SAN MATEO – November 05, 2026 -- Astrosalva Therapeutics, a privately held preclinical biotech developing treatments for Alexander disease and the cerebral form of adrenoleukodystrophy (cALD), has appointed Wendy Erler, Senior Vice President of Patient Affairs at Sarepta Therapeutics, as the first member of its Strategic Advisory Board.
Erler to steer patient engagement and trial planning at Astrosalva
Erler will advise on patient and community engagement strategy. Her remit includes working with existing community natural history registries and bringing patient and caregiver perspectives into future clinical trial planning.
Co-founder and CEO Paul Schmidt said the order of announcements is deliberate: Erler is the first advisor named, because the company wants families to know it is being built around patients and their communities.
Erler brings more than two decades of rare disease experience
At Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, Erler led the Global Patient Experience function and developed an enterprise-wide model for integrating patient insights across the business. She also created the Patient Engagement Center of Excellence and founded and chaired a Bioethics Advisory Council. Earlier, she built patient advocacy at Wave Life Sciences.
She sits on the boards of Global Genes / RARE-X and Odylia Therapeutics, and on the Board of Advisors of the n-Lorem Foundation.
Preclinical programs remain closed to trial enrollment
Astrosalva was co-founded by Thomas Wagner and Schmidt, who has spent nearly 15 years in biopharma, more than 10 of them in rare disease. Clinical-stage Unravel Biosciences is its founding development partner. The company has no clinical trial or expanded-access program open for participation.
Astrosalva will meet families, clinicians, researchers and advocacy groups at the 2026 ALD Connect Annual Meeting and Patient Learning Academy on November 6-7.