BREAKING NEWS: Wall Street Journal article puts spotlight on the potential of new anticoagulants taking fresh aim at one of cardiology’s toughest challenges.
BREAKING NEWS: Wall Street Journal article puts spotlight on the potential of new anticoagulants taking fresh aim at one of cardiology’s toughest challenges.
Observer Board Member
Dr. Vasilisa (Vaska) Sazonov is an Observer to the Board of Directors at Anthos Therapeutics. Vaska brings over two decades of comprehensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with a diverse skill set across commercial operations, strategy development, general management, market access and health outcomes research, both in Commercial and R&D divisions.
Currently Vaska is the Head of the Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic (CRM) Commercial team at Novartis International. She plays a pivotal role in steering the company’s CRM strategy for the international business, bridging science and commercialization throughout the product lifecycle, and co-creating a future-focused cardiovascular portfolio. She brings broad experience in cardiovascular diseases (such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, atrial fibrillation and heart failure) from her time at Merck & Co. (MSD), as well as overseeing programs in complement-driven renal diseases at Novartis. Vaska has been with Novartis for the past two and a half years, initially as the head of Global Access and Therapy Area Policy, and later, as the global head of the eXploratory Therapy Area that included renal, ophthalmology, and acute/critical care portfolios.
Prior to working at Novartis, Vaska held key leadership roles at AbbVie, Allergan, and spent 15 years at Merck & Co. She has had a number of global, regional and local roles leading pipeline strategy, global market access and pricing, customer solutions, and she was the general manager of MSD Slovenia. Vaska has a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Economics from Purdue University, a Master’s in Health Economics from the University of York and a PharmD from the University of Ljubljana. She has published and lectured widely on such topics as access to medicines and innovative private-public partnerships. Vaska lives outside London with her husband and two children.
Senior Administrative & Operations Coordinator
Alyssa has over 7 years of experience in business & people operations, including human resource development, team culture management, event planning, and leading special projects. Prior to her role with Anthos Therapeutics, she was the Operations Manager for a predictive analytics company where she resolved cross-functional hurdles, delivered exceptional support, and contributed to a number of strategic initiatives.
Alyssa graduated from Curry College in 2015 with a degree in Education and a minor in Psychology.
CEO
Bill Meury is the CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Anthos Therapeutics.
Before joining Anthos Therapeutics, Bill served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Boston-based neuroscience company Karuna Therapeutics, where he led the company through a period of rapid expansion, and a transition to a fully integrated R&D and commercial organization. Within this role, he oversaw the successful execution of large phase three development programs for multiple indications, a timely NDA submission, two early-stage product acquisitions, and a follow-on public offering.
Prior to Karuna, Bill was Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Allergan, where he was responsible for multiple global business units spanning 50 products and over $16B in revenue. He has extensive expertise in strategic planning, P&L management, commercialization, G&A operations, and business development, covering a wide range of therapeutic areas, including neuropsychiatry, gastroenterology and cardiology.
Bill has also been a partner at Hildred Capital Management, a private equity firm focused on the healthcare industry. He currently serves on the board of directors of Syndax Pharmaceuticals and the JED Foundation.
Founder and Principal Consultant, Apollo Biologics
Dr. Cullen is founder and principal at Apollo Biologics which helps clients with all phases of biologics drug development and regulatory strategy across a variety of therapeutic applications.
Bringing more than 25 years of experience with large pharma and emerging biotechnology firms, Dr. Cullen has a practical, hands-on approach to drug development. Advising clients on how to develop successful regulatory strategies, then working with diverse teams throughout the approval lifecycle from IND through BLA. She brings a proven track-record of successful CMC submissions for marketed products.
Dr. Cullen earned her Ph.D from the University of Cincinnati and holds a B.S. in Microbiology from Miami University.
Prior to starting Apollo Biologics, Dr. Cullen held positions in product leadership, led large bioanalytical laboratory groups and biologics drug development teams with firms such as Coherus Biosciences, Schering-Plough and Merck.
Sr. Managing Director, Blackstone;
Member of the Board of Directors, Anthos Therapeutics
Ari Brettman is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December 2018. Mr. Brettman joined Clarus in September 2014.
