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The Rising Leaders List
Contents 30 Rising Leaders In The Life Sciences 3 Nurturing The Next Generation Of Top Talent 15 What Does AI Excellence Look Like In Big Pharma? 19 2 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)
30 Rising Leaders In The Life Sciences
In Vivo’s List Of ‘Ones To Watch’ In Biopharma And Medtech
Executive Summary Privately held Cytera, which was founded in 2016
Revealed: In Vivo’s list of 30 Rising Leaders across by Afshar and Ignacio Willats and raised $1.8m
the biopharma, medtech and health technology in seed funding, is developing machines that can
sectors. Find out who made the cut. automate the growth of mammalian cells for
biotech companies. Afshar describes himself as
“a mixture between a scientist and an engineer,
having solved challenges both using physics and
In this first edition of In Vivo’s ‘Rising Leaders’ list, chemistry, as well as through building hardware
the focus is on entrepreneurs and innovators who and software … I see entrepreneurship as a tool to
represent the next wave of creativity in health bring together strong teams and affect change.”
care. Included are academics, CEOs of small and
mid-sized companies, and rising employees in As well as Cytera, in 2013 Afshar co-founded
larger biopharma and medtech businesses. Vellum Devices, a hardware start-up that aims
to recreate a paper-like experience in a new
There is no age restriction to being included, but digital device.
all those named below have been recognized
for bringing something new to the game. The list Iraj Ali
focuses on achievements, talent, creativity and Achilles Therapeutics Ltd.
strong leadership qualities. CEO
Look out for other features in this Rising Leaders Prior to becoming CEO of Achilles Therapeutics,
series, including exclusive interviews with Iraj Ali was a managing partner at Syncona
innovators and disruptors, alongside insights from Investment Management. During his time with the
more established industry executives on fostering venture capital group, he was a board member for
the next generation of talent and building the companies including Nightstar Therapeutics PLC
best teams. (acquired by Biogen Inc. in 2019 for $800m), Blue
Earth Diagnostics (sold to Bracco Imaging in 2019
In Vivo’s 2020 Rising Leaders in the life sciences for $450m) and Achilles Therapeutics.
are listed in alphabetical order.
Achilles is developing novel cancer
Ali Afshar immunotherapies targeting clonal neoantigens:
Cytera CellWorks protein markers unique to each individual that
Co-Founder and CEO are expressed on the surface of every cancer cell.
Achilles uses DNA sequencing data from each
Ali Afshar has a PhD in printable inorganic patient, together with a proprietary bioinformatics
photovoltaics from Imperial College London. His platform, to identify clonal neoantigens specific
studies focused on developing a non-toxic, stable, to that patient and enable the development of
efficient and flexible photovoltaic technology, personalized cell therapies. Ali held the role of
designed to be cheap and quick to manufacture. CEO at Achilles on an interim basis for some time
He has co-founded two businesses: Vellum before joining as the permanent chief executive
Devices and Cytera CellWorks. in 2018.
3 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)
Ali graduated from the University of Cambridge Christophe Bancel
in 2001 with a PhD in biochemistry. Prior to his TISSIUM
time at Syncona and Achilles, he was an associate CEO and Co-Founder
principal at global management consulting firm
McKinsey & Company. Ex-Serono and UCB Group executive Christophe
Bancel, CEO of French medtech innovator
Read more: Interview - Achilles Advances Armed TISSIUM, has made a career in various parts of the
With £100m health care products industry, identifying business
opportunities, founding, directing and leading
Derk Arts ventures, and planning for contingencies.
Castor
CEO and Founder TISSIUM is a medical device company developing
disruptive surgical solutions for patients, based
Derk Arts holds a PhD in decision support on a versatile platform of polymers developed
from the University of Amsterdam, and while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
studying epidemiology and medicine at the Vrije The company launched in 2013 and started its
Universiteit, he realized there was no efficient first clinical program in 2016. It obtained its
application for simple and affordable data first CE mark in 2017 and started to build its
management. As founder and CEO of Castor, manufacturing capabilities the following year.
he developed the first version of its Electronic
Data Capture (EDC) tool around 2011, as a cloud Bancel holds a master’s degree in molecular
solution for capturing medical research data in biology from the University of Tokyo, a master’s
clinical trials. degree in engineering technology from Ecole
Centrale Paris and a bachelor’s degree in
Castor’s goal is to accelerate medical research by engineering physics from Lycée Sainte-Geneviève.
unlocking the potential of every byte of research Prior to starting Tissium, Bancel also founded
data, tackling the issue that 85% of medical iBionext, an investment fund and start-up studio
research data is never re-used. This is usually due based in Paris, France.
to poor data quality, lack of standardization, and
the data being inaccessible to others. Read more: TISSIUM CEO’s Vision Is To Make The
Tissue Recon Label Stick
Castor’s EDC platform enables researchers to
set up data capture forms, collaborate with Virginie Buggia-Prevot
colleagues, invite patients through questionnaires University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer
and import, export and analyze their data in a Center
secure, compliant cloud environment, all without Senior Research Scientist
elaborate training or technical skills.
Through her work with the Neurodegeneration
Read more: Why Reusable Data Matters For Consortium (NDC), Virginie Buggia-Prevot is
Future Of Pharma driving novel research aimed at improving the
4 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)
lives of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Caballero’s work led to the identification of a
As a translational neurobiologist responsible for bacterial cocktail derived from human gut flora
managing strategic alliances, she is a key member that can control all three types of bacteria.
of MD Anderson’s Therapeutics Discovery team Vedanta expects to start clinical trials of this drug
– a drug discovery and development engine built candidate in 2021.
within a leading US cancer hospital.
