Biotheryx is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing a portfolio of innovative small molecule targeted protein degraders (TPDs) for the treatment of a wide range of diseases with an initial focus on cancer. Members of our founding and scientific teams previously developed the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved modulators of Cereblon, the most widely validated E3 ligase involved in protein degradation, and have applied their expertise in Cereblon binding to build our proprietary PRODEGY platform.
We are a purpose-driven team, passionate about leveraging our PRODEGY platform to discover and develop targeted protein degraders to address severe unmet patient needs. In doing so, we seek to build Biotheryx into a leader in next-generation targeted protein degradation.
Philippe Drouet joined Biotheryx as President and CEO in October 2021. Prior, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at CRISPR Therapeutics, where he shaped the strategy for the launch of the Company’s first allogeneic CAR-T therapies and helped lead the clinical development strategy for the Company’s Phase I clinical assets. Previously, Philippe served as Senior Vice President, Global Oncology at Merck & Co., where he launched and commercialized Keytruda®, drove substantial global oncology revenue and built and led the Company’s Global Oncology Marketing, Access and Pricing organization. Previously, he served as President of Hospira’s U.S. division before Hospira’s acquisition by Pfizer in 2015. Philippe also held roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, including Vice President U.S. Hematology, General Manager Oncology in Turkey, Global Brand Leader for Gleevec® and Head of Oncology Marketing in Canada. Philippe received an M.S. and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from McGill University in Canada and an M.B.A. from INSEAD in France.
Dr. Zung Thai joined Biotheryx as Chief Medical Officer in January 2020. He has held leadership roles at small and large biopharmaceutical companies, including Amgen, Gilead Sciences, Atara, Arresto, Anza and REMD Biotherapeutics, where he led the development of small molecule and protein therapeutics in metabolism, oncology and fibrotic diseases. Dr. Thai earned an A.B. from Cornell University and M.D./Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was a fellow and clinical instructor in the department of clinical pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco, and a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Leah Fung joined Biotheryx as Chief Scientific Officer in 2014 and was pivotal in the design and implementation of the Company’s PRODEGY protein degradation platform. As Chief Scientific Officer, she oversees drug discovery and the strategic expansion of Biotheryx’s pipeline. She created Biotheryx’s Cereblon binder library and directed research that resulted in 25 issued U.S. patents covering an extensive range of small molecules, including Biotheryx’s BTX-1188 molecular glue. Prior, Dr. Fung served as Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at NovoMedix, where she led drug discovery research efforts to discover antifibrotic and breast cancer development candidates entering into IND-enabling studies. Dr. Fung was also Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Structural Genomix and Assistant Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Structural Bioinformatics. At both companies, she led multi-disciplinary research teams to discover novel cancer therapeutics using fragment-based approaches for lead discovery, as well as crystallography and computational methods for lead optimization. Dr. Fung also held leadership positions at Signal Pharmaceuticals and Celgene. Notably, her research at Celgene led to a selective estrogen receptor modulator co-developed by Novartis and advanced into clinical studies for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. Dr. Fung was among leading scientists who pioneered high-throughput parallel synthesis technologies and combinatorial chemistries and has authored or co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications. Additionally, she is co-inventor on more than 40 issued U.S. patents and hundreds of international patents. Dr. Fung received her B.S. in chemistry from Azusa Pacific University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine.
Jeff Caravella joined Biotheryx as Chief Financial Officer in April 2022. Jeff is responsible for all aspects of the Company’s financial operations, including the development and execution of Biotheryx’s financial and corporate strategy. He previously served as Vice President of Finance at Tango Therapeutics, where he played a key role in the completion of their public offering and designed, built and led the finance and accounting organization. Prior, he held finance roles across commercial, business development and operations functions at other publicly held companies, including Editas Medicine, Charles River Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson. During his 10-year tenure at Johnson and Johnson, Jeff spent two years as the Head of Finance for the J&J Boston Innovation Center, where he led the assessment and strategy for multiple successful business development and licensing deals across the J&J business. Jeff earned his M.B.A. and B.S. from Syracuse University.
