From Bench to Boardroom: Collaborative Research Opportunities between Academia and Industry

Michal Preminger, PhD, MBA
Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation Boston

Michal is Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation Boston.  In this role, she leads the Boston innovation center team to build, advance, and manage the External R&D portfolio of co-investments spanning across pharmaceutical, consumer health and medical devices.

Until recently, Michal served as the Executive Director of Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) Harvard Medical School site, where she was responsible for development and commercialization of technologies emerging from research at HMS laboratories and for the strategy and execution of all industry collaborations. She negotiated agreements with major biopharma, life sciences, food and cosmetics companies to advance the translation of discoveries into products and create a revenue-generating product pipeline, and worked with scientific founders and investors to create new startup companies.

Prior to joining Harvard University’s OTD in 2005, Michal held a number of business development and technology development positions at Compugen, most recently as VP of Protein Therapeutics, responsible for the business management of the company’s emerging drug discovery pipeline. Previously, she worked in the technology industry in marketing and business development roles, and co-founded a biotechnology startup.

Michal serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards FutuRx Accelerator, and was, until recently, a member of the SAB of Prize4Life and a Member of the Board of Directors of a number of companies, including Compugen, BioArray Genetics, and Alma Lasers.

She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the Weizmann Institute of Science, an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, and a BA in Medicine from Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Chandra Ramanathan, PhD, MBA
Vice President & Head, East Coast Innovation Center, Bayer

Chandra Ramanathan is Vice President and Head of East Coast Innovation Center at Bayer. He is responsible for establishing the East Coast Innovation Center, building an innovative product portfolio with key academic partners, driving external scientific leadership and engaging with members of the local innovation ecosystem.  His previous roles at Bayer include the global lead for External Innovation – Life Sciences and the role of the Global Launch Team leader of Copanlisib and Head of Pipeline Marketing.  He is a member of the MassBio Board of Directors and scientific advisory board member of Mass Life Sciences Center.

Before joining Bayer, Chandra worked at Wyeth (Pfizer) and Bristol-Myers Squibb in various roles including Global Brand Team Leader, Licensing/Business Development, Commercial Strategy, Drug Discovery and Applied Genomics.

Chandra has worked across the pharmaceutical discovery, product development and commercialization spectrum for more than 22 years.  He holds an M.B.A from the Columbia Business School, Ph.D. in Genomics/Bioinformatics, M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry and B.S. in Pharmacy.

Jeffrey Warmke, PhD
Senior Vice President of Global Business Development, Daiichi Sankyo Group

Dr. Warmke is currently Senior Vice President, Global Business Development, Daiichi Sankyo Group and leads the Search and Evaluation group responsible for identification and evaluation of Product Licensing and Research and Development collaboration opportunities, and he also heads the co-development partner Alliance Management function.  Dr. Warmke received his B.A. in Biology from Wabash College and his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from The Ohio State University.  He did post-doctoral research in Neurogenetics in the Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Warmke began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Merck Research Laboratories where he held positions of increasing responsibility in Discovery Research and Project Planning and Management. Dr. Warmke joined the Project Management group at Sankyo Pharma Development in 2002, and with the formation of Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development in 2006, he was appointed co-leader of the Global Project Management function and served as a member of the Global R&D Management Committee.

In his current position he is a member of the Senior Licensing Committee and works directly with global senior management on licensing and research & development collaboration projects.  In addition to its strong portfolio of medicines for hypertension, dyslipidemia, bacterial infections, and thrombotic disorders, Daiichi Sankyo research and development is primarily focused on bringing forth novel therapies in oncology, including immuno-oncology, with additional focus on new horizon areas, such as pain management, neurodegenerative diseases, heart and kidney diseases, and other rare diseases.

Frank S. David, MD, PhD
Innovation Strategist at the BRI, Founder and Managing Director of Pharmagellan

Dr. David serves as Innovation Strategist at the BRI, as well as Founder and Managing Director of Pharmagellan, a Boston-area biotech consulting firm. He previously held healthcare strategy roles at AstraZeneca and Leerink Partners. Frank is co-author of “The Pharmagellan Guide to Biotech Forecasting and Valuation,” a writer about biomedical innovation at Forbes.com and the Pharmagellan blog, and an active participant on Twitter (@Frank_S_David).