# Steve Worland

> Steve Worland, Ph.D., is the CEO of Numerion Labs, the AI-native drug discovery company that grew out of Atomwise. A medicinal-chemistry lifer with three decades behind him, his bench work fed the discovery of Paxlovid and Inlyta, and his operating record runs from Agouron through a Roche acquisition to a SPAC. Now he is betting that deep-learning surrogates plus GPU enumeration can search billions of molecules in seconds.

- **Role:** Chief Executive Officer at Numerion Labs
- **Organizations:** Numerion Labs, Atomwise, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Blacksmith Medicines
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. with Highest Honors in Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Biology, Harvard University
- **Known for:** Scientific research contributed to the discovery and development of Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir) and Inlyta (axitinib), Led Anadys Pharmaceuticals through a $230M acquisition by Roche in 2011, Co-founded eFFECTOR Therapeutics and took it public via SPAC in 2021, raising more than $250M

## Career timeline

- **1990s** — Began career at Agouron Pharmaceuticals; spent 13 years in senior roles including Head of Antiviral Research and Director of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
- **2011** — As President and CEO of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, led the company through its $230M acquisition by Roche
- **2012** — Co-founded eFFECTOR Therapeutics; served as President, CEO and Board Member
- **2021** — Took eFFECTOR public via SPAC merger with Locust Walk Acquisition Corp; entered Pfizer collaboration on eIF4E inhibitors
- **2025** — Appointed CEO and board member of Atomwise (February)
- **2025** — Atomwise rebrands as Numerion Labs; publishes APEX virtual-screening research with NVIDIA on arXiv (October)

## Achievements

- Scientific research contributed to the discovery and development of Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir) and Inlyta (axitinib)
- Led Anadys Pharmaceuticals through a $230M acquisition by Roche in 2011
- Co-founded eFFECTOR Therapeutics and took it public via SPAC in 2021, raising more than $250M
- Advanced two eFFECTOR candidates (zotatifin, tomivosertib) from target concept into Phase 2
- Oversaw Numerion Labs' APEX research demonstrating screening of 10 billion compounds in under 30 seconds on a single NVIDIA GPU

## Latest updates

- **2025-02** — Appointed CEO and board member of Atomwise
- **2025-10** — Numerion Labs (formerly Atomwise) published APEX research co-authored with NVIDIA on arXiv

## Links

- Website: https://numerionlabs.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-worland-b134994/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seekingalpha-effector

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/steve-worland
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-04