Dr. Brettman is focused on investments across the firm’s portfolio, including startups and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Clarus, Dr. Brettman completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Brettman was also an NIH-sponsored post-doctoral fellow at the MGH Center for Systems Biology, where he studied the autophagy of lipid droplets and used electronic medical record-based big data analytics at Partners Healthcare to conduct clinical research and improve disease management. Dr. Brettman is a member of the Board of Directors of Praxis Precision Medicines, a startup in genetically defined neuropsychiatric disorders.
Dr. Brettman received his M.D. from Duke University and his AB in History and Science from Harvard College. While a medical student, he was a Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation Fellow at Stanford University, where he studied angiogenesis.
Sr. Managing Director, Blackstone;
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Anthos Therapeutics
Nicholas Galakatos is the Global Head of Life Sciences and is the Chairman of its Investment Committee, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December 2018.
Prior to joining Blackstone, Dr. Galakatos was a co-Founder and Managing Director of Clarus since the firm’s inception in 2005. Dr. Galakatos has over 30 years of industry and investment experience in the healthcare sector and has led investments in biotechnology, pharmaceutical company partnerships, and diagnostics, from startups to commercial-stage companies. Before Clarus, Dr. Galakatos was a General Partner at MPM Capital, a healthcare venture capital firm. From 1997 to 2000 he was Vice President of New Business at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (presently Takeda) and a member of the Management Team. He is a founder of Millennium Predictive Medicine and TransForm Pharmaceuticals, where he was the Chairman and founding CEO. Dr. Galakatos is the Chairman of Anthos Therapeutics and a member of the Board of Directors of Talaris, Inc (NASDAQ: TALS) and BioMed Realty. He is a member of the Director’s Council of the Koch Institute at MIT and a member of the Board of Trustees at Reed College.
Dr. Galakatos earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from MIT and performed his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School. He earned his undergraduate degree at Reed College. Listen to thoughts from Nicholas Galakatos on the potential of Anthos Therapeutics:
“Big Bets on Biotech – CNBC Healthy Returns Summit with Nicholas Galakatos”
SVP, Clinical Operations
Debra Freedholm is VP Clinical Operations at Anthos Therapeutics.
Ms. Freedholm is a clinical and business operations executive with more than 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of leadership roles across Clinical Research, Clinical Operations, Business Operations and Corporate Licensing at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMS) and Merck (NYSE: MRK).
Ms. Freedholm has extensive experience in building new organizations in diverse areas across pharma, academic institutions and private industry. Most recently, Ms. Freedholm was Vice President, Clinical Trial Solutions at Axiom Law.
Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Ms. Freedholm spent 10 years as an ICU Nurse, Research Study Coordinator and Head Nurse of a Clinical Research Center. Ms. Freedholm has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Nursing from Gustavus Adolphus College and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has authored several peer-reviewed scientific papers and a text book chapter in the field of endocrinology and drug safety.
Program Manager
Dr. Erika Dahl is the Program Manager for Regulatory and Technical Operations at Anthos Therapeutics.
Dr. Dahl has over 5 years of cross-functional program management experience. Dr. Dahl was previously a Lead Consultant in Strategy and Program Leadership at Halloran Consulting Group providing program management leadership for cross-functional teams in early and late-stage clinical development programs.
Dr. Dahl holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota.
Executive Director, Clinical Development
Arkadi Chines was born and raised in Kaunas, Lithuania where he received his medical degree from Kaunas Medical Academy. He trained in internal medicine in Israel and endocrinology at Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis. After a successful career in academic medicine, Arkadi joined the pharma industry. Over 27 years in drug development, Arkadi worked at P&G, Wyeth/Pfizer, and Amgen, and made important contributions to the development and successful marketing approval of several drugs in the space of women’s health, metabolic bone diseases and tissue repair.
Arkadi has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and, prior to COVID, attended a teaching endocrine clinic as a volunteer faculty at UCLA VA Medical Center.
Arkadi is residing in Westlake Village, California and will be coming to Cambridge for team meetings.
Dr. Peter Renehan is an Observer to the Board of Directors at Anthos Therapeutics. Dr. Renehan is a Principal on the Blackstone Life Sciences team. He was previously an investment banking Associate in Lazard’s San Francisco office, where he focused on biopharma mergers and acquisitions. His experience prior to Lazard includes working in corporate strategy at Moderna Therapeutics and Flagship Pioneering. Dr. Renehan graduated with dual MD/MBA degrees from Harvard University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia.