Sahm Nasseri joined Biotheryx as Chief Business Officer in January 2022. Sahm is responsible for the Company’s business development, corporate strategy, corporate development and program management functions. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of PYC Therapeutics, where he was instrumental in building out the Company’s U.S. presence and preclinical, clinical and corporate development teams. Prior, Sahm worked at Merck & Co. for seven years as a leader across business development, investor relations and corporate strategy functions involving extensive commercial drug development experience. During this time, he led global strategy for Merck’s growing oncology organization and served as interim Vice President and Global Product Leader for Merck’s HPV Vaccines. Before Merck, Sahm was a Strategy Consultant with McKinsey & Company in Australia. Sahm holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of New South Wales in Sydney and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in New York City.
Dr. Aparajita Hoskote Chourasia joined Biotheryx in 2017 as a Senior Director of Biology and became Vice President of Biology in October 2021. Aparajita leads the biology effort for development of targeted protein degraders at Biotheryx. She has been instrumental in identifying targets and establishing assays to assist in drug discovery efforts and has contributed to the development of the Company’s intellectual property. She has accrued expertise in molecular pathways in cancer, tumor metabolism, tumor models, inflammation and assay development while working at Veridex (a Johnson & Johnson company), Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and the Brigham and Women Hospital (teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School). Dr. Chourasia earned her Ph.D. in cancer biology from the University of Chicago, where her research focused on the tumor suppressive function of BNIP3 mediated mitochondrial autophagy in mammary and pancreatic tumorigenesis and its potential as a critical biomarker for early-stage disease diagnosis. Her work led to successful NIH-funded research awards and peer reviewed research articles and reviews. Dr. Chourasia received an M.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and an M.S. in translational science from Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Nancy Miller-Rich has 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry, with significant expertise in business development and commercial strategy. Since September 2017, Ms. Miller-Rich has served as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, Ms. Miller-Rich served in a number of leadership roles at Merck & Co., Inc. and, prior to the merger of the two companies, at Schering-Plough Corporation, including most recently as Senior Vice President, Global Human Health Business Development & Licensing, Strategy and Commercial Support from November 2013 to September 2017 and as Group Vice President, Consumer Care Global New Ventures and Strategic Commercial Development from January 2007 to November 2013. Prior to joining Schering-Plough in 1990, Ms. Miller-Rich served in a variety of commercial and marketing roles at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals and Sterling Drug, Inc. She is currently a director of Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc., Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Kadmon Holdings, Inc. and 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Inc., as well as a board member of a number of private and not-for-profit entities. She received her B.S. in Business Administration, Marketing from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.
Philippe Drouet joined Biotheryx as President and CEO in October 2021. Prior, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at CRISPR Therapeutics, where he shaped the strategy for the launch of the Company’s first allogeneic CAR-T therapies and helped lead the clinical development strategy for the Company’s Phase I clinical assets. Previously, Philippe served as Senior Vice President, Global Oncology at Merck & Co., where he launched and commercialized Keytruda®, drove substantial global oncology revenue and built and led the Company’s Global Oncology Marketing, Access and Pricing organization. Previously, he served as President of Hospira’s U.S. division before Hospira’s acquisition by Pfizer in 2015. Philippe also held roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, including Vice President U.S. Hematology, General Manager Oncology in Turkey, Global Brand Leader for Gleevec® and Head of Oncology Marketing in Canada. Philippe received an M.S. and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from McGill University in Canada and an M.B.A. from INSEAD in France.
Dr. Rajeev Dadoo is a Managing Partner of SR One based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He joined SR One in 2004 and is an alum of the Kauffman Fellows Program. He has leveraged his broad operational and strategic experience to invest in a number of successful companies, both in the therapeutics space and in healthcare technology. His prior roles have included working in the Competitive Excellence group at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on various global projects and at Genentech in technology and clinical development. He has also held product development and business development roles at Bio-Rad Laboratories and Genome Therapeutics. Dr. Dadoo received his B.A. from Knox College, his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University.
