Leadership Team
John Alam, MD
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
John Alam is an industry leader in translational medicine and has over 25 years of experience in creating value to help build companies through clinical development success. Until May 2014, he was therapeutic area head for diseases of aging at Sanofi, where he led all discovery and development activities directed at Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a number of other age-related diseases including sarcopenia/frailty, osteoarthritis, chronic pain and many others. From 1997 to 2008, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, including Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, Medicines Development. At Vertex, he played major roles in the development of novel innovative medicines for HIV, Hepatitis C and Cystic Fibrosis. Prior to Vertex, Alam led clinical development of Avonex (interferon beta-1a) for multiple sclerosis at Biogen from 1991 to 1997.
John is a member of the board of directors of the Alliance for Aging Research (AAR), a Washington, D.C. based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting innovation to address the healthcare needs of older Americans. He received a MD from Northwestern University School of Medicine and a SB in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, he completed an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a post-doctoral fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Sylvie Grégoire, PharmD
Co-Founder, Executive Chair
Sylvie Grégoire is an industry veteran with 30 years of industry experience. She is the former president of Human Genetic Therapies at Shire Pharmaceuticals, a position she held from 2007 to 2013. Previously, she was executive chairman of IDM Pharma Inc., and president and chief executive officer of GlycoFi Inc. From 1995 until 2003, Sylvie held various leadership positions at Biogen most recently as executive vice president of Technical Operations. Prior to Biogen, she was at Merck and Co, in clinical research and regulatory affairs for a period of 8 years.
Sylvie currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at Corvidia, Inc., and is a member of the Board of Directors of Novo Nordisk A/S and Perkin Elmer Corporation. She received her PharmD degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a Bachelors degree in Pharmacy from Laval University, Canada, and a Science College degree from Seminaire de Sherbrooke, Canada.
William Tanner, PhD
Chief Financial Officer
William Tanner is a Managing Director at Danforth Advisors and has more than 25 years of experience in equity research, life science corporate development, capital raising and investment banking. He most recently served as Co-founder and CFO of ImmunoGenesis, a clinical stage immuno-oncology company formed around assets licensed from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He previously spent 20 years as a biotech and biopharma research analyst for leading healthcare investment banks including Vector Securities, SG Cowen, Leerink Swann, Lazard Capital Markets and Guggenheim Securities. He has been involved in raising billions of dollars for public and private life science companies. Bill holds a PhD in physiology from Texas A&M University and completed post-doctoral training in Washington University School of Medicine’s Department of Cell Biology and in the Center for Immunology.
Kelly Blackburn
SVP, Clinical Development
Kelly Blackburn has more than 25 years of experience in clinical development operations, most recently as Vice President, Clinical Affairs at aTyr Pharma and as Vice President, Clinical Development Operations at Vertex. Of note, she held the senior global clinical operational responsibility for three major novel therapeutics: Kalydeco® for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, Incivek® for hepatitis C, and Velcade® for multiple myeloma.
Kelly is an active board member of the Hildebrand Family Self-Help Center, Cambridge MA; and long-standing long-standing volunteer case reviewer and emergency foster care mother for the Department of Children and Families in Massachusetts. She has an MHA degree from Quinnipiac University and a BS degree in biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire.
Darryl Patrick, DVM, PhD
VP, Non-Clinical Development
Darryl Patrick has more than 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D. At Merck Research Laboratories, he was responsible for numerous preclinical development programs and eventually became Vice President, Worldwide Safety Assessment responsible for preclinical safety evaluation of all development programs and a member of Merck Research Laboratories management committees. From 2004 to 2011, he was at Vertex as Vice President, Exploratory Development, ultimately responsible for Toxicology, Drug Metabolism and Clinical Pharmacology. For his excellence and success in preclinical R&D, Darryl has received numerous awards, including as a member of the team that won the prestigious Prix Galien in 2000 for their work on Singular®. He started his career in veterinary sciences with the US Air Force becoming Chief of Diagnostic and Comparative Medicine for the Uniformed Services, University of Health Sciences.
Darryl is trained in veterinary anatomy, laboratory animal pathology and veterinary internal medicine, with a DVM from Michigan State University and a PhD from Iowa State University.
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