Dr. Richard C. Pasternak has spent the last 37 years as an academic and biopharmaceutical clinician-scientist. He is currently a Clinical Professor (Dept of Medicine) at the Weill Cornell Medical College, , and is a strategic consultant. He has served on multiple Boards and presently is on the Boards of Cerenis Therapeutics (now ABIONYX Pharma) (Board Chairman; Chair, compensation committee), where he also served as CEO 2018-19, Anthos Therapeutics (Clinical Committee), and Magenta Medical Ltd.(Chair, Compensation Committee).
Dr. Pasternak retired from Merck and Co. in 2010, where he had been Vice President, Clinical Research and Head Cardiovascular Therapeutic Area (2004-2008), and Vice President, Head of Global Scientific Affairs and Scientific Leadership (2008-2010). He served as a key senior executive in a communications role for Merck regarding critical issues related to worldwide scientific affairs. Dr. Pasternak worked on key strategic business development issues, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, and political affairs; and he was also a senior management policy liaison for medical and scientific issues.
Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Pasternak was Director of Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, having been on the Harvard faculty since 1983. He received his B.A. and M.D. from Yale University and completed his medical and cardiology training at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Pasternak has had a long-standing research interest in vascular disease, lipid disorders and atherosclerosis, as well as in epidemiology, prevention, and patterns of practice and disease management. He was a member of the NIH’s Coordinating Committee of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and of the third Adult Treatment Panel (ATP III), has served on many national and international committees, and has published and spoken extensively.
Greg Norden is the former Chief Financial Officer of Wyeth and has been a member of our board since 2019. Mr Norden also serves on the Boards of Zoetis, the leading animal health company; Royalty Pharma, a leading funder of innovation across the biopharmaceutical industry, NanoString, a leading provider of life science tools for translational research, and Praxis, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. Mr Norden is a former director of Human Genome Sciences, Univision and WelchAllyn. In addition, Mr Norden is the Managing Director of G9 Capital Group, LLC, which invests in early stage ventures and provides corporate finance advisory services.
Dr. Mike Exton is an Observer to the Board of Directors at Anthos Therapeutics. Mike is a distinguished commercial leader with more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and healthcare venture capital. Since becoming Global Head of Cardiovascular at Novartis, Mike has been driving global product strategies, bridging science and commercialization very early in the product lifecycle, and co-creating a future-focused, competitive cardiovascular portfolio. He brings extensive experience in cardiovascular having previously led the US cardiovascular business for five years, overseeing programs in heart failure, atherosclerosis, and complement driven renal diseases. Mike has been with Novartis for 12 years, initially leading the Neuroscience business in Australia. He was later appointed Head of Neuroscience for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, in Switzerland. He then became Managing Director and Country President in Taiwan.
Prior to Novartis, Mike spent 10 years at Eli Lilly and Company, during which time, he worked in medical affairs, business development, marketing, including venture[1]capital during a year with Lilly Ventures. Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, Mike was an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Essen Medical School in Germany. Mike was an Alexander von Humboldt Scholar with a PhD in Immunology from University of Essen, Germany, and a PhD in Neuroscience from University of Newcastle, Australia. Mike also holds an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School. Mike lives in New York and is a passionate advocate for innovation and access to medicines.
Dr. Raymond Camahort is an Observer to the Board of Directors at Anthos Therapeutics. Ray is a Partner at Novo Holdings Venture Investments. He has over 15 years of combined investment, business, and research experience, with expertise in biochemistry, genetics, and gene therapy/editing. Prior to joining Novo Ventures, Ray worked in business development at the Harvard University Office of Technology Development where his role was to facilitate commercialization of technologies developed in the chemistry and stem cell/regenerative biology departments.
Ray has served on the Board of Directors of numerous companies, including Arcellx, Inspirna, iECURE, and Riva Therapeutics. He completed a National Institute of Health post-doctoral training fellowship at Harvard University and was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in biochemistry and molecular biology and a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of California Santa Barbara.
Scott Beardsley is a member of the Board of Directors of Anthos Therapeutics.
Mr. Beardsley joined Novo Ventures (US) Inc. in San Francisco, California in 2012. Previously, he was a board member of Aerocrine AB.
