Panel 1: Personalized Medicine
Domenick Bertelli, Moderator
Donald A. Bergstrom, MD, PhD, Panelist
Kevin Krenitsky, MD, Panelist
Prior to Enzo Clinical Labs, he was chief executive officer at BioServe Biotechnologies, a global biotechnology company specializing in processing genetic diagnostic tests, and before that, he served as chief executive officer at Parkway Clinical Laboratories, a clinical diagnostic lab providing comprehensive routine and esoteric testing. Before joining Parkway Clinical Laboratories, Dr. Krenitsky held multiple senior level positions within Genomics Collaborative, Inc. (a SeraCare Life Sciences Company), a full-scale clinical and genomics research company.
Dr. Krenitsky received a B.S. in business management from the University of Scranton and an M.D. from Jefferson Medical College.
Scott Allocco, Panelist
As President of the company, Mr. Allocco coordinates all fundraising, external relations, strategic partnerships, communications and regulatory affairs for the company. He is also an active member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), the BIO Personalized Medicine and Molecular Diagnostics Committee, and ADVAMED Dx, where he is actively engaged in efforts to reform FDA regulatory and CMS reimbursement policies for next generation biomarker tests, including companion diagnostics.
Prior to founding BioMarker Strategies, he had 15 years of healthcare and pharmaceutical industry experience, including drug coverage and reimbursement issues for commercial and public sector health insurance programs. Most recently, Mr. Allocco was Vice President of State Government Relations for Coventry Health Care, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies. He was also Vice President for Business Development and Government Affairs at First Health Services, which he helped build into the nation's largest pharmacy benefits administrator of Medicaid drug-benefit programs.
Prior to joining First Health Services, Mr. Allocco was a Managing Director in the health public affairs group at Hill and Knowlton's Washington, D.C. office. He also served for four years as the Director of the Office of Government Affairs for the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services under Governor Christine Todd Whitman. He graduated from Hamilton College.
Panel 2: Healthcare Investing
Jonathan Fleming, Moderator
Mr. Fleming has been in the investment business for over twenty years, starting and financing growth companies in the United States, Europe, and Israel. Prior to joining OBP in 1996, he was a Founding General Partner of MVP Ventures in Boston, MA. He began his investment career with TVM Techno Venture Management in Munich, Germany. Mr. Fleming has also co-founded Medica Venture Partners, a venture capital investment firm specializing in early stage healthcare and biotechnology companies in Israel. Mr. Fleming holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Fleming is a director of several private companies including Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Lab Partners, Radius Pharmaceuticals, Avaxia Pharmaceuticals and Railrunner. He is also a director of Leerink Swann, a Boston based investment bank specializing in healthcare companies. Mr. Fleming is a Trustee of the Museum of Science in Boston, a Member of the Board of NEHI, a healthcare oriented think tank and policy advocacy group, and he is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Life Science Center. In addition, Mr. Fleming is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Business.
Michelle Browner, PhD, Panelist
Jean George, Panelist
Jean represents ATV on the boards of Acceleron Pharma, Calithera Biosciences, Five Prime Therapeutics, Hydra Biosciences, Portola Pharmaceuticals, Verastem, and Zeltiq Aesthetics (NASDAQ: ZLTQ). She also was on the boards of Hypnion, prior to its acquisition by Eli Lilly in April 2007; Proteolix, prior to its acquisition by Onyx Pharmaceuticals in November 2009; and Critical Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRTX). She has been featured on the Forbes Midas List and was formerly a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.
Jean has been in the biopharmaceutical industry for over 20 years, including 10 years with Genzyme Corporation, where she held a variety of operational roles in marketing, product development, and business development, including Vice President of global sales and marketing. She also was Vice President and founder of Genzyme's Tissue Repair Division, where she was responsible for identifying new product opportunities and potential acquisition candidates.
