Biotech 2050 Podcast

Thomas is a veteran entrepreneur who has turned creative scientific visions into successful businesses for both startups and established organizations for over 20 years and has co-founded or helped launch several companies, including Intellia Therapeutics and Eleven Biotherapeutics. While at Intellia Therapeutics, a CRISPR/Cas9 company which Tom joined as Chief Scientific Officer, he helped build the research team, raise funds (including an IPO), and provide a vision for technology extension. He played a significant role as the corporate spokesperson to lay and industry press, and to governmental and non-governmental organizations on the rapidly evolving and intensely followed CRISPR landscape. Tom has wide-ranging knowledge of biological systems through his work across diverse platforms including gene editing, genomics and gene discovery, small molecule drug repositioning, and protein engineering. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and completed research fellowships at Harvard Medical School and McGill University. He is currently also an Executive Partner at MPM.

Andrew Bellinger is chief scientific officer of Verve Therapeutics. He is a general cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is board-certified in cardiovascular medicine and internal medicine. His scientific expertise includes biomedical engineering and drug delivery, computational modeling, pharmacology, clinical strategy and translational medicine. Prior to joining Verve, Dr. Bellinger co-founded and served as chief scientific officer of Lyndra Therapeutics, where he helped to build the company’s research team and was involved in the company’s key partnerships with Gilead and Allergan. During Dr. Bellinger’s tenure, Lyndra advanced several programs into the clinic. Prior to Lyndra, Dr. Bellinger served as chief scientific officer of Cocoon Biotech, leading the development of the company’s drug delivery platform based on silk fibroin. Dr. Bellinger completed his clinical training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and his clinical training in cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed his postdoctoral research training in drug delivery with Dr. Robert Langer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Bellinger holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Columbia University, an M.S. in mathematics from New York University, and an A.B. in physics from Princeton University.

Brian Finrow brings the skills and experience of a lawyer to a position that, in the biotech world, is more typically occupied by a scientist. This is essential to an enterprise like Lumen, which is rethinking drug development from the ground up to emphasize speed, efficiency and ease of delivery, and whose approach is so innovative that traditional ways of thinking about IP and regulatory pathways oftentimes do not apply. Prior to co-founding Lumen, Brian oversaw complex negotiations with various major biopharma companies and managed IP strategy for Adaptive Biotechnologies, where he was Senior Vice President and General Counsel. As Senior Attorney at the law firm Cooley LLC, his practice focused on equity financing and M&A transactions, and negotiating complex biotech licensing and collaboration deals. With over 15 years of legal and commercial experience at these market-leading, innovative firms, he is well positioned to develop creative, win-win deal structures with other organizations. Harvard Law School, JD Harding University, BS, Public Administration Harding University, BA, Political Science

Jeffrey Goldberg is the president and CEO of Immunitas. Jeff is an experienced biotech program and brand leader with over 20 years of industry experience. He has driven programs from discovery and pre-clinical through IND, clinical trials, NDA, and commercialization in multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, renal, and other rare and orphan diseases. Prior to joining Immunitas, Jeff was at Akcea Therapeutics, where he was chief operating officer from the time of its formation in January 2015. Previously, Jeff was vice president of business operations, leading both program management and business development at Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech company focusing on neurology and rare diseases. He also spent more than 11 years in positions of increasing responsibility with Genzyme and Sanofi, providing brand management for two marketed products within Sanofi Oncology. Prior to joining Sanofi Oncology, Jeff served as Global Program Lead for Genzyme's stem cell mobilization agent Mozobil, leading the global launch team and overseeing the program management and marketing functions for the product. He began his career at Genzyme as Director, Program Management overseeing the development and launch of Renvela in patients undergoing dialysis. Jeff has both an MBA and a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.

Todd Zavodnick has over 20 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Dermavant in November 2018, Mr. Zavodnick served as Chief Commercial Officer and President of Aesthetics and Therapeutics at Revance. He served in global leadership roles at ZELTIQ Aesthetics prior to the company’s acquisition by Allergan; at Galderma Laboratories, where he was President and General Manager of North America; and at Alcon Laboratories. He is a member of the board of directors of the Children’s Skin Disease Foundation. On August 10, 2021, after this interview was recorded, Dermavant Sciences announced that the FDA accepted for filing a New Drug Application (NDA) for tapinarof for the treatment of plaque psoriasis in adult patients. Tapinarof is an investigational, novel, therapeutic aryl hydrocarbon receptor modulating agent, in development as a once-daily, steroid-free and cosmetically elegant topical cream for the treatment of plaque psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. The FDA has assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date in Q2 2022.

Alison serves as the chief medical officer at Surface Oncology. She has over 20 years of experience in clinical research, oncology drug development and clinical neuro-oncology. Prior to joining Surface, Alison held several leadership roles in clinical research and development at Radius Health, Synta Pharmaceuticals and at Sanofi in the global oncology division. Prior to entering the biotech industry, she served on faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital where she focused on early phase clinical studies and treating patients with malignancies of the central nervous system. Alison earned both her bachelor’s degree and her medical degree from the University of Chicago. She completed her residency training at the University of Michigan in neurology and her neuro-oncology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Nancy Lurker: President & Chief Executive Officer Our President, CEO, and a director since September 2016, Ms Lurker has broad-ranging experience in the pharmaceutical industry and a track record of maximizing the potential of new therapies and successfully implementing innovative US and global drug launches. Said Saim, PhD: Chief Technology Officer Dr Saim has more than 25 years of product development experience. Dr Saim has published 22 papers in engineering and science journals, holds 18 patents, and earned a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas.