Diantha Duvall is an experienced financial and business leader in the life sciences sector who currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Genocea, a leading cancer immunotherapy company. Prior to joining Genocea in 2019, Ms. Duvall held several positions of increasing responsibility including Vice President, Controller, Chief Accounting Officer at Bioverativ, Inc., U.S., Global Commercial Controller at Biogen and Executive Director at Merck and Co. While at Merck, her experiences spanned roles in venture investment, business development, joint ventures and alliances, as well as operational controls and technical accounting. In addition, she gained extensive experience in SEC reporting, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, transaction support and risk management while at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Duvall received a B.S. in economics and public policy from Colby College and an M.S. in accounting and an M.B.A. from Northeastern University. Ms. Duvall is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in the state of Massachusetts.
Dr. John Hohneker brings 30 years of drug development and leadership experience within the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. He most recently served as President and CEO of Anokion and currently serves on the boards of Evelo Biosciences, Aravive, Trishula Therapeutics and Cygnal Therapeutics.
Prior to Anokion, he was President of Research and Development at FORMA Therapeutics Inc., where he guided the Company’s transition from a discovery-stage biotech to one with multiple programs in clinical trials. Prior to FORMA, he held leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis AG, most recently as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Development for Immunology and Dermatology, where he led the development and registration of Cosentyx® and Ilaris®. During his tenure at Novartis, Dr. Hohneker also played a key role in the development, approval and commercialization of several products, including Gleevec®, Tasigna®, Zometa®, Afinitor® and Exjade®. Prior to joining Novartis, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Glaxo Wellcome and its legacy company, Burroughs Wellcome. He received a B.A. from Gettysburg College and an M.D. from Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences (formerly the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Rutgers Medical School). He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine and his fellowship in medical oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jack Noelke serves as a Principal at MSD Partners with a focus on structured investments and biotechnology. Prior to joining MSD in 2017, he worked as an investment analyst at T. Rowe Price, specializing in growth-oriented public equities and venture capital. He was previously an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Noelke earned his B.A., cum laude, from Williams College.
Dr. David Stirling was a Co-Founder of Celgene, and its former Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President, Pharmaceutical Research & Development. He was responsible for initiating the Thalidomide Clinical and Research Program, which led to Celgene’s first clinical product, Thalomid®. Under Dr. Stirling’s leadership, the blockbuster franchise of Thalomid® derivatives (Revlimid®, Pomalyst® and Otezla®) were developed, and these have played a major role in propelling Celgene into the top-tier of public biotechnology companies worldwide. Prior to joining Celgene, Dr. Stirling held various scientific and management positions within the biotechnology group of Celanese Research Company, from which Celgene was spun off. Dr. Stirling received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Warwick in England, where he studied the industrial applications of novel oxygenase enzymes. Dr. Stirling is the author of numerous publications and holds over 30 U.S. patents.
Dr. Aaron Ciechanover is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Following national service as military physician (1973-1976), he continued his studies to obtain a D.Sc., Technion in 1982. There, as a graduate student with Dr. Avram Hershko, they discovered that covalent attachment of ubiquitin to a target protein signals it for degradation. As a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Harvey Lodish at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he continued his studies on the ubiquitin system and made additional important discoveries. Over the years, it has become clear that ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis plays major roles in numerous cellular processes, and aberrations in the system underlie the pathogenetic mechanisms of many diseases, among them certain malignancies and neurodegenerative disorders. Consequently, the system has become an important platform for drug development. Among the numerous prizes Ciechanover received are the 2000 Albert Lasker Award, 2003 Israel Prize and the 2004 Nobel Prize (chemistry, shared with Drs. Hershko and Rose). Among many academies, Dr. Ciechanover is member of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences and Humanities, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Foreign Fellow), American Philosophical Society, U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academies (Foreign Associate), and the Russian Academy of Sciences (Foreign Member). He received his M.Sc. and M.D. from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Dr. David Komander is Head of the Ubiquitin Signaling Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. He worked as a Beit Memorial Fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, before starting a prolific lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge UK (2008-18). The Komander lab has developed various methods to interrogate the complexity in the ubiquitin code and uncovered the molecular basis for specificity in the ubiquitin system in E3 ligases, ubiquitin binding domains and deubiquitinases (DUBs), discovering unappreciated linkage preferences in OTU DUBs, new human enzymes including OTULIN and establishing DUBs as drug targets. In the last few years, his lab has structurally characterized all key components mediating the ubiquitin-dependent degradation of mitochondria via PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy, providing the molecular underpinning of early-onset parkinsonism. At WEHI, David now also has access to state-of-the-art facilities to interrogate ubiquitin enzymes at the physiological level, and to develop small molecule probes and inhibitors to enable drug discovery. David is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), and a Lister Fellow. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Dundee.
