A team that understands the art of drug development
We have assembled a team of doers. Members of our team have been involved with over 20 drugs in the market, and behind multiple recent accelerated USFDA approvals. Members of our team have held leadership positions in leading pharma and biotech companies. We are backed by visionary investors.
Dr. Tamara Agajanov, MD Dr. Agajanov leads Clinical Operations at Alyssum. Dr. Ajaganov brings a lifetime of experience in clinical operations and toxicology. Prior to joining Alyssum, she served as the VP, Clin Ops of Ovid Therapeutics, as Associate Director of Inflammation and Immunity at Roche, as Expert clinical manager at Novartis, starting her career in clinical pharmacology at Merck, and as a toxicologist at Hungtingdon Life Sciences.
Dr. Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, FASCO, leads clinical development at Alyssum and is also the chairman of the Clinical Advisory Board. Dr. Bardia brings a successful track record of leading clinical trials and regulatory interactions that led to the accelerated approval of Trodelvy, Enhertu, and Orserdu. Dr. Bardia also serves as a professor of medicine (Oncology) and director of Translational Research Integration at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Bardia trained at AIIMS Delhi, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, and served as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School- Mass General Hospital. Dr. Bardia has published extensively in Nature, Nature Medicine, JCO, Cancer Discovery, Lancet etc.
Dr. Richard Fahrner, PhD. Dr. Fahrner leads the management team and drives the CMC effort. Prior to joining Alyssum, he led CMC efforts at Famy Life Science (acquired by Viatris), and was the former head of pharmaceutical vevelopment at Ra Pharmaceuticals (acquired by UBC). Previously, he has provided leadership to research and development efforts at Catabasis, Pfizer, Sanofi and Gilead. Rick has been involved with over 17 approved drugs, including Vpriv and Elaprase, which were accelerated approvals, and multiple patents. Dr. Fahrner received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UCLA
Dr. Ermanno Gherardi, MBChB PhD Dr. Gherardi leads the research efforts at Alyssum. One of the global leaders in protein engineering, Dr. Gherardi led the Protein Engineering Group at MRC-LMB, Cambridge (UK), where he discovered HGF/MET. He also held the Camillo Golgi chair of Immunology and General Pathology at the University of Pavia, where he built one of the top-ranked medical graduate programs. Dr. Gherardi studied Classics and Medicine at Modena, received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, and completed his fellowship working with Nobel Laureate Cesar Milstein. He has published extensively in Nature, Cell etc.
Dr. Shiladitya Sengupta, MS, PhD. Dr. Sengupta is the founder of Alyssum and drives the strategy and translational efforts at Alyssum. He is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and of HST at the Harvard-MIT Division of HST. Previously, he helped start Famy Life Science (acquired by Viatris for 300M), where he served as a board member and built the pipeline strategy. He cofounded Vyome Therapeutics Inc, a clinical stage company (privately held), and Cerulean Pharmaceutical (listed on NASDAQ). Dr. Sengupta trained as a medical pharmacologist, completing his early education from AIIMS Delhi, his graduate studies as a Nehru Scholar at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and his fellowship from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on application of cutting-edge technology to address medical problems. He has published extensively in top-ranked journals, such as Nature, Cell, PNAS, etc, been recognized as one of the top innovators (TR35 prize) from MIT Technology Review Magazine, won multiple awards, including the Era of Hope Scholar award ($4M) from US-DoD, holds multiple US patents, and translated multiple products to clinic and commercialization.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, MBChB, MS, FRCS. Dr. Soon-Shiong is the chairman of Alyssum guides strategy and transational efforts. Dr. Soon-Shiong built American Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: APPX), Abraxis Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Celgene for $3.5B), and ImmunityBio (NASDAQ: IBRX). Dr. Soon-Shiong is the Chairman of the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation and of the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine, and owner of the Los Angeles Times. Dr. Soon-Shiong invented Abraxane, a groundbreaking drug, in 1995, which is approved in multiple countries, with annual sales of approximately $1.0 billion. As an Assistant Professor at UCLA in 1993, Dr. Soon-Shiong performed UCLA’s first whole-organ pancreas transplant. Dr. Soon-Shiong has published over 100 scientific papers, and has been granted over 675 patents worldwide.
Paul Theunissen, MBA. Paul brings in extensive investment experience as the founder of Lions Capital, and before that as a VP at JP Morgan private equity and capital markets. Paul holds an MBA from Wharton. Paul acts as our CFO.