Mike Nally is the Chief Executive Officer of Generate Biomedicines and a CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering. Mike brings significant experience leading global organizations and is passionate about working with teams and partners to bring innovations to patients. Mike previously served as Chief Marketing Officer at Merck & Co. In this role, Mike was responsible for Global Marketing and Brand Strategy across a vast portfolio, exceeding $40B in revenue, of innovative medicines and vaccines. Prior to this role, Mike served as President of Global Vaccines at Merck, providing a broad portfolio of pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines to the world. In this position, Mike and his team worked to drive a dramatic increase in the reach and public health impact of vaccines, while delivering significant business growth. Additionally, Mike has led the company's business in Sweden and the UK, focusing on the development and implementation of innovative, customer-centered approaches that delivered improved business results and accelerated patient access to our medicines. He has also held a variety of positions in Commercial Operations, Business Development and Investor Relations. Geoffrey von Maltzahn is an inventor, entrepreneur, CEO, and the co-founder of multiple groundbreaking companies in therapeutics and agriculture. Geoffrey is a General Partner at Flagship Pioneering and has co-founded companies that represent, in aggregate, over $10 billion in public and private market capitalization. Through his role in Flagship Labs, Geoffrey has created companies that include Generate Biomedicines, Tessera Therapeutics, Indigo Agriculture, Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), Kaleido Biosciences (NASDAQ: KLDO), Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), and Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA). These are pioneering, respectively, generative biology, gene writing, plant microbiome products for crop improvement, engineered cells and cell-specific gene therapies, novel chemistries to drive the human microbiome, the first microbiome therapeutics, and amino acid-based drugs. Geoffrey recently served as founding CEO for Generate Biomedicines and currently serves as a Board Director. Additionally, he is Chief Executive Officer and Director of Tessera Therapeutics, Chief Innovation Officer and Director of Indigo, and Director of Kaleido Biosciences and Sana Biotechnology. He recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Cobalt Biomedicine, which he led from inception to merger with Sana Biotechnology, and as Kaleido’s Chief Executive Officer, where he led the company from inception to the launch of multiple clinical studies. Geoffrey also served as Chief Executive Officer of Indigo, where he led the development of the company’s plant microbiome platform and the discovery of the company’s first commercial products: Indigo Cotton, Indigo Wheat, Indigo Corn, and Indigo Soy, which are now used on over a million acres. Previously, Geoffrey was the Chief Technology Officer of Seres Therapeutics, where he led the discovery of SER-109, the first microbiome therapeutic to report positive phase 3 data, and built out the company’s discovery platform. Geoffrey has deep expertise in genome engineering, the microbiome, bioengineering, and nanotechnology. He is listed as an inventor on over 200 patent applications and patents, and he has co-authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles. Geoffrey has received a number of awards and honors, including Bloomberg 50's Ones to Watch; Business Insider’s 30 Biotech Leaders Under 40; Endpoints News' 20 Biopharma Leaders Under 40; Boston Chamber of Commerce's Ten Outstanding Young Leaders; the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, awarded to the most innovative students at MIT; the National Inventors Hall of Fame Graduate Student Prize; the Biomedical Engineering Society Graduate Research Award; and the Harvard-MIT Martha Gray Prize.

Ron Cohen, M.D. is President, CEO and founder of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., a public biotechnology company developing therapies for disorders of the nervous system, including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and migraine. Dr. Cohen previously was a principal in the startup and an officer of Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc., a biotechnology company engaged in the growth of human organ tissues for transplantation uses. He serves as a Director on the Board of Directors of VBL Therapeutics. He previously served as a Director on the Board of Dyax Corp. until its acquisition in 2016. He also previously served as Chair of the Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), as Chair of the Emerging Companies Section of the BIO Board, and as Director and Chair of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA). Acorda Therapeutics has been recognized as one of the Best Companies to Work for in New York State seven years in a row (2011-2017), among the Fortune 100 Best Medium-Size Workplaces the U.S. (2017), and among the Fortune 100 Best Workplaces for Women (2016-2017), Millennials (2017) and Baby Boomers (2017). Dr. Cohen is a recipient of the NY CEO Lifetime Achievement Award and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the New York Metropolitan Region. He was named Neuroinvestment’s CEO of the Year and is an inductee of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association’s “Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame.” Dr. Cohen received the Burke Award from Burke Rehabilitation Hospital for his contributions to helping people with disabilities gain independence, and was awarded Columbia University’s Alumni Medal for Distinguished Service.. He has been recognized by the New York Biotechnology Association as the NYBA “The Cures Start Here” Business Leader of the Year, by the Westchester County Association as its Leadership Award recipient, by Life Science Leader Magazine as True Life Science Leader of the year, by PR Week/MM&M as one of the Health Influencer 50, and by PharmaVOICE Magazine as one of the 100 Most Inspirational People in the Biopharmaceutical Industry. Dr. Cohen received his B.A. degree with honors in Psychology from Princeton University, and his M.D. from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

Avanish Vellanki is passionate about offering cancer patients better treatment options, and he firmly believes that precision oncology strategies are the best manner in which to achieve that goal. He has 20 years of experience across the healthcare and investment banking sectors and began his career on Wall Street at Bear, Stearns & Co. in 2004 in equity research, covering small/mid-cap biotechnology companies. Following his time at Bear, Stearns, Avanish transitioned to Global Healthcare Investment Banking at Citigroup where he focused on large-cap global biopharmaceutical strategic and financing transactions. He subsequently moved to industry, joining Proteolix in 2009 prior to its acquisition by Onyx Pharmaceuticals, where he helped develop carfilzomib (Kyprolis(R)) for patients with multiple myeloma. Prior to founding Rain, Avanish was senior vice president and chief business officer at Aptose Biosciences. Avanish holds a BA from Carleton College, an MBS in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota and MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.