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The biopharma industry is always in need of talented minds to take promising pipelines to the clinic and beyond. A good biotech entrepreneur is able to cope with change and failure and has proven their expertise in hitting milestones, be it in the lab or when raising funds to bring their technologies and therapies to market.
We reached out to venture capitalists to nominate prominent founders and entrepreneurs in the biotech industry who are committed to bringing potentially life-changing treatments to market, and have come a long way in doing so.
Here are their top picks!
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Novo Holdings’ top three picks
Cristiana Pires, co-founder and CEO of Asgard Therapeutics
Co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Swedish cancer care company Asgard Therapeutics, Cristiana Pires was part of the team that pioneered Asgard’s therapeutic approach at the University of Coimbra in Portugal in 2015. It was based on the reprogramming abilities of dendritic cells – a field that merges cell reprogramming and cancer immunotherapy.
“This is basically a very exciting company working in oncology. It is a gene therapy company, and it transforms cancer cells into immune cells that present the cancer neoantigens to the immune system, and thereby enables the immune system to kill the cancer. So, it’s pretty neat biology,” said Søren Møller, managing partner for seed investments at Novo Holdings.
For this work, the Rosalind Franklin Society (RFS) presented the 2022 annual RFS Award in Science to Pires for her publication in Cellular Reprogramming journal, co-authored with fellow Asgard co-founder Filipe Pereira. The award recognizes outstanding research and published work of women and underrepresented minority scientists, physicians, and engineers.
“Cristiana was one of the founding scientists, and has taken the journey from scientist to a CEO,” added Møller.
Pires’ PhD studies explored direct reprogramming to generate retinal pigment epithelial cells for cell replacement therapy applications.
A year ago, Pires helped bag €30 million ($32.57 million) in series A financing to bring the biotech’s lead program to Investigational New Drug (IND)-readiness by next year.
Anders Hinsby, COO of Muna Therapeutics
With more than 15 years of experience as a biotech entrepreneur and investor, Anders Hinsby currently serves as the chief operating officer (COO) of Muna Therapeutics, a Danish biotech creating therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. He co-founded and was the CEO of Orphazyme, where he played an integral role in developing a pipeline in rare protein misfolding and lysosomal storage diseases. He also serves on the Board of Directors at Danish peptide therapeutics startup Pephexia Therapeutics.
Prior to this, he was a partner at BankInvest Biomedical Venture, a Danish life-science dedicated venture capital fund. Holding a PhD in Medicine from the University of Copenhagen, Møller believes that Hinsby “is a very strong repeat entrepreneur” and his experience as an entrepreneur in residence to build new companies makes him stand out.
“He has done it several times before and he was very efficient working with us to get this ambitious company off the ground in a very short time,” said Møller.
Thomas Holm Pedersen, CEO of NMD Pharma
Co-founder and CEO of NMD Pharma, Thomas Holm Pedersen, is one of a kind, according to Møller. Since NMD’s inception in 2015, Pedersen has been key to transitioning NMD from a discovery-stage to clinical-stage startup.
Skilled in electrophysiology, protein chemistry, fluorescence microscopy, microscopy, and biophysics, Pedersen’s PhD work at Aarhus University is what NMD’s research and development (R&D) is based on. This involves the development of small molecule inhibitors targeting skeletal muscle-specific ClC-1 ion channels to treat a range of clinical indications and orphan human diseases.
“The interesting thing about Thomas and what makes him stick out is that his company is actually based on his PhD work. And now, he is still the CEO of that company several years later, and has raised a lot of money and has been able to grow with the company all the way. And that is, I think, rare to see,” said Møller.
Almost a year ago, Pedersen along with his team at NMD, raised €75 million ($80 million) in a series B financing round. This is currently funding the completion of three phase 2 clinical studies.
Elaia’s top three picks
Marc de Garidel, CEO of Abivax
With a career spanning over 40 years in the industry, Marc de Garidel was appointed the chief executive officer and interim board chair of French clinical-stage biotech Abivax last year.
Having a track record as a CEO for 12 years, de Garidel led the sales of Massachusetts-based CinCor Pharma for up to $1.8 billion to AstraZeneca as well as Corvidia Therapeutics for $2.1 billion to Novo Nordisk.
Previously, he held the position of CEO at French biopharma Ipsen where he oversaw the expansion of its U.S. presence. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of Ipsen since 2010, and has been a member of the board of directors of eye care company Claris Bio since 2020.
de Garidel has a degree in Civil Engineering from the Ecole des Travaux Publics in Paris, a Master’s in International Management from Thunderbird Global School Management, and an executive MBA from Harvard Business School.
Maximilien Levesque, CEO and co-founder of Aqemia
First-time entrepreneur Maximilien Levesque is the CEO and co-founder of Aqemia, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery biotech founded five years ago. Based on 12 years of research at Oxford, Cambridge and ENS/CNRS, the startup aims to improve the pace of drug discovery.
Levesque has a PhD in quantum mechanics from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Sorbonne University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge.
Levesque’s “willingness to develop Aqemia’s proprietary therapeutic pipeline of drug candidates” is what motivated Elaia to pick him. Some of Levesque’s major career milestones – as well as Aqemia’s – include a $140 million collaboration with French biopharma Sanofi in a bid to employ AI and deep physics to power R&D. He was also part of the €30 million ($32.5 million) fundraising that took place at the start of this year, bringing Aqemia’s series A funding total to €60 million ($65.12 million).
Frédéric Caroff, CEO of HEPHAISTOS-Pharma
A biotech entrepreneur for almost a decade, Frédéric Caroff is the CEO of French cancer therapy company HEPHAISTOS-Pharma, focused on developing immuno-modulators that turn cold tumors hot to cure cancers more effectively.
In May, Caroff helped secure €10.3 million ($11.18 million) in seed funding to advance its lead candidate towards the clinic. He is also a member of the board in charge of Business Strategy and human resources at LPS-BioSciences, a biotech specializing in bacterial endotoxins.
After creating LPS-BioSciences, Caroff completed his training at HEC Business School in 2012 with the Challenge+ program and a specialized MBA in Entrepreneurship at ESSEC Business School in 2013.
Currently, he is working to bring HEPHAISTOS’ lead candidate ONCO-Boost, an immunostimulant injectable, to the clinic to address a difficult-to-treat bone cancer called osteosarcoma.
What makes a biotech entrepreneur stand out?
Talented executives are always in demand in the biotech industry. Successful biotechs tend to begin from small scientist-driven enterprises eager to test their ideas that become established companies with many employees focused on delivering products to patients. And a biotech founder needs to be able to bring these R&D projects to fruition.
“You need to have a deep insight into the science and have a very differentiated idea, and you need to surround yourself with a great team that can give you the input that you don’t necessarily have as a first-time CEO, for instance, and you should be able to listen and grow with the company in a way. Take as much advice as you can and internalize it and grow with it. Therapeutics development is a complicated project to run, and there are so many experienced people around that you need to learn from as the company grows in the process,” said Møller.
Still, there is no singular path to becoming an entrepreneur in the biotech industry – as we have seen with the founders listed in this article.
Møller added: “These are good examples of a repeat entrepreneur and a first-time entrepreneur – I think Cristiana with Asgard, and then Thomas, who has taken the company (NMD Pharma) all the way from his own scientific work to a clinical-stage company – represents different aspects of what therapeutic entrepreneurship is all about.”
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