Jean joined BancBoston Ventures in 1998 to lead its life sciences investments. There she led investments in Neurometrix (NASDAQ: NURU), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (formerly Microbia) (NASDAQ: IRWD), NuGenesis Technologies (acquired by Waters), and Syntonix Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Biogen/Idec). Previously, Jean spent six years working in chemistry and bioresearch. She earned an M.B.A. from Simmons College Graduate School of Management and a B.S. from the University of Maine.
Amir Nashat, Panelist
Prior to joining Polaris, Amir completed his PhD as a Hertz Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a minor in Biology under the guidance of Dr. Robert Langer. During his time at MIT, Amir completed an internship in the London office of Goldman, Sachs & Company. Prior to MIT, Amir earned both his MS and BS in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Amir has served as the initial CEO of Living Proof (known as Andora at the time), and Sun Catalytix Corporation. Amir currently represents Polaris as a Director of aTyr Pharmaceuticals, Avila Therapeutics, BIND Biosciences, Fate Therapeutics, L1 Agrosciences, Living Proof, Pervasis Therapeutics, Promedior Pharmaceuticals and Selecta Biosciences. Additionally, Amir has served as a Director of Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb), Athenix Corporation (acquired b Bayer), and is currently an Observer of GI Dynamics (GID.AX).
Amir serves on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association, the Partners Innovation Fund and is a Catalyst of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT.
Panel 3: Value Network and Open Innovation Business Models in Pharma
Matthias Evers, Moderator
Jens Oliver Funk, MD, Panelist
Jens Oliver Funk studied Medicine in Lubeck, Edinburgh, and Stanford, and holds a Board Certification and Professorship in Clinical and Molecular Dermatology. His focus has been on basic and translational cancer research in several fields. Prior to joining Merck KGaA in 2002, Dr. Funk worked in various research and clinical positions at renowned cancer research centers in Munich, Erlangen, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Richard J. Gregory, Ph.D, Panelist
Adrian Gottschalk, Panelist
Adrian holds a B.S. in biochemistry from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas and is a graduate of the Sloan School of Management at MIT and the joint Harvard Medical School / MIT Biomedical Enterprise Program where he received his M.B.A. and Sc.M. degrees, respectively. Prior to graduate school Adrian worked as a consultant for Price Waterhouse in their upstream petroleum information technology consulting group in Dallas, Texas. Adrian is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa and grew up in Dallas, Texas.
Frank Deane, PhD, Panelist
Frank has over 10 years of experience in working with life-science companies. Prior to founding Lumleian, Frank was a director with Leerink Swann and a case team leader with Bain and Company. Frank entered consulting after spending three years in the bio-pharmaceutical industry with Eli Lilly, supporting portfolio optimization and business unit strategic planning. He began his career, as a quantitative risk analyst working at BlackRock. Frank earned a Ph.D. in econometrics from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, where his dissertation focused on applying game theory and statistics to optimize resource allocation. Frank has an A.B in economics from Princeton University. Frank is an Eagle Scout, inconsistent tennis player, mediocre skier, husband and father of two inquisitive, albeit rambunctious, toddlers. He serves on the board of directors at St. Paul School in Hingham, MA.
Panel 4: Emerging Markets
Mohan Bala, MBA, PhD, Moderator
Monika A. Vnuk, MD, Panelist
Dr. Monika A. Vnuk is a Senior Director, Worldwide Business Development, at Pfizer. In her role, Dr. Vnuk focuses on transaction execution, including leading multi-functional teams through deal and negotiation processes. Since joining Pfizer in 2008, Dr. Vnuk participated in many, and completed several, partnering and merger and acquisition transactions. Before joining Pfizer, Dr. Monika A. Vnuk was a vice president at Banc of America securities. Prior to her position at Banc of America, she was a Principal at Oxford Bioscience Partners. Prior to that job, Dr. Vnuk was a Fellow at the Health Care Entrepreneurship Program at Boston University. She has experience in the healthcare data industry where she completed internships with Quintiles Transnational and McKesson HBOC. Dr. Vnuk is a 2000 Inductee to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. Dr. Vnuk holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy from Boston University and an M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine.Michael N. Chang, Ph.D., Panelist
Before joining Optimer as CEO, Dr. Chang served as the Senior Vice President of R & D, Pharmanex, Inc., and Chief Scientific Officer of Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE: NUS) from 1994 to 2001. Dr. Chang was the founder of Pharmanex, Inc., a leading nutritional supplement company in the USA. Pharmanex was sold to Nu Skin Enterprise in 1998, and continued its operation independently, and achieved annual worldwide sales of 900 million US dollars in 2009.