Alterations of the human microbiome are
Buggia-Prevot is focused on early-stage target increasingly recognized as a key factor in
discovery in neurodegenerative conditions, autoimmune, metabolic, infectious and many
including the neurotoxic effects of cancer other diseases. Vedanta is developing a novel
treatment, with the goal of bringing novel class of therapies that modulate pathways of
therapeutics to the clinic. interaction between the human microbiome
and the host immune system. Vedanta was
In her present role, she serves as the liaison co-founded by PureTech Health and a group
for the multiple academic institutions that of world-renowned experts in immunology
make up the NDC, as well as managing and microbiology.
research agreements with multiple strategic
biopharmaceutical partners. The company’s pipeline also includes a partnered
Phase II program in Clostridium difficile, partnered
Additionally, Buggia-Prevot leads the Novel Phase I programs in inflammatory bowel disease
Targets team of the NDC, where she supervises and cancer immunotherapy, as well as an in-
a team of scientists focused on four main areas: house candidate being developed for food
neuroprotection, tau, neuroinflammation and allergies.
ApoE. Her work on target validation data for
one neuroprotective small molecule led to the Charlotte Casebourne
launch of Magnolia Neurosciences, a company Theolytics
focused on the development of a new class of CEO
neuroprotective medicines. Additionally, data
generated by her team led to a new strategic Charlotte Casebourne is CEO and co-founder
research agreement with Denali Therapeutics. of Theolytics, and a board member of the UK
BioIndustry Association (BIA). Prior to this,
Buggia-Prevot completed her bachelor’s and Casebourne co-founded New Medicine Partners, a
master’s degrees at the University Joseph Fourier strategic consultancy supporting health innovators
and received her PhD from the University of Nice- to translate advanced science and technology into
Sophia Antipolis. effective practice. She graduated as a University of
Cambridge Bioscience Enterprise M.Phil scholar
Silvia Caballero in 2016.
Vedanta Biosciences Inc.
Scientist II Founded in 2017, Theolytics is a preclinical-stage
biotech using oncolytic viruses to combat cancer.
At Vedanta Biosciences Inc., Silvia Caballero is The company is leveraging a convergence of
striving to identify bacteria that can effectively emerging technologies within the viral therapy
control three potentially lethal bacterial strains field – long-read sequencing, sophisticated
often found in hospitals and nursing homes. bioinformatics and advanced genetic engineering
5 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)
– to accelerate discovery and development. It Raquel Deering
launched with £2.5m in seed investment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), a £600m fund Associate Director, Immuno-Oncology
focused on commercializing ideas originating from
the University of Oxford. While earning a dual doctorate degree in
immunology from Harvard Medical School
BIA is a trade association for life sciences in the and biology from the Massachusetts Institute
UK, representing over 300 member organizations of Technology, Raquel Deering also had the
including bioscience and pharmaceutical opportunity to study the human genome at the
companies, academic, research and philanthropic Broad Institute. From there, she did a postdoctoral
organizations, and service providers to the fellowship at Novartis AG where she studied the
biosciences sector. use of nucleic acids to develop novel infectious
disease and cancer vaccines, and T-cell therapies.
Read more: What Does It Take To Launch And
Lead An Oncology Biotech Today? Now, as associate director of immuno-oncology at
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Deering leads a team
Ryan Cawood of researchers that are focused on “outsmarting
OXGENE cancer.” She is responsible for Regeneron’s cancer
Founder and CEO vaccine development efforts, oncology clinical trial
biomarker study design and analysis, and human
Ryan Cawood founded Oxford Genetics or tumor and immune cell sequencing and functional
OXGENE in 2011; it is a specialized contract assay development.
research organization offering services to support
the discovery, development and production of Deering’s team uses next generation sequencing
biologics, and gene and cell therapies. methods to extract information from patient
samples that inform the design of more strategic
The company believes it can address some of therapies. They are also working to develop next
the most important and challenging questions in generation cancer vaccines and combine those
modern biology within gene therapy, antibody- vaccines with other immune-modulatory drugs to
based therapeutics and CRISPR gene editing. evaluate the potential benefits.
Its technologies enable precise and robust
mammalian cell engineering. “Our automation Deering was previously a consultant at venture
and informatics driven approaches mean we solve capital firm Third Rock Ventures, eventually
the problems that no-one else can to advance the becoming head scientist at one of Third Rock’s
delivery of new therapeutics,” OXGENE says. portfolio companies, Neon Therapeutics.
Cawood has been CEO of the company for nine
years. He holds a PhD in oncology from the
University of Oxford and a bachelor’s degree in
genetics from the University of Leeds.
6 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)
César de la Fuente wants to change the way the world looks at
University of Pennsylvania neurological disorders.” Its most advanced
Presidential Assistant Professor asset, AT-01, is a first-in-class antisense
oligonucleotide being developed for hereditary
César de la Fuente graduated from the University cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis dutch
of British Columbia in 2014 with a PhD in type (HCHWA-D), also referred to as Katwijk’s
microbiology and immunology. He is now a disease. HCHWA-D is a serious familial disorder
presidential assistant professor at the University characterized by the formation of amyloid-β,
of Pennsylvania, where he leads the Machine a toxic protein, which aggregates in the blood
Biology Group. vessels of the brain and causes strokes in
middle age.
The group aims to develop computer-made tools
and medicines that will replenish the world’s De Vlaam holds a bachelor’s degree in
antibiotic arsenal. Current research projects being international medicine and global health from the
conducted in the de la Fuente lab include building University of Groningen.
artificial antibiotics; discovering new antibiotic
molecules in biological information; generating Tomas de Wouters
technologies for microbiome engineering; PharmaBiome AG
developing tools for synthetic neuromicrobiology; Co-Founder and CEO
and engineering living medicines.
Tomas de Wouters is convinced that microbiome-
Thomas de Vlaam based therapies will revolutionize medicine.
