation (TYO: 4901) where he held various roles such as Global Head of Cell Manufacturing Strategy, and Director of Strategic Product Planning. Dr. Bando holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Science from Kyoto University, an MBA from Kenichi Ohmae Graduate School and a post doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Texas.
The Minaris Board of Directors (the Board), believes that these individuals possess a wealth of experience and proven leadership that makes them well-qualified to lead Minaris into its next phase of growth. The Board congratulates Dr. Abraham, Mr. Richardson, and Dr. Bando on their positions and looks forward to working together to deliver life-changing cell therapies to patients at scale.
About Minaris
Minaris is a pure play cell therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (“CDMO”) that provides autologous and allogeneic manufacturing services for pharmaceutical and biotech customers. Headquartered in the northeastern United States, Minaris operates facilities in New Jersey, California, Germany, and Japan, with 3 facilities approved for commercial-scale cell therapy manufacturing.
About Altaris
Altaris is an investment firm with an exclusive focus on acquiring and building companies in the healthcare industry. Since its inception in 2003, Altaris has invested in more than 50 companies across a range of healthcare subsectors, with a consistent goal of delivering value to the healthcare system and generating attractive financial returns for investors. Altaris is headquartered in New York City and manages $10 billion of equity capital. For more information, please visit www.altariscap.com.