clinical-development
(14)
Kyowa Kirin, Inc. - U.S.
A Japanese fermentation lineage became a U.S. rare-disease business by following biology that larger markets often overlook. Now Kyowa Kirin is testing whether patient-scale focus can coexist with manufacturing-scale ambition.
Tahamtan Ahmadi
Tahamtan Ahmadi built his career in the hard middle of biotechnology - where a scientific idea must survive evidence, regulation, and scale. At Genmab, his remit now stretches from discovery to medicine, and his public philosophy keeps returning to curiosity, collaboration, and patient impact.
Reinilde Heyrman
Reinilde Heyrman has spent decades turning clinical uncertainty into decisions. Her method is neither grand nor theatrical: start with the science, plan for the detour, and make sure someone owns the next move.
Intelligencia AI
Intelligencia AI is a New York-based artificial intelligence company that helps pharmaceutical and biotech organizations predict the probability of technical and regulatory success (PTRS) for drug candidates. Its patented SaaS platform harmonizes more than 1.5 billion clinical and biological data points to score how likely a drug is to advance through clinical phases and win regulatory approval, with reported prospective accuracy above 80%. The company gives R&D, business development, and portfolio teams transparent, explainable AI to de-risk investment decisions in drug development.
Glycyx
Glycyx is a San Francisco biopharmaceutical company developing axelopran, an orally administered peripheral mu-opioid receptor antagonist, to counter opioid-induced immunodeficiency in cancer patients. Roughly 45% of immunotherapy patients take opioids for pain, and studies link that use to sharply worse outcomes on checkpoint inhibitors. Axelopran blocks opioid signaling on immune cells - without touching pain relief - to restore T-cell infiltration into tumors and make 'cold' tumors respond to immunotherapy. The company is Phase 2b-ready with an active IND and has drawn NIH SBIR grant support.
Allison Luo
Allison Luo, MD is the Chief Medical Officer of Mirador Therapeutics, a San Diego precision-medicine company that launched in 2024 with more than $400 million to attack immuno-fibrotic diseases using its Mirador360 development engine. A physician scientist with more than two decades in clinical development, she was CMO of Prometheus Biosciences before Merck bought it for $10.8 billion, and has since reassembled with that team to build Mirador. She sits on the board of Triveni Bio and has held medical-leadership roles across Ventyx, Biora, Iveric Bio and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Briggs Morrison
Briggs Morrison is a medical oncologist turned biopharma leader who runs Crossbow Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company building TCR-mimetic antibody drugs that aim T-cells at cancer targets once thought unreachable. Before Crossbow he ran late-stage R&D at the scale of an industry giant, serving as Chief Medical Officer and EVP of Global Medicines Development at AstraZeneca, and holding senior development roles at Pfizer and Merck across three decades. His fingerprints are on blockbuster cancer medicines including TAGRISSO and LYNPARZA. Today he splits his identity between operator and investor: CEO of Crossbow, Entrepreneur Partner at MPM BioImpact, and a fixture on biotech boards including chair of Arvinas.
ClinChoice
ClinChoice is a mid-size, global, full-service contract research organization (CRO) that helps pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and consumer health companies run clinical trials and bring drugs and devices to market. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, the firm employs roughly 4,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, offering clinical development, biometrics, safety/pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs, post-marketing real-world evidence, and technology services. After rebranding from Fountain Medical Development (FMD K&L) in 2020 and raising a $150M Series E in 2022, ClinChoice has grown through acquisitions to serve six of the top ten pharma companies while focusing on emerging and mid-size biotech innovators.
Bob Wassman
Dr. E. Robert (Bob) Wassman is Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Clinical Development at MARAbio, a Utah-based diagnostics company building a maternal blood test to identify an autoimmune subtype of autism. A board-certified pediatrician and medical geneticist with more than 40 years in the field, he has served as chief medical officer for a long roster of genetic-testing pioneers including Genzyme Genetics, Ambry Genetics, Rosetta Genomics and Good Start Genetics, repeatedly turning frontier laboratory technology into clinical service across reproductive medicine, cancer, and neurodevelopmental disability.
Ilise Lombardo
Ilise Lombardo is the CEO of Noema Pharma, a Basel-based clinical-stage biotech advancing treatments for central nervous system disorders. A Yale-trained psychiatrist with a Cambridge M.Phil and a Brown degree, she spent two decades in clinical practice and academia before co-founding Arvelle Therapeutics, which sold to Angelini Pharma for roughly $1 billion in 2021. She now steers Noema's pipeline of Phase 2 programs targeting Tourette syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia, tuberous sclerosis seizures and menopause-related CNS symptoms.
Sean P. Bohen
Sean P. Bohen is President and CEO of Olema Oncology, a San Francisco clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for women's cancers. An MD/PhD oncologist who spent 13 years at Genentech and four as AstraZeneca's Chief Medical Officer, he is now steering Olema's lead drug palazestrant - an oral complete estrogen receptor antagonist - through Phase 3 trials in ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer.
Steven Basta
Steven Basta is the President and CEO of Phathom Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PHAT), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on gastrointestinal disorders. He joined in April 2025 to lead the commercialization of VOQUEZNA (vonoprazan), a next-generation potassium-competitive acid blocker for GERD and H. pylori. With more than 25 years of biopharma and medical device leadership spanning BioForm Medical, Merz Aesthetics, AlterG, Menlo Therapeutics, Mahana Therapeutics, and SaNOtize, Basta brings a track record of building and launching products in highly competitive markets. He trained as a biomedical engineer at Johns Hopkins and later earned his MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School.
Steve Herne
Steve Herne is the CEO of Unlearn.AI, a San Francisco-based company building AI-powered digital twin technology to transform how clinical trials are designed and run. With over 25 years of experience across pharmaceutical R&D companies including WCG, Bioclinica, and Covance, Herne joined Unlearn in May 2024 as Chief Commercial Officer before ascending to CEO in September 2024. Under his leadership, Unlearn — backed by $130M+ in venture funding including a $50M Series C led by Altimeter Capital — is pivoting from research-led to commercially-driven product delivery, with its digital twin models now EMA-qualified and adopted by major biopharma companies to reduce placebo arm sizes by up to 38% in pivotal trials.
Jorge Dimartino
Jorge F. DiMartino, M.D., Ph.D., is Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Clinical and Translational Development at Plexium, a San Diego-based biotech pioneering targeted protein degradation. A physician-scientist trained in genetics, immunology, and pediatric oncology across UC Berkeley, Cornell, UC San Diego, and Stanford, DiMartino has spent over two decades advancing cancer drugs from bench to bedside. His fingerprints are on three now-marketed therapies: vismodegib, venetoclax, and enasidenib - each a breakthrough in its own right. At Plexium, he oversees clinical programs targeting SMARCA2, IKZF2, CDK2, and CRAF using the company's DELTA Discovery platform, a novel approach to degrading proteins previously considered undruggable.