# Tom Large

> Tom Large is the CEO and co-founder of Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals, a Waltham, Massachusetts startup hunting for the next generation of medicines for brain disorders. A neurobiologist by training, he spent two decades inside big pharma - leading neuroscience research at Eli Lilly and running preclinical research and translational medicine at Sunovion - before launching Blue Oak in 2016 to chase drugs with genuinely new mechanisms for bipolar depression, schizophrenia and treatment-resistant depression. His teams pioneered a target-agnostic approach to CNS drug discovery, and he later partnered with AI specialist Exscientia to design 'bispecific' small molecules that hit two targets at once.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals
- **Organizations:** Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Company, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Verge Genomics (Scientific Advisory Board)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** PhD in Neurobiology and Physiology, Northwestern University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California, San Francisco
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals, advancing a pipeline of CNS programs for brain disorders, At Sunovion, led teams whose target-agnostic approach produced SEP-363856 for schizophrenia, later granted FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation, Helped advance roughly 13 experimental drugs through stages of development across his career and at Blue Oak

## Career timeline

- **Early career** — Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow at UC San Francisco
- **Early career** — Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosciences, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
- **Pre-2008** — Scientific and group leader in neuroscience research at Eli Lilly, overseeing projects in anxiety, psychosis and pain
- **c. 2008-2016** — Senior Vice President, Preclinical Research and Translational Medicine at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals; pioneered a target-agnostic approach to CNS drug discovery
- **2016** — Co-founded Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals in Waltham, MA, and became CEO
- **2017** — Announced drug discovery partnership with PsychoGenics
- **2018** — Awarded NIH/NIMH SBIR grant for next-generation bipolar depression therapies
- **2019** — Appointed to Verge Genomics scientific advisory board
- **2021** — Blue Oak raised ~$9M; later partnered with AI drug-discovery firm Exscientia on bispecific CNS molecules

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals, advancing a pipeline of CNS programs for brain disorders
- At Sunovion, led teams whose target-agnostic approach produced SEP-363856 for schizophrenia, later granted FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation
- Helped advance roughly 13 experimental drugs through stages of development across his career and at Blue Oak
- Secured NIH/NIMH SBIR funding to develop rapid-onset, sustained therapies for bipolar depression
- Recruited to Verge Genomics' scientific advisory board to help advance ALS and Parkinson's candidates

## Latest updates

- **2021-02** — Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals raised approximately $9 million in new equity (Series A).
- **2021-01** — Partnered with AI drug-discovery company Exscientia to design bispecific small molecules for neuropsychiatric disorders.

## Links

- Website: https://blueoakpharma.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-large-663b038

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/tom-large
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-11