Amylon Therapeutics BV An engineer with a PhD in biology, de Wouters’
Founder and CEO expertise in the microbiome resulted in the
founding of PharmaBiome, where he established
Thomas de Vlaam is founder and CEO of Amylon a platform technology for product development in
Therapeutics. He previously studied with the the microbiome field.
ambition of becoming a neurosurgeon, but a
diagnosis of Scheuermann’s disease caused him PharmaBiome, based in Zurich, takes a bottom-up
to forgo a medical career. De Vlaam instead approach by engineering bacterial consortia based
turned to another a career that would allow him on their interactions. Its platform has provided
to help patients – biotech. new insights and allowed the development of new
strategies for the development and production
He previously worked as head of CNS at ProQR, of multi-strain bacterial networks. The resulting
a company in the Netherlands developing novel microbiome therapies are function-based and can
drugs to treat rare orphan disorders. An expert in be tailored to specific indications.
researching new approaches to treating amyloid
disorders, de Vlaam started a new company in this The company is developing treatments for
space, Amylon Therapeutics. ulcerative colitis, cancer and graft-versus-host
disease. There remains a high unmet need in
Amylon, founded in September 2017, is ulcerative colitis that is not addressed by current
developing RNA modulation technology to target therapies. “This is where a therapy that addresses
rare genetic disorders of the central nervous the microbiome holds much promise. We have
system. The biotech has “high ambitions and observed very encouraging results in preclinical
7 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)
models and are rapidly advancing towards the Chalmers University of Technology. He co-
clinic,” PharmaBiome says. founded Elypta in 2017 with the goal of moving
cancer diagnosis and treatment decision-making
Cancer immunotherapy and colorectal cancer away from medical imaging. Elypta is focused
have been shown to have a direct link to the on liquid biopsies for several types of cancer, in
microbiome, while emerging research also points which a set of biomarkers make it possible to
to an important role of the microbiome in graft- detect cancer at an early stage.
versus-host disease in transplant patients. These
therapy areas are in earlier research phases for The molecular diagnostics start-up wants to
PharmaBiome. improve the survival outlook of cancer patients by
developing systems biology-driven biomarkers.
Jason Foster He has invented a diagnostic and prognostic test
Ori Biotech for renal cell carcinoma based on an accurate
CEO liquid biopsy, one of the first based on cancer
metabolism. Unlike other liquid biopsies that
Jason Foster is CEO and executive director of analyze the genetic material that flows through
Ori Biotech, a London and Philadelphia-based the blood (for example, pieces of DNA from tumor
innovator in cell and gene therapy manufacturing. cells), Elypta detects a panel of 19 metabolites
The company’s goal is to put “complex called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). The level of
manufacturing challenges in the past.” By fully these substances in the blood is an indicator for
automating and standardizing cell and gene the detection of various types of cancer.
therapy manufacturing in a closed platform, Ori
offers developers the opportunity to scale from Tim Guilliams
preclinical process development to commercial Healx Ltd.
scale manufacturing. This addresses one of Founder and CEO
the biggest challenges still facing cell and gene
companies, as more products candidates move Tim Guilliams is a tech entrepreneur from the
through the pipeline. Cambridge Cluster, UK. He is passionate about
using big data and artificial intelligence to
Foster joined the company as CEO in June 2019. accelerate treatments for rare diseases. Along
Prior to this role, he was managing director of these lines, Guilliams founded Healx Ltd, a tech
consultancy group Health Equity Consulting. company focused on treatment predictions for
rare diseases.
Foster says he helps to “build organizations that
maximize the value of their products and services Healx has developed the Rare Treatment
to improve health and achieve significant returns Accelerator, a partnering program that gives
for investors.” patient groups and Healx the opportunity to
work together to quickly discover and develop
Francesco Gatto repurposed treatments for rare diseases using AI.
Elypta The company has committed a total of $20m for
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer finding new treatments – investing up to the value
of $1m in AI and drug discovery resources
Francesco Gatto holds a PhD in biomathematics, per project.
bioinformatics and computational biology from
8 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)“We collaborate with biotech partners to jointly roles, including vice president and head of
progress new treatments toward the clinic and quantitative clinical sciences.
build each other’s rare disease pipelines,” Healx
says. Its pipeline currently includes nine preclinical Patrick Hsu
partnered programs in rare neurology, oncology University of California, Berkeley
and metabolic disorders. Assistant Professor
Guilliams is also the co-founder and trustee of the Patrick Hsu is an assistant professor and faculty
Cambridge Rare Disease Network. He obtained fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.
a PhD at the University of Cambridge in the field His goal is to understand and manipulate the
of biophysics and neuroscience, developing genetic circuits that control brain and immune
nanobody technology for Parkinson’s disease. cell function for the next generation of cell
and therapies.
Read more: AI Firm Healx Raises $56M To Develop
Affordable Rare Disease Treatments The Hsu lab aims to create new molecular
technologies for genome and transcriptome
Anne Heatherington engineering, perturb complex cellular processes at
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. scale, and develop next-generation gene and cell
Head of Data Science Institute therapies. Recently, the Hsu Lab discovered and
developed novel CRISPR systems that expand the
Anne Heatherington, head of Takeda’s Data gene editing toolbox beyond DNA to RNA.
