Science to Secure

Dr. Venkayya is the former President of the Global Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he built and led a vertically integrated global business developing vaccines for dengue, norovirus, Zika and pandemic threats. Dr. Venkayya serves as an independent member of the board of CEPI and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. He was previously Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense at the White House, where he was the principal author of the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. He previously served as Director of Vaccine Delivery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program and on the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Joanne Beck, PhD is joining Aerium as the Chief Technology Officer and member of the Executive Team. Joanne previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Boston Pharmaceuticals which she joined in 2019. Prior to that, she served at Celgene as Executive Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical Development and Operations, and oversaw Product Development, Global Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering and Quality. Before serving at Celgene, Joanne was SVP of Pharmaceutical Development at Shire. She held roles of increasing responsibility in Process Development at Genentech and Amgen and in Operations at Abbott’s Pharmaceutical and Vascular Divisions. Joanne holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Oregon Medical School and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Bhuyan is joining Aerium as the Chief Medical Officer and a member of the executive team. He previously served as Vice President, Head of Clinical Development for Infectious Disease at AstraZeneca. He has more than 20 years of experience within academia and industry notably leading clinical development of multiple established vaccines with indications spanning from neonates to older adults and special populations. Dr. Bhuyan most recently oversaw AstraZeneca’s COVID-19, RSV, Influenza and other programs which led to EUA and licensures covering 170+ countries for Vaxzevria (COVID vaccine), EUAs for Evusheld (long acting COVID mAb cocktail), and positive pivotal results in three trials supporting a best-in-class RSV mAb. He previously held key leadership roles in vaccines and clinical development at Pfizer, Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Merck where he has led the advancement of programs to Phase 3 and licensure. He notably led the US licensure studies of Trumenba (Meningitis B vaccine) and authored the Phase 3 development of Vaxelis (pediatric hexavalent vaccine). Dr. Bhuyan is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Pennsylvania where he completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases. He has an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Johns Hopkins University.

Kai Lin, Ph.D. is joining Aerium as the Head of Research and member of the executive team. Dr. Lin has more than 20 years of antiviral drug discovery and development experience in the pharmaceutical industry that contributed to 15 INDs and two NDAs. He is known as a strong scientific leader and virology expert with extensive knowledge on many viral pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, RSV, HBV and flaviviruses leading drug development of both small molecule and biologics (antibody, protein, siRNA). He most recently served as Vice President, Virology at Atea Pharmaceuticals, where he led antiviral drug discovery efforts with focus on SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), RSV and dengue, including compound screening, characterizing mechanism of action and resistance, preclinical IND enabling studies, and clinical virology support. Throughout his career, Dr. Lin has been heavily involved in developing therapeutic strategies and exploring external partnership and academic collaboration in his roles at Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Permeon Biologics, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Lin has a Ph.D. in biochemistry form the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor of science in biochemistry from Nankai University in China.

Dr. Albizem was previously Executive Director, Therapeutic Area Operations Leader at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals where he led global study management and clinical operations teams in various therapeutic areas. He was in charge of global clinical operations for the company’s COVID program which received an EUA within one year of initiation. Prior to Regeneron, Dr. Albizem held clinical operations leadership roles at Amgen and lncyte.

Dr. Heather Knight is the former Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Chimerix Inc., where she led the submission and approval of TEMBEXA (brincidofovir) for the treatment of smallpox and the clearance of an IND for Acute Lung Injury in patients with COVID. Dr. Knight was previously at Bristol Myers Squibb where she held roles in Global, U.S. and Europe. She led the global and US approvals of YERVOY (Ipilimumab), the first immuno-oncology agent. Prior to Bristol Myers Squibb, Dr. Knight’s US regulatory work at Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., included antiviral and oncology drugs. Dr. Knight holds a bachelor’s degree in biology, a doctor of pharmacy degree from West Virginia University and is a registered pharmacist in West Virginia.

Lisa Portney is a former Investment Banking Associate at Piper Sandler on the Biopharma team, where she advised on over $1.5bn in IPO and follow-on transactions. Prior to that, she worked at Biogen on the R&D Portfolio Transformation Team and in the Global Commercial Supply Chain organization. At Biogen, Lisa developed patient-focused drug development training for the entire R&D organization and was the Project Manager for the EU Imraldi launch in 2018. Prior to Biogen, Lisa worked at Shire in Drug Combination and Process Development. Lisa holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry from McGill University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Dr. Dean is the former Vice President of Discovery Research at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. She was previously Director of New Alliances at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, where she directed technology identification efforts across various international collaborative HIV vaccine projects. She has over twenty years of experience in vaccine development and virology, including R&D management, product development and project management. She has worked in biologics development since 2004, with a focus on international product development, technology evaluation, and regulatory, preclinical, and clinical development strategy.

Dr. Pantaleo is Professor of medicine at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he is Chief of the Laboratory of AIDS lmmunopathogenesis, and Chief of the Immunology & Allergy Division. His research focuses on viral immunopathogenesis, immune-based therapeutic strategies and vaccines, and T-cell functional analysis. He authored over400 publications and was honored with many prizes including the Pfizer Research Prize in Clinical Research in Infectious Diseases (1999), NIH Director’s Award (1996), NIH Award of Merit (1993), and Prix Cloetta (2000).