Before founding Pharmanex, Dr. Chang worked for 15 years in pharmaceutical industry. He started his career at Merck in 1979, and was the Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry when he left in 1988. He then joined Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Director of Drug Discovery until 1994, where he led his team in developing three multi-billion dollar drugs - Texotere, Lovanox and Sinercid.
Dr. Chang earned his Ph.D degree in Organic Chemistry from Brandeis University in 1978, and did his Post-doctoral training at MIT. Dr. Chang holds 37 US patents and 65 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Albert Bourla, Panelist
Before assuming his current position, Albert was leading the Animal Health operations in a large portion of the world as Area President for Europe, Africa, Asia & Pacific, Albert has extensive functional and geographical experience and has relocated with Pfizer in different parts of the world 8 times since joining in 1993. He has worked in positions of increasing responsibility beginning as a Technical Director in Greece, Marketing Director in Eastern Europe, General Manager in Poland, and Regional Director of Central and Eastern Europe. In 2001, he moved to global headquarters in New York City. In 2004 he became Vice President of Business Development and New Products Marketing. In this capacity he supervised Pfizer Global Animal Health licensing and acquisition activities as well as the prioritization of Pfizer's R&D portfolio. In 2006, as Area President of Europe, Africa and Middle East he relocated the European headquarters from New York to Paris. In 2010 he relocated back to NY to assume his current responsibilities.
Before joining Pfizer, Albert was a scientific collaborator in the Veterinary School of Aristotle University, in Greece. He is a qualified veterinary surgeon and holds a PhD degree in Reproduction.
Douglas M. Hansell, MD, MPH, Panelist
Prior to joining GEHC, Dr. Hansell was the Chief Medical Officer of Respiratory and Patient Monitoring at Covidien. There, he built and managed the Medical Affairs, Clinical Research Affairs, Healthcare Economics & Reimbursement, and Medical Education groups. While at Covidien, he developed the medical strategy for the business unit. He built relationships with key global policy and provider stakeholders. He was involved with two significant acquisitions and tripled the number of clinical trials under management.
Prior to joining Covidien, Dr. Hansell was a managing director with Intrepis, a medical strategy firm serving healthcare companies, academia and the investment community. He assisted client management teams with strategy, growth initiatives and clinical development of early stage technologies. Additionally, Dr. Hansell has advised leading academic organizations, assisting with technology transfer and entrepreneurial program development.
Prior to Intrepis, Dr. Hansell was Chief Medical Officer, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Biopure. He also founded a healthcare technology company focused on electronic prescribing. Earlier in his career, Dr. Hansell gained executive experience leading hospital organizations. Dr. Hansell served as Chief Medical Officer of Emerson Health System in Massachusetts and led care and operational redesign at Massachusetts General Hospital / Partners Healthsystem in Boston in the 1990's.
For the past 20 years, Dr. Hansell has also maintained an active clinical practice in Anesthesiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and has held teaching appointments at Harvard University. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology, fellowship trained in cardiovascular anesthesia and experienced in critical care medicine.
Dr. Hansell received his BS in Chemistry and his MD degree from the University of Illinois. He completed his Internal Medicine training at Barnes Hospital/Washington University, his Anesthesiology training and cardiovascular fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard University. He completed his Masters in Public Health at Harvard University.
Rogério Vivaldi, MD, MBA, Panelist
Rogério was the first Brazilian doctor to treat a patient with Gaucher disease with enzyme replacement therapy in 1992 and has authored several publications on Gaucher disease. He was the founding partner of the Latin American Group on Gaucher. Rogério received his medical degree from Universidade do Rio de Janeiro Medical School, and received his MBA degree from Copead—Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