Science Institute and a member of the R&D senior
leadership team, earned her bachelor’s degree in Hsu’s work is supported by the University of
pharmacy from Queen’s University Belfast, and California at Berkeley, the NIH Director’s Early
her doctorate degree in pharmacokinetics from Independence Award, and the National Institute
the University of Manchester. on Aging among others. He holds a PhD in
biochemistry and biological engineering from
At Takeda, Heatherington is tasked with ensuring Harvard University.
the company is creative in how it brings its
best people, technology and ideas together to Michael R Hufford
build and infuse digital culture across R&D. This Harm Reduction Therapeutics
includes growing the company’s informatics CEO
capabilities in research, pioneering new
approaches to modeling and simulation, and Michael Hufford has spent 20 years as
promoting learning through artificial intelligence. an entrepreneur, co-founding multiple
To achieve these goals, she applies quantitative pharmaceutical, medical device and mobile health
strategies in all aspects of drug development to companies across a wide range of therapeutic
drive innovation, efficiency and decision making areas. He has raised money from both public
across the organization. and private markets, including VCs and
angel investors.
Before joining Takeda, Heatherington worked
as head of clinical development at Summit An addiction researcher by training, Hufford
Therapeutics PLC. She also spent 13 years at Pfizer received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh
Inc., where she held several executive leadership and completed a clinical and research fellowship
9 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard neurodegeneration and cancer (including
Medical School. Now he is co-founder and CEO immuno-oncology).
of Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a non-profit
company focused on preventing opioid overdose Prior to joining C4X, Hunjan was a senior strategy
deaths by making low-price naloxone available manager at Cancer Research UK, where she led
over the counter. several strategic projects and worked closely with
the scientific community.
“To succeed in getting naloxone into the hands of
everyone who might benefit from it, money from Rabia Khan
non-profit foundations with an interest in public Sensyne Health PLC
health and reducing the scourge of opioids must Chief of Translational Medicine
be combined with drug development expertise to
bring naloxone to every drug store in America,” Rabia Khan is chief of translational medicine
says Hufford. at Sensyne Health, a health care technology
company focused on accelerating the discovery
and development of new medicines and
Bhavna Hunjan improving patient care. This is achieved through
C4X Discovery Holdings PLC the analysis of real-world evidence from large
Head of Corporate Strategy and Development databases of anonymized patient data in
collaboration with Nationa Health Service Trusts in
Bhavna Hunjan holds a master’s degree in the UK.
biochemistry from the University of Oxford. She
joined C4X Discovery in 2016 as senior corporate Sensyne Health is listed on the London Stock
strategy manager before becoming head of Exchange’s AIM and is based in the Schrödinger
corporate strategy and development in 2017. Building in Oxford Science Park.
C4X Discovery is an early-stage biotechnology
company focused on small molecule drug Before her current role, Khan was vice president
discovery. At the company, Hunjan is responsible of systems medicine at Sensyne Health. She
for a number of activities including business also previously worked for BenevolantAI as an
strategy, M&A, licensing-focused business associate director of strategy and planning.
development, alliance and partnership
deal-making, as well as external strategic Khan has a PhD in human/medical genetics
communications. from McGill University and a master’s degree
in business administration from Concordia
The company’s DNA-based target identification University.
platform Taxonomy3 utilizes human genetic data
sets to identify novel patient-specific targets, Jinxing Li
which it hopes will lead to greater discovery Stanford University
productivity and increased probability of clinical Postdoctoral Scholar
success. Its near-term goal is to drive returns
through early-stage revenue-generating deals “It has always been a part of my approach to think
with the pharmaceutical industry. Its in-house about who outside of my lab might be able to help
pipeline is primarily focused on inflammation, me think about my work in new ways.”
10 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)Jinxing Li is a postdoctoral scholar in chemical Möller’s role is two-fold: she co-leads Bayer’s
engineering at Stanford University, who has artificial intelligence work stream and is
designed rocket-like micromotors that run on gut responsible for the research digital investment
fluids and biodegrade after use. He also holds strategy. The scope of the AI work stream
a PhD in nanoengineering and bioengineering includes R&D, medical affairs, pharmacovigilance,
from the University of California, San Diego, and a commercial and product supply. The projects are
master’s degree in microelectronics from run by teams working across Bayer’s value chain
Fudan University. and are supported by external partnerships.
Li has been developing “microrobots” to deliver As well as leading Bayer’s digital transformation,
therapeutics in the body. He has been working on Möller is co-founder and executive officer of the
loading antibiotics onto a microrobot for direct non-profit Alliance For Artificial Intelligence In
delivery to a bacterial infection in the stomach, a Healthcare (AAIH).
method he says has been six times more efficient
in killing a bacterial infection than typical Greg Mullen
antibiotic capsules. Theragnostics
CEO
Recently, Li demonstrated that magnetically
powered nanomotors cloaked in membranes Greg Mullen was promoted to CEO of
from platelet cells could navigate through blood Theragnostics in January 2017, having held the
to remove toxins and pathogens without being position of chief operating officer since 2015.
cleared by the immune system.
Theragnostics is developing a complete portfolio
Angeli Möller of radiopharmaceuticals for the management
Bayer AG and treatment of cancer patients; from initial
Head of Global Data Assets, Pharma Digital diagnosis, to treatment planning and monitoring,
Transformation and IT to therapy.
Angeli Möller has a PhD in molecular biology Mullen is passionate about exploring the
from the University of Edinburgh. She joined synergy between therapeutics and diagnostics
Bayer in 2016 as an IT business partner in technologies in drug development. Prior to joining
the clinical sciences business, part of Bayer Theragnostics, he was chief scientific officer for
Pharmaceuticals. She has quickly risen through Molecular Imaging at Mediso Medical Imaging
the ranks at Bayer. In 2018 she became head of Systems. He was also head of vaccine formulation
IT business partnering research, followed by a at the US National Institutes of Health, and holds a
promotion in 2020 to vice president and head of PhD in chemistry from the University of Kent.
global data assets, pharma digital transformation
and IT. Before joining Bayer, Möller worked as Read more: Theragnostics Ltd: Developing New
a data scientist for translational medicine at Radiotherapies Targeted To PARP
Thomson Reuters and as a researcher at Cancer
Research UK.