From 2009-2012, Mr. Beardsley was part of Novo A/S’ Growth Equity team. Prior to joining Novo A/S he was a Managing Director at JP Morgan in San Francisco, heading the firm’s West Coast biopharmaceuticals effort. Prior to that, Mr. Beardsley led Piper Jaffray’s US biopharmaceuticals investment banking practice and was a member of the Health Care Group at Montgomery Securities. During his tenure as an investment banker, Mr. Beardsley originated and executed numerous transactions.
Mr. Beardsley holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management and a BS from Colorado State University.
Founder & Senior Consultant at MYRA Life Science Services
Internist and Cardiologist by education, Dr Khder also holds a Master in Clinical Pharmacology, a Master in Evaluation of Actions of Public Health and Ph.D in Human Science from the Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy, France.
After having worked as a non-invasive cardiologist and a clinical research physician for 4 years in the Hospital and in the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Dr Khder moved to the Pharmaceutical Industry and led early stage and late stage projects in hypertension, heart failure, acute coronary syndromes, thromboembolic diseases, atherosclerosis, kidney protection and inflammatory diseases; his last role in Novartis was a Global Program Medical Director at Global Clinical Development, consecutively for MAA868 (abelacimab), MOR106 and LOU064 (remibrutinib). Dr Khder is the founder and Snr life science consultant at MYRA LSS.
Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Patient Experience
Drew is the Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Patient Experience at Anthos Therapeutics. Mr. Young brings with him more than 25 years of commercial and general management leadership experience across multiple specialty therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic disease.
For more than two decades, Drew has had the privilege of being part of highly motivated teams whose sole mission has been to bring innovative therapies to market for patients in need. In collaboration with other members of the Anthos Therapeutics team, Mr. Young will be responsible for expanding the knowledge base for Factor XI inhibition; building a value story to help support how this emerging class of agents may represent a paradigm shift as hemostasis sparing anticoagulants; and creating a commercialization strategy for Anthos Therapeutics lead investigational agent, abelacimab.
Mr. Young has spent the last two-plus decades in roles of increasing responsibility in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, primarily in senior roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb and EMD Serono / Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Mr. Young graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada with a degree in Economics, where he was also a recipient of the Scarlet Key Award for outstanding student leadership.
Office Operations & Events Manager
Jessica Patrick Seabrook is the Office Operations & Events Manager at Anthos Therapeutics.
Ms. Patrick Seabrook has nearly 20 years of experience in event planning, business operations & communications management. Before entering the BIO world in 2018 as Senior Manager of Culture & Operations for Oncorus, she spent the previous decade as the COO for the MGH Center for Law, Brain & Behavior and in management of a forensic psychiatry practice. Patrick Seabrook has also served as Operations Manager & Communications Liaison for the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area Partnership Office, and began her post-collegiate career in NYC as a Special Events Coordinator at Buckley Hall Events.
She graduated from Trinity University in 2002 with a Communication major and minors in Political Science and Communication Management.
Director of Clinical Operations
Janeen Salter is the Director of Clinical Operations. Janeen is an RN with over 18 years of study management and performance management experience, most recently, as a Clinical Science Expert for NIBR. During her tenure at NIBR and Novartis Pharma, she managed small and large molecule development across phases I-III in multiple therapeutic areas and established and managed KPIs and performance for the development organization. Importantly, Janeen has in-depth knowledge of abelacimab and was the Study Lead on the abelacimab early development studies conducted by Novartis.
Chief Technical and Regulatory Officer
Dr. Nikhil Mehta is the Head of Regulatory, Quality and Technical Operations at Anthos Therapeutics.
Dr. Mehta has over 25 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience in Drug Development and Regulatory Affairs. He played a key role in the establishment of two biopharmaceutical companies, Odonate Therapeutics and Sentier Therapeutics and in the approval of several important therapeutic products including Keytruda, Erbitux, Adynovate, Vonvendi, Obizur, Elaprase, Vpriv, and Firazyr. Dr. Mehta previously served as Executive VP and Managing Director at Tang Capital Management, SVP and Global Head of Regulatory Affairs at Baxalta, VP of Regulatory Affairs at Merck & Company, and VP Regulatory Affairs at Shire.
Dr. Mehta holds a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University.
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. McIntyre is the Chief Financial Officer of Anthos Therapeutics. He has 2 decades of executive experience in the life sciences sector, having held various C-suite level roles at public and private healthcare entities, including HeartWare® International, Inc., AVITA Therapeutics, Inc., Tessa Therapeutics, Inc., and Braeburn, Inc.
