Board of Directors

Michael Kauffman

MD, PhD, Executive Chairman

 

Dr Kauffman has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including expertise in preclinical research, clinical development, regulatory strategy and oncology commercialization. He currently serves as chief executive officer (CEO), president and board member of Nereid Therapeutics Inc. In addition to FoRx and Nereid, he is a board member for Verastem Oncology, Kezar Life Sciences, Incendia Therapeutics and BiVictriX Therapeutics. 

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Previously, Dr Kauffman served as the co-founder and CEO of Karyopharm, where he guided the Company’s transition from a start-up biotechnology company to a commercial stage organization and the global approvals of XPOVIO®. Prior to joining Karyopharm, Dr Kauffman was CMO of Onyx Pharma, where he led the development of Kyprolis® following the Onyx acquisition of Proteolix Inc., where he served as board member and then CMO. Previously, Dr. Kauffman was President and Chief Executive officer of EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (previously Predix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). Before that, he was the leader of the Velcade® development program at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and has also held a number of senior positions at Millennium Predictive Medicine and Biogen. Dr Kauffman received his MD and PhD from Johns Hopkins Medical School, trained in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel (Deaconess) Medical Center and in Rheumatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is board certified in Internal Medicine.

Beat Steffen

MD – Board Member

 

Beat Steffen, MD, is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund (NVF) in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining NVF, he worked at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in commercial roles in the US and Switzerland launching several products, mainly in the cardiovascular area. Before that, he was at McKinsey & Company in Zurich working with clients in the pharmaceutical industry. Beat is a Swiss-trained physician with a focus on cardiovascular surgery and intensive care and holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD.

Nadiya Ishnazarova

PhD – Board Member

 

Nadiya Ishnazarova, PhD, is a Principal at M Ventures Biotechnology team covering Healthcare and Life Sciences investments. Nadiya joined M Ventures in 2021. Previously, Nadiya was a Project Manager in the Health & Life Sciences practice of global strategy consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

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She focused on the strategy and corporate transformation for corporate healthcare clients, health systems, providers, pharma and digital health clients in EMEA, Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets. Nadiya also supported M&A deals in the Healthcare and Life Science space on pre-transaction assessments of sources of value and risk. Nadiya received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and her dissertation was focused on investigating the molecular mechanisms of recombination-dependent replication. She gained her B.Sc. in Organic Chemistry, and double M.Sc. in Enzymology and Nanobiomaterials and Nanobiotechnology from Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Vincent Ossipow

PhD, CFA – Board Member

 

Vincent Ossipow, Ph.D., CFA is a Partner at Omega Funds since 2014. Previously, Vincent worked with Sectoral Asset Management, a healthcare institutional investor, as a Partner for private investments, prior to it he worked at Pictet Bank as a research analyst for biotechnology equities and as a co-manager of the Pictet Biotech Fund.

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He was before a research fellow at the University of Geneva, studying neuroscience, and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. He completed a CFA training (CFA Institute), a certificate in International Finance and Global Markets at the Georgetown University School of Business and holds an MS in Computational Sciences, an MS in Molecular Biology, and a PhD in Molecular Biology, all from the University of Geneva.

Current board of Directors positions comprise Immunic (Germany, Nasdaq-listed), Bioinvent (Sweden, Nasdaq OMX-listed), Sophia Genetics (Switzerland, private), Etherna Immuno-Oncology (Belgium, private), FoRx (Switzerland, private).

Vincent Brichard

MD, PhD, MBA – Board Member

 

With a background in oncology and immunology, Dr. Brichard’s work has been focused since 1986 on the appealing project of educating our natural defenses – those that protect us from infectious diseases – to recognize and kill cancer cells. He holds an M.D., a specialized master’s degree in Internal Medicine and Oncology, and a Ph.D. from Louvain University, Brussels.

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He further holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Dr. Brichard participated actively in the pioneering work done at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Brussels Branch), under the leadership of Thierry Boon, where he identified several tumor antigens and started the first trials in humans with MAGE antigens. He spent several years at the Institut Curie (Paris), one of Europe’s best-known cancer centers, where he set up a cancer immunotherapy platform. In 2002 he joined GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, where he was Senior Vice-President and had responsibility for the Immunotherapeutics Business Unit, which covered a broad, integrated approach to immunotherapy – from bench discovery through clinical development and operations to regulatory and commercial activities. In addition to this position, he served as a member of the Board of Directors at GSK Biologicals (annual sales ca. £ 3.5 bn). Based on his experience, translated by more than 90 primary research publications and reviews, he decided to set up his own consulting firm, ViaNova, aiming to provide support to companies, organizations, institutions and individuals in the fields of immuno-oncology and vaccines. Vincent is Venture Partner with LSP since 2016, active mainly in the LSP 5 and 6 funds. In 2019, Vincent founded Paracrine Biologicals, a company based on the pioneering exosomes technology from A*Star in Singapore for therapeutic uses and is setting up with other industry veterans, biotech founders and fund managers a Seed Fund, with the objective to support actively portfolio companies through a presence on the shopfloor.

Denis Patrick

PhD – Board Member

 

Denis Patrick Ph.D. is Vice President, Head of Partnering Innovation and Managing Partner of Pfizer Ventures. Denis capitalizes upon his experience in evaluating external opportunities that are focused on areas that complement Pfizer’s Research interests to identify, invest and manage equity investments. He is currently responsible for managing investments in AnTolRx, Encycle, eFFECTOR, MISSION Therapeutics, Metabomed, FoRx and EvolveImmune.

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Denis previously engaged in oncology research and oncology licensing activities for several large pharma oncology organizations, including Merck, DuPont Pharma, GSK and Pfizer.  Denis contributed significantly to several oncology drug discovery efforts that led to the approval of three marketed therapeutic agents including nelarabine, trametinib and dabrafenib.  Denis also completed many licensing and acquisition agreements with large and small oncology focused biotech companies.  Denis received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.

Tarig Bashir

PhD – Board Member

 

Tarig Bashir, PhD, joined FoRx Therapeutics as CEO in April 2021. He is a Pharma and Biotech Executive with over 15 years of experience and leadership in cancer drug discovery, translational oncology and external innovation. During his career, he has led and overseen discovery-stage and preclinical oncology portfolios, led strategic partnerships with pharma and academia, and contributed significantly to clinical compound development. Tarig held positions of increasing responsibility in Oncology R&D at Organon/Schering-Plough, Johnson & Johnson and Ipsen. 

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Most recently he was Executive Vice President Discovery at Proteros, where his responsibilities included new company building. Tarig studied biology at the University of Würzburg and the State University of New York at Albany. He earned his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and conducted his postdoctoral training at the New York University School of Medicine.

Thanos Halazonetis

DDS, PhD – Observer

 

Thanos Halazonetis holds a Dental Degree from the University of Athens and a PhD Degree in Genetics from Harvard University. He worked at Merck, Sharp & Dohme as a Research Fellow, before joining the faculty of the Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, he joined the University of Geneva as Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology.

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His research has always focused on cancer; after studying the p53 tumor suppressor and the responses of cells to DNA double-strand breaks, his research has focused on oncogene-induced DNA replication stress and the pathways by which cells repair collapsed DNA replication forks. He is an elected member of EMBO and of Academia Europaea.