11 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)Carlo Rivis Powered by a single silicon chip on a handheld
Computational Life Inc. and device connected to a smartphone, Butterfly
InnovationDiscovery iQ – the company’s device – provides a complete
Board member and CEO diagnostic imaging solution that is less expensive
than traditional systems.
Carlo Rivis holds a bachelor’s degree in applied
computer science and business management Noor Shaker
from the Free University of Bozen. He is CEO Glamorous AI
of San Diego-based InnovationDiscovery, a CEO
worldwide database of innovations that aims
to promote, diffuse, acquire and sell Noor Shaker is a Syrian entrepreneur and
innovative ideas. computer scientist. She founded Glamorous AI to
be able to apply innovative artificial intelligence
Rivis has founded or co-founded several tools to drug discovery. The London, UK-based
businesses, including Computational Life. The startup was incorporated in March 2020.
Delaware-based company’s vision is to provide
a Digital Avatar Platform (DAP) that simulates Previously, Shaker co-founded GTN, where she
the human and animal body through modern was CEO from April 2017 to August 2019. She
mathematical models. Computational Life’s also founded Phenogeneca, a privately held
software is able to concurrently simulate AI company that launched in November 2019.
arterial and venous systems; heart dynamics; Phenogeneca is focused on the development of AI
microcirculation; pulmonary circulation; solutions and consultancy for AI, healthcare and
cerebrospinal fluid; and brain interstitial fluid. life sciences businesses.
Rivis says he is focused on creating companies
that can provide “scalable technology solutions Shaker holds a PhD in machine learning, effective
that align technology investments with computing and computer games from the IT
business goals.” University of Copenhagen and a master’s degree
in artificial intelligence from KU Leuven. She is
Nevada Sanchez “passionate about changing the world through
Butterfly Network technological innovations” and is a “believer in
Co-Founder and Research Scientist the power of data and machine learning and their
revolutionary impact on the future.”
Nevada Sanchez is a graduate from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He co- Lauri Sippola
founded Butterfly Network in 2011 as a digital Kaiku Health
health company with a mission to democratize CEO and Co-Founder
health care, by making medical imaging
universally accessible and affordable. Lauri Sippola holds a master’s degree of science,
industrial engineering and management
At Butterfly Network, Sanchez leads R&D efforts from Aalto University. Kaiku Health is a digital
and contributes to product definition and system therapeutics company with a mission to improve
architecture. He leads the largest team in the quality of life through health data science. It was
company to design and implement powerful founded in 2012 by five software developers,
integrated circuits. including Sippola.
12 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)The company has built an intelligent platform Jhaymee Tynan
for digital health interventions in cancer care, Atrium Health
and its algorithms enable early interventions Assistant Vice President of Integration
and personalized patient support. More than 50
European hospitals and clinics use the platform “My passion is leading organizations to align
to better monitor patients, reducing manual work strategy with execution and achieve positive
and allowing prioritization of clinical actions. results and outcomes.”
Kaiku Health is backed by Debiopharm Innovation Jhaymee Tynan is assistant vice president at
Fund, TESI and Reaktor Ventures, along with other Atrium Health, one of the largest non-profit
venture capital funds and private investors, and health care systems in the US. Previously known
is supported by Business Finland, the Finnish as Carolinas HealthCare System, Atrium Health
Funding Agency for Innovation. provides a full spectrum of health care and
wellness programs throughout the Southeast
Laura Soucek region. Its diverse network of care locations
Peptomyc includes academic medical centers, hospitals,
Founder and CEO freestanding emergency departments, physician
practices, surgical and rehabilitation centers,
Founded in 2014, Peptomyc is a company focused home health agencies, nursing homes and
on the development of a new generation of cell behavioral health centers, as well as hospice
penetrating peptides (CPPs) targeting the Myc and palliative care services. The group works to
oncoprotein for cancer treatment. Laura Soucek is enhance the overall health and well being of its
a leading figure in the Myc field and has pioneered communities through high-quality patient care,
studies on Myc inhibition since designing Omomyc education and research programs, as well as
when she was an undergraduate student. collaborative partnerships and initiatives.
Omomyc is a dominant-negative Myc inhibitor Tynan is also leading the way when it comes to
that shows therapeutic promise in a variety of advancing women of color in the health care
cancer types. Peptomyc aims to further develop industry. She has set a goal of sponsoring 100
the Omomyc peptide – and improved variants – women of color in health care by 2030. She hopes
into clinically viable therapeutics for the treatment this sponsoring will help to advance the careers
of cancer. of the women she supports. Actions will include
nominating women of color for industry awards
Since early 2011, Soucek has also headed the to gain visibility, serving as an advocate for the
Mouse Models of Cancer Therapies Group at next executive role to strengthen the talent
the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), pipeline, and celebrating the achievements of
Barcelona, Spain. Her research at VHIO has been women of color in public and in private. “It means
recognized through several national research utilizing my network to make warm introductions
awards and grants. In addition, she holds a PhD to women of color that are making an impact in
in genetics and molecular biology from Sapienza health care. Sponsorship means taking action and
Università di Roma. holding myself accountable for the results,” she
said in a February 2020 Forbes article.
13 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)Prior to joining Atrium, Tynan was manager as simply as reading it. DNA Script’s core R&D
of business model transformation at Deloitte. efforts have produced innovations in enzyme
She holds an MBA in health care from Emory engineering, surface and nucleotide chemistries
University, a master’s degree in project and instrumentation. The company has developed
management from George Washington University SYNTAX, a benchtop DNA printer powered by
and a bachelor’s degree in finance, insurance and enzymatic technology.
business law from Virginia Tech.