Mr. McIntyre’s experience additionally includes nearly ten years as a Partner at Apple Tree Partners, a multi-billion-dollar life science venture capital and growth equity fund. Prior to entering life sciences, he practiced as a senior attorney at Baker & McKenzie and KPMG specialising in M&A, initial public offerings, and corporate law and also held various senior finance roles in both multi-national companies and small growth companies.
Mr. McIntyre has significant experience in the areas of capital raising, M&A, accounting/corporate finance, audit and risk, operations, strategy, and risk management.
Mr. McIntyre holds a Bachelor of Economics (Accounting) from the University of Sydney, Australia, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Masters in Business Administration from Duke University Fuqua School of Business (Fuqua Scholar) from Durham, North Carolina, USA. Mr. McIntyre is a Certified Practising Accountant and is also admitted as a legal practitioner of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and of the High Court of Australia.
VP Finance, Human Resources & Corporate Treasurer
Lynn Mallett is the VP Finance, Human Resources & Corporate Treasurer at Anthos Therapeutics.
Ms. Mallett is a finance and business operations executive with over 20 years experience in finance leadership roles in the life sciences industry and over 25 years of collective experience in finance and accounting.
Prior to joining Anthos Therapeutics, Ms. Mallett served as Consulting VP Finance for multiple biotech startup’s in the Boston area, including Beam Therapeutics & Neurobo Pharmaceuticals, playing a key role in supporting their build and establishing financial & operational capability needed to support the build and subsequent growth. Prior to that, Ms. Mallett served as CFO at Hemanext; Head of Finance, R&D and Head of Finance, Biosimilars Commercial at Baxalta (the spinout of Baxter Healthcare’s Bioscience Division). Prior to that, Ms. Mallett spent many years at Pfizer where she held various finance leadership positions supporting the Clinical Development organization.
Ms. Mallett has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business and an MS in Management from Eastern Nazarene College.
Corporate Controller
Ms. Lundholm has over a decade of accounting experience, including a mix of both public accounting and industry specific experience, primarily focused in the life sciences area. Ms. Lundholm began her career as an auditor with KPMG LLP, working with clients in various industries. Following KPMG and prior to joining Anthos, Ms. Lundholm spent several years working at Sebela Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (formerly Braintree Laboratories, Inc.), a company focused on the development, manufacturing, and marketing of pharmaceutical drugs, most recently in her role as Accounting Manager.
Ms. Lundholm holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Accounting) from the University of Richmond and a Master of Science in Accounting from the University of Connecticut. Ms. Lundholm is a Certified Public Accountant licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Vice President, Clinical Development
Bruce Hug is a Vice President of Clinical Development at Anthos Therapeutics.
Bruce began his pharmaceutical career in 2005 and has clinical development experience from Phase I through Phase III in hematology and oncology working in positions of increasing responsibility. Past experience includes leading, as the Program Director, the successful US BLA and sBLA submissions of a 4-factor prothrombin complex concentrate for urgent reversal of vitamin K antagonists.
Bruce has a BS in Biology from the University of Illinois and MD and PhD degrees from Washington University. He completed residency and fellowship training at the University of Pennsylvania in Clinical Pathology. He subsequently joined the Penn faculty as an Assistant Professor, performing independent, NHLBI-funded research and attending on the Transfusion Medicine service.
Head, Project Management
Gi Gi Galiano is the Head of Project Management at Anthos Therapeutics.
Gi Gi possesses 30 years of industry experience spanning the clinical, diagnostic, biotech, pharma, healthcare and precision medicine sectors, with extensive experience in Project Management, Operations, talent and relationship management and change management. Gi Gi also has a strong track record of leadership, building and coaching highly functioning teams.
Gi Gi’s experience includes her role at Sema4 where she served as Vice President, Health Systems Delivery, responsible for establishing operational command and relationship management for the partner health systems and for leading the infrastructure build and delivery plans. Prior to that, Gi Gi re-joined Merck as Director, Foundational Automation and then as Interim Lead of Foundational Automation, leading the overall strategy, budget process and talent management. Earlier in her career, she served as Director of Global Project Management for Merck, where she fundamentally changed the talent pipeline, managed drug development programs and successfully led many strategic IT and Operational initiatives. Gi Gi’s site experience includes six years at Mount Sinai’s Icahn Institute for Data Science & Genomic Technology as the Senior Director of Operations, leading the PMO, IT, HR, Operations, EH&S, Administrative and Space management.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from Cook College, Rutgers University and a Master of Science degree in Molecular Biology from Georgian Court University. She is a certified Project Management Professional.