Dr. Robert Orlowski is Chairman, Ad Interim, Director of Myeloma and Professor of Medicine in the Departments of Lymphoma/Myeloma and Professor, Experimental Therapeutics, Division of Cancer Medicine, at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. Dr. Orlowski has published numerous book chapters, articles and abstracts on cancer therapy, with a focus on the molecular pathogenesis of oncologic disease processes and the mechanisms of action of chemotherapeutics. Dr. Orlowski earned his Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine.
Dr. Kevan Shokat is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Shokat’s research group is focused on the discovery of new small molecule tools and drug candidates targeting protein/lipid kinases, GTPases and RNA helicases. His laboratory utilizes the tools of synthetic organic chemistry, protein engineering, structural biology, biochemistry and cell biology. He was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences (2010), the National Academy of Medicine (2011) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011). He has commercialized discoveries from his laboratory through co-founding several biotechnology companies, including Intellikine, Araxes, Wellspring Biosciences, Kura Oncology, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Mitokinin, Revolution Medicines and Kumquat Biosciences. He received his B.A. in chemistry from Reed College and Ph.D. in organic chemistry at University of California, Berkeley with Professor Peter Schultz, and he carried out post-doctoral work in cellular immunology at Stanford University with Professor Chris Goodnow.
Dr. Peter Walter is a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), serving as Department Chair from 2001 until 2008. At UCSF, Dr. Walter and his team are identifying the machinery and mechanisms that ensure proper protein synthesis, folding and targeting, as well as the pathways that allow organelles to communicate and regulate their abundance. Since 1997, Dr. Walter has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is the 2016 President of the American Society of Cell Biology and an elected member of several prestigious scientific societies, such as the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). He is a co-author of the textbooks Molecular Biology of the Cell and Essential Cell Biology, two of the world’s most widely used standard works in the field of molecular cell biology. Among the many awards he has received are the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, Passano Award, Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, Stein & Moore Award from the Protein Society, Gairdner Award, E.B. Wilson Medal from the American Society of Cell Biology, Otto Warburg Medal from the German Biochemical Society, the Jung Prize and the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, Shaw Prize, Lasker Award, Vilcek Prize, Breakthrough Prize and UCSF Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. Dr. Walter holds an M.S. in organic chemistry from Vanderbilt University and later went to the Rockefeller.
Dr. Brenda Schulman is Director of the Department of Molecular Machines and Signaling at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Honorary Professor at Technical University of Munich and adjunct faculty at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Schulman’s research group studies biochemical mechanisms underlying regulation by ubiquitin and autophagy pathways. Her lab has developed methods and tools to probe fleeting intermediates in ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like protein transfer cascades, and implemented them to determine the structural mechanisms of major families of E3 ligases, with a particular focus on dynamic multiprotein complexes including cullin-RING E3 ligases. Dr. Schulman is an elected member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), and the German National Academy Leopoldina and has been recognized by awards including most recently the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine. Dr. Schulman received her Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studying protein folding with Peter Kim before developing an interest in the regulation of protein degradation during her postdoctoral studies first at Mass General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center with Dr. Ed Harlow, and then at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with Nikola Pavletich.