In 2020, the SYNTAX prototype will be tested by
Thomas Ybert public and private research teams in molecular
DNA Script biology and DNA Script plans to recruit 60 or more
Co-Founder and CEO staff by the end of the year.
Thomas Ybert co-founded DNA Script in 2014 Ybert previously worked at Amyris Inc. and
to tackle one of the major challenges in the life Sanofi. He has a PhD in biotechnology from Ecole
sciences: being able to write DNA as fast and Polytechnique, Paris.
14 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)Nurturing The Next Generation Of Top Talent
Biotech Leaders Tell Their Career Stories
Executive Summary joined the business. Erlotinib had been licenced
Coaching and mentoring are important tools for by Pfizer Inc. as part of a broader deal, but the
the leaders of today to be able to foster the next big pharma returned the compound to OSI when
generation of talent in the biopharma sector. it was in Phase I due to pipeline reorganization
While the routes into industry have not changed related to an acquisition. Pfizer acquired another
dramatically – most leaders hold a master’s EGFR compound in clinical development. “Pfizer
degree and/or PhD – the expectations of rising was able to divest it [erlotinib] back to OSI very
leaders have altered and the industry itself has quickly and this changed the trajectory of the
become more collaborative. company to becoming a leader in oncological
discovery and development,” Petti said, adding
that at the time, around 2000, “EGFR inhibitors
were the hottest things” in development for
In exclusive interviews, Anne Whitaker, CEO of cancer.
Aerami Therapeutics, who is passionate about
mentoring and is active in promoting higher This kind of flexibility, which allowed OSI to
education in STEM sectors, and Filippo Petti, CEO change course quickly, is essential for biotech
of Celyad SA, who recently shifted from a finance companies. “Flexibility is really inherent for
to chief executive role, talk to In Vivo about success in the biotech sector. Being able to be
their career journeys, promoting top talent and nimble, changing focus, reading the key leads at
aspirations for the future. the time, and really predicting where the field is
going, these are the greatest assets for a biotech
Petti started his career, after studying organization as you try to build toward success.”
biochemistry and pharmaceutical sciences
at degree level, with an internship at OSI Building Your Story
Pharmaceuticals LLC, based in New York. “I After his time at OSI, Petti moved through many
had a family member who was diagnosed with other roles. He went from being a scientist to
cancer, someone who was very close to me, and doing business development, then into equity
that pushed me down the path of really wanting research for biotech companies on Wall Street,
to make an impact on cancer treatments,” he before becoming a health care investment banker.
recalled. Petti’s first project at OSI was working Now he has come full circle back into biopharma,
on a drug candidate that went on to become the first as chief financial officer and then CEO of
non-small cell lung cancer treatment Tarceva Celyad.
(erlotinib) – one of the earlier epidermal growth
factor receptors (EGFR) inhibitors to reach the Belgium-headquartered Celyad is developing
market, which was co-commercialized between chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapies
OSI and Roche. aimed at treating severe diseases with poor
prognoses such as cancer. It has two autologous
Some of Petti’s success at OSI was due to good therapies and one allogeneic candidate in Phase
fortune and good timing. The EGFR inhibitor I trials, as well as other programs further back in
project that launched his career was a compound the pipeline.
returned to the company not long after Petti
15 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)When it comes to building a team, Petti said that transformative for me for a couple of reasons: I
just as he had “traversed through my career,” he had the opportunity to really look at the entire
wanted to employ people willing to get out of business globally – I had 84 people around the
their comfort zones. “I was a scientist and then world that reported into me -- and I got to see
moved into the field of finance and business every day what Andrew Witty’s schedule looked
development.” He said it was about “adding to the like and what he was spending his time on. It was
story, adding to the knowledge base you have.” the first time I really had a view of the CEO job
and what it entailed.” This opportunity inspired
Petti’s advice to those thinking about the next Whitaker to pursue being a biopharma CEO as a
step in their careers is to go for it. “Sometimes I career goal.
regret not making the jump to Wall Street sooner,
or at least going towards that financial, business After moving back to the US, Whitaker eventually
development side a little bit sooner. Follow your left GSK to join another European big pharma,
gut feeling and don’t be afraid to make the jump,” France’s Sanofi. She joined the company as CEO
he said. for the US and head of North America. In this
role she led eight different business units worth
Petti’s aspiration is to “put Celyad on the map.” around $12bn in revenues, and oversaw a staff
of approximately 18,000. It was a “big change in
Working Up To The CEO Spot scope and responsibility,” she recalled.
Anne Whitaker, CEO of Aerami Therapeutics,
started her career in pharma as a sales It was a changing time at Sanofi, which had
representative, having graduated college with a recently acquired Genzyme and, a few years
degree in industrial chemistry. After a short time prior to her joining the business, signed its major
in the lab, Whitaker found that she was better research agreement with Regeneron – a deal that
suited to a role with more human interaction. has produced several leading brands for the two
“My lab supervisor was afraid I was going to start companies.
talking to my beakers,” she joked in an interview
with In Vivo. “Although I’m an introvert, I really After three years, Whitaker took her first
get my energy from people. I made the switch company CEO role, leading the public firm Synta
to pharmaceutical sales and worked my way up, Pharmaceuticals. Unfortunately, Synta – an
moving in and out of marketing positions, all the oncology focused drug developer – suffered a
way up to business unit head at GlaxoSmithKline.” big setback when its leading program failed in
Whitaker held several business unit head Phase III. After this trickier time, Whitaker moved
roles at GSK, the last as head of the company’s to Bausch Health to lead its branded pharma
cardiovascular, metabolic and neurology business business, which included recently acquired
unit – where she oversaw around 3,500 people businesses like Salix and Dendreon. “That was a
and $5bn in revenues. good experience, an interesting experience, it was
quite a volatile time at Bausch Health,” Whitaker
While at GSK, Whitaker moved from the US to said. (Also see “Bausch Health Rises From
London, UK, to work closely with GSK’s senior Valeant’s Simmering Ashes “ - Scrip, 8 May, 2018.)
management team, including then-CEO Sir
Andrew Witty. “[Witty] was really implementing Whitaker’s path to chief executive of Aerami
culture change at GSK,” Whitaker explained. When Therapeutics took a few more turns, one of which
first in the UK, Whitaker was head of leadership saw her set up a company from scratch based on
and organization at GSK. “The position was technology from the University of North Carolina.