Head of Technical Operations
Mike has over 35 years of bioprocessing experience, including process development, tech transfer, process validation, manufacturing technical support, and CMC regulatory support. Prior to joining Anthos Therapeutics, he was the Manufacturing Sciences Purification Group Leader at AbbVie Bioresearch Center in Worcester, MA, where his group provided technical support for a broad range of AbbVie and third party products, including monoclonal antibodies, enzymes, fusion proteins, and antibody drug conjugates. Prior to that role Mike supported world-wide Humira manufacturing as the Technical Operations Purification Group Leader at AbbVie’s biologics manufacturing site in Puerto Rico. Mike started his bioprocessing career supporting the development, optimization and commercial manufacturing of microbial process for antibiotics, antifungals, bioinsecticides and plant growth regulators.
Mike has a B.S. in Chemistry from Franklin & Marshall College and a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Colorado State University.
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Jonathan Freeman, Ph.D. is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Anthos Therapeutics.
Dr. Freeman is a Blackstone Life Sciences Senior Advisor and has over 20 years of practical industry experience within the healthcare private equity, start-up, business development, corporate development, and M&A sectors. Dr. Freeman previously served as Senior Vice President of Strategy / Portfolio Management, and Head of Business Development and Licensing at Merck KgaA (FWB: MRK); CBO, Vedanta Biosciences (LSE: PRTC); Head of M&A and Licensing at Baxter International (NYSE: BAX); and Director of Corporate Development at Serono (NYSE: SRA).
Dr. Freeman received a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Metabolism from the ICRF (now CRUK), an MBA jointly from the Universities of Versailles, Paris-Saclay, and Webster, St Louis, and both an MA and First-Class BA (Hons) from Cambridge University. Jonathan was previously Vice President of the Swiss PLG, an EMBO fellow at the Swiss Institute of Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) and has authored several peer-reviewed scientific papers in the fields of oncology and drug metabolism.
Sr. Managing Director, Blackstone;
Member of the Board of Directors, Anthos Therapeutics
Paris Panayiotopoulos is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group and a member of its Investment Committee, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December 2018.
Mr. Panayiotopoulos has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical operating and investing experience having served as Operating Partner at Clarus, as CEO and President of Ariad Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARIA), as member of the Board of Directors of The Medicines Company (NASDAQ: MDCO), as President of the US and Japan biopharmaceutical businesses of Merck KGaA (FWB: MRK), and as President of the Serono Research and Development Institute.
Mr. Panayiotopoulos is currently a founder and board member of Anthos Therapeutics and AvenCell Therapeutics, and previously served as founding Chairman of Genevant Sciences and FerGene. He is also on the Board of Advisors of the non-profit Life Science Cares.
He holds a combined BS in Chemistry and Management Studies from University College London and an MS from Cranfield Business School in the United Kingdom.
Chief Medical Officer
Dan is the Chief Medical Officer at Anthos Therapeutics. Dan has more than 16 years in drug development, initially at Merck and most recently at Cardurion Pharmaceuticals. Dan joined Cardurion in May 2017 as its first CEO after a diverse 14 year career at Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK), that included leadership roles in early and late clinical development and cardiovascular discovery. He was actively involved in business development, acquisitions, and numerous licensing opportunities and spent a year as Chief of Staff for Merck’s CEO, Ken Frazier. Dan’s career at Merck culminated as SVP and Therapeutic Area Head for Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Endocrine, and Women’s Health Programs and he was responsible for the central coordination and strategic oversight of Merck’s R&D organization in China across all therapeutic areas.
In addition to his executive duties, Dr. Bloomfield was a founding member and co-chair of the Cardiac Safety Research Consortium (a public private partnership with the FDA, academia and industry) and served as Rapporteur for the ICH E14 implementation working group for 9 years.
After finishing a BA in Chemistry at Haverford College, Dan took a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Upon his return to the US, he attended Harvard Medical School and subsequently did his Internal Medicine and Cardiology training at Columbia before joining the faculty. As an Associate Professor his academic research was supported by grants from the NIH (K08, R01, K24), multiple foundations, and industry.