Dr. Trono is Professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he orchestrated the development of the School of Life Sciences and runs the Virology and Genetics Laboratory. Before this, he was Head of the Genetics and Microbiology Department at the University of Geneva after launching a center for AIDS research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego upon completion of his post-doctoral fellowship in David Baltimore’s lab at the Whitehead Institute of MIT. Dr. Trono’s research focuses on epigenetics and on virus-host interactions, and he authored over 240 publications. He is a former Pew Scholar, an elected member of EMBO, and the recipient of an NIH MERIT Award (1996) and of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (2019).

Dr. Venkayya is the former President of the Global Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he built and led a vertically integrated global business developing vaccines for dengue, norovirus, Zika and pandemic threats. Dr. Venkayya serves as an independent member of the board of CEPI and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. He was previously Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense at the White House, where he was the principal author of the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. He previously served as Director of Vaccine Delivery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program and on the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Dr. Stampacchia is Managing Director and founder of Omega Funds, where he leads the firm’s investor relations and strategic initiatives. He was responsible for Omega investments in pandemic preparedness across modalities, from mRNA vaccines (Translate Bio) to direct antivirals (Enanta, Atea) and antibodies (Adagio). Prior to founding Omega, he oversaw Life Science investments at Alplnvest Partners, one of the largest private equity asset managers worldwide. He was previously portfolio manager of the Lombard Odier Immunology Fund and worked on the HealthCare corporate finance and M&A team at Goldman Sachs.

Dr. Honig is currently a senior advisor to Blackstone Life Sciences, the Boston Consulting Group, and serves on several corporate and non-profit boards.  He is former Senior Vice President and Head of Global Regulatory Affairs and Group Head of Development China and Development Japan at Pfizer, where he led the global regulatory strategy for the company’s R&D portfolio including the recently approved SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Honig was the Head of Global Regulatory Affairs, Patient Safety and Quality Assurance at AstraZeneca, and served as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Regulatory Affairs and Product Safety at Merck Research Laboratories. Dr. Honig held several senior level positions in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation (CDER) and Research and was the first Director of the Office of Drug Safety.   He is a past President of American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) and is former PhRMA representative to the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) Management Committee.

Dr. Knight is currently President and Managing Partner at F-Prime Capital. He has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries for over 30 years and invests broadly across healthcare.  Dr. Knight serves on the Board of Directors of Atalanta Therapeutics, Ensoma, Genomics plc, Leyden Labs, Prime Medicine, Proof Diagnostics, Pulmocide and Skyline Therapeutics.  He previously served on the boards of several private and public health care companies including Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BEAM),  Blueprint Medicines (NASDAQ: BPMC), Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), FoldRx Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer), Innovent Biologics (1801.HK), Iora Health (acquired by One Medical), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IRWD), NextWave Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer), Proteostasis Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTI), Respivert, Ltd (acquired by J&J), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA) and Semma Therapeutics (acquired by Vertex).  Prior to joining F-Prime Capital, Dr. Knight held various senior management roles in private and public biotechnology and consulting companies.

Dr. Maraganore served as the founding CEO of Alnylam from 2002 to 2021, where he built and led the company from early platform research on RNA interference through global approval and commercialization of the first four RNAi therapeutic medicines. At Alnylam, he also led the company’s value creation strategy, building $25B in market capitalization, including over 20 major pharmaceutical alliances. Prior to Alnylam, he served as an officer for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the company’s product franchises in oncology, and cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic diseases, in addition to leadership of M&A, strategy, and biotherapeutics functions.

Dr. Ossipow is Partner at Omega Funds, where he focuses on European investments in the areas of oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and medtech. Previously, Dr. Ossipow worked with Sectoral Asset Management, a healthcare institutional investor, as a Partner for private investments. From 2000 to 2006 he was a research fellow at the University of Geneva, studying the molecular basis of brain function, and also acted as Sectoral Asset Management’s Chief Scientific Officer during this period. Previously, he worked at Pictet Bank as a research analyst for biotechnology equities and as a co-manager of the Pictet Biotech Fund, a $2 billion listed investment vehicle.

Dr. Powell is currently Executive Partner at Omega Funds.  He served as Managing General Partner at Sofinnova Investments since 1997 prior to joining Omega in 2021. Previously he was Group Leader at Genentech, where his focus was on drug delivery, CMC, and formulation of both small molecule and protein drug entities. Before this, he served as the Director of Product Development for Cytel Corp, a San Diego immunology biotech company. He was previously Board President of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, and past advisor to the Institute for One World Health, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has authored or co-authored 90 peer-reviewed publications, numerous book chapters, and the textbook, Vaccine Design.

Dr. Ramoni is a Swiss qualified Attorney-at-law specializing in advising and representing clients in the field of sports and business law. He is a founding partner of Libra Law, a Swiss boutique law firm based in Lausanne.

He regularly advises medium and large companies in their business activities; he notably handled numerous merger and acquisition operations for large clients, and regularly provides advise in the field of clinical trial and research collaboration agreements. In addition, he serves on the board of several companies and foundations, including the Swiss Vaccine Research Institute.