16 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)She also added several board positions to her to be able to help lead an organization such as
resume and is still on the boards of Mallinckrodt Celyad, and other biotech companies of our size
and Vectura today. She took on the role of Aerami and shape. As I was going through the ranks you
CEO in October 2018, tasked with the job of could typically say I wasn’t a traditional health
expanding the company’s strategy and diversifying care investment banker given my background
the business. in science and equity research, and I think that’s
probably the case as well as a CEO.”
The Skills For Success
“What is important for leaders and people aspiring Petti believes that having a different background
to senior roles is that they do work in a variety means leaders like him bring to companies an
of different functions that are critical for the “edge” and a fresh point of view.
business,” said Whitaker. “If someone starts in a
scientific area, I think it is important for them to Whitaker’s advice to rising leaders in biopharma
have experiences outside of R&D, whether that’s is to be “authentic.” She explained, “the best
in business strategy, in commercial or elsewhere.” advice I received was to really show up fully, to be
comfortable in my own skin.” Whitaker said this
Petti notes that being a CEO means broadening advice, to be authentic, was transformational as
your thinking. It is about “strategically thinking she realized that leaders do not know it all. They
about how the pieces of an organization fit have to build strong teams to have collective
together for the greatest success.” He added that success. “Being able to build the right team is
daily the job is about “quickly making decisions always going to be critical. CEOs must be able
and leveraging the management team. It’s not all to assemble a high performing team that fills
on me, it’s also about building the support staff, the necessary skills for the business. Leaders
having confidence and trust in my executive team today, in pharma in particular, have to be driving
and the board.” innovation. We have learned so much with regard
to the achievements in human genome [research]
Looking at the role of a biopharma CEO today, and as far as manufacturing complex products, be
Petti said the “profile or phenotype has certainly it small molecules or biologics. It’s a matter now
changed.” Petti himself has followed an unusual of visionary leaders being able to really define
route into the job and does not have an MD or and drive for innovation to bring new therapies to
PhD. “Along the way I’ve been able to gather a market.”
perspective and a lens into the industry that has
allowed me to really color many aspects of this Whitaker added that CEOs needed to think
role.” holistically about their organizations and to do
this they require experience with system thinking.
He said the sheer number of biotech companies “This connects to the point that I made that
today, and the pace of scientific achievement, had people need a variety of different experiences
revealed opportunities for aspiring leaders. “Even in functional areas before rising to the senior
if you dial the clock back just 10 years, someone level. We cannot have silos in businesses.” To be
such as me probably wouldn’t have had as many successful, biopharma companies need to be
opportunities to become a CEO [in this industry].” connected across the various functions, which
While there are many more companies in terms can be achieved via project teams that include
of volume of biotech business, there is a shift members from different areas of a business, for
occurring in the skills that are desired in a would- example. “CEOs really have to have vision and
be CEO. “Folks are coming from different angles drive to build an organization in this way.”
17 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)Leaders today have to be able to recognize at the junior and senior school are female, by the
the different expectations of employees from time they get into the workforce only 25% pursue
different generations. “They need to build STEM careers. Often, “young females move away
performance systems that will motivate different from STEM careers because they don’t see other
employees, and this will help them to retain key female leaders in those roles,” Whitaker said. “I
talent across different generations,” Whitaker started getting involved with mentoring individual
said. She noted, for example, that the youngest high-potential young female scientists and have
generation in the workforce, those in their really stayed active with that in the North Carolina
twenties, expect to see incentives for short term area.”
achievements. While the previous generation
were happy working toward longer-term goals Aerami’s CEO believes the issue of diversity at the
and rewards. top in biopharma persists in part because there
are no clear paths for aspiring leaders. “You want
Finally, Whitaker highlighted that leaders must to look up and see that there is a pathway, that
be able to reward risk. “Leaders need to create other people have gone there. Also, the people
a culture where it’s ok to fail because that’s the who are hiring for those top positions are still
only way we are going to be able to innovate. The largely males who are looking for people like
goal is an agile workforce that is willing to push them. That is at the board level and at the CEO
for innovation, fail quickly and learn fast. Each of level. There needs to be more work done to get
those experiences is really important.” more women on boards.” She added, “it is often
these subtle, micro biases that people don’t
Mentoring And Diversity recognize they have. There needs to be more
Whitaker has been involved in mentoring emphasis across the board for people to become
programs since joining GSK in 2003, and praises aware of these issues.”
one of her early mentors, Lou McCloud: “She had
quite an impact on me.” Whitaker highlighted Always Aspiring
that McCloud was one of the only female sales Whitaker expects Aerami to move more than one
reps at GSK at the time, having come into the of its product candidates into the clinic over the
company with a background in nursing. “I’m very next 18 months, an opportunity for her to grow
fortunate to have had Lou as a mentor because the business into a full-scale biopharmaceutical
she shaped my leadership style. She helped me company. She will be looking to hire the right
to be comfortable in my own skin, to be a more team and “have the experience of coaching and
authentic female leader and to demonstrate shaping future leaders that I hope will have impact
what is quite natural for me – which is connecting in the industry curve in many years to come.”
with people, being empathetic and using my
intuition.” After her own experience, Whitaker was Looking to the future, Petti said he would not
committed to mentoring other women in pharma. want to be working in any other industry and that
biopharma would be “the most exciting place”
Whitaker is also a member of the board for the for the next century. “The biotech industry will
science, technology, engineering and mathematics just continue to drive health benefit, not only for
(STEM) focused high school, North Carolina School current patients but future patients too, and it will
of Maths and Science. She was surprised on build a better, healthier kind of environment for
joining the board that while 50-60% of students the world.”
18 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)What Does AI Excellence Look Like In Big Pharma?
An Interview With Rising Leader Angeli Möller
Executive Summary Global data assets at Bayer is a new “acceleration
Angeli Möller, recently spotlighted by In Vivo as function” created for the pharma division to
a 2020 Rising Leader, has quickly moved up the hasten its digital transformation. As head of this
ranks at Bayer and is now spearheading one of initiative, Möller leads three groups:
its key initiatives to bring artificial intelligence and
machine learning technologies into the pharma • the Science At Scale team, which includes
business. platforms for machine learning, computer
vision and advanced analytics for the whole
pharma division;
Angeli Möller joined Bayer AG in 2016 as an IT • Global Data Assets, representing the collection,
business partner in the clinical sciences unit, support and maintenance of Bayer’s most
part of Bayer Pharmaceuticals. She has quickly valuable global data assets; and
progressed at the company. In 2018 she became
head of IT business partnering research, followed • the Data Excellence Team, which is responsible
by a promotion this year to vice president and for data governance, data stewardship and the
head of global data assets, pharma digital application of the FAIR principles to ensure that
transformation and IT. data are findable, accessible, interoperable
and reusable. This group focuses on the
Before joining Bayer, Möller, who has a PhD educational and governance guidelines that are
in molecular biology from the University of needed to gain full value from data.
Edinburgh, worked as a data scientist for
translational medicine at Thomson Reuters and as The artificial intelligence workstream is part of
a researcher at Cancer Research UK. Bayer’s digital transformation core program.
“We use ‘lighthouse cases’ from this workstream
Möller is “good at having lots of jobs to do.” as stretch goals for the pharma division, to
Her role at Bayer is two-fold: she co-leads understand what the most impactful ways are to
Bayer’s artificial intelligence (AI) workstream use artificial intelligence,” she told In Vivo in an
and is responsible for the company’s research exclusive interview.
digital investment strategy. The scope of the
AI workstream covers R&D, medical affairs, Möller has “always had this curiosity to go into
pharmacovigilance, commercial and product science.” She started her career as a molecular
supply. Projects are run by teams working biologist, but with the global collaborations
across Bayer’s value chain and are supported by and automation seen in the lab, she very
external partnerships. As well as leading Bayer’s quickly moved into being a data scientist and
digital transformation, Möller is co-founder and informatician. “By the time I entered my post doc,
executive officer of the non-profit organization, I was already leading parts of consortia with 15
the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare different groups worldwide to model the human
(AAIH). chemical synapse, and that involved a high
19 / May 2020 © Informa UK Ltd 2020 (Unauthorized photocopying prohibited.)amount of data science and informatics.” After her is able to articulate the needs of data scientists,
daughter was born, to balance having a small child particularly new graduates, as they enter a
and a research career, Möller became a full-time corporate environment. “I can relay what they
data scientist. need in terms of working culture and working
environment to allow them to bring their best
At that time, she joined Thompson Reuters as performance to the table.”
an external analyst for several pharmaceutical
companies. “My two biggest clients were Roche What Are ‘Lighthouse Projects’?
and Bayer. After working on a Bayer project for The initiative for lighthouse projects at Bayer
nine months they offered me an internal position started in January 2019 and is part of a larger
to be responsible for the digital transformation digital transformation program. “We run a series
strategy for pharma co-metrics – that quickly of AI lighthouse cases and each one is a stretch
expanded.” goal for the company, pushing the boundaries of
what we are able to do,” Möller explained. Usually
With having more of a leadership role at Bayer, the goal of these projects is to increase revenue
and having been promoted most recently in streams, but they can also be targeted toward
January, Möller said one of the challenges is being improving operational efficiency in the pharma
able to demonstrate the impact she has on the division.
business from a role that is not as hands-on. “For
me, one of the challenges is how do I scale up One example is the development of technology to
my impact. If you are hands on developing an identify patients with rare mutations to ensure the
algorithm with a particular prediction, then it is right medications are reaching them. “Currently,
very easy to point to it and show the influence it you need to do sequencing from samples from
has had.” that patient. If they are very sick this sequencing
can be quite a high burden for a patient who
Her current roles at Bayer are more focused might already be having to give a lot of different
on “who should we be hiring, what is our talent samples,” Möller noted. Also, the sequencing
strategy, what are the lighthouse cases we want to might be prohibitively expensive, meaning they
run, how do we choose our investment strategies might not be tested at all. “We are working on an
for these?” To manage this change, “you have approach using computer vision, a form of AI, to
to be clear with yourself and with the executive look at pathology images and then by analyzing
team about what the true points of impact are the pathology images at high scale identify which
throughout the year. While I won’t be working patients are likely to have which mutations,” she
hands-on all the time, I have a lot of areas of said. This approach is less invasive for the patient.
responsibility.”
As another example, Bayer has a lighthouse
With her latest promotion, Möller’s role has case in trial for product supply. The company is
progressed to focusing on coaching, talent using a machine learning approach to optimize
development and strategic frameworks. “It is its planning process for production. “We can
about setting up the right space for other people anticipate and predict where we expect to see
to be hands-on and deliver on the project,” disruption in our production facilities. We can
she said. Having been in the data science and proactively prevent disruption that could be
informatics fields for a long time, Möller feels she caused, for instance, by defects in our machinery
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