“Inside the Veil” of Cell and Rare Disease Therapies and Business Development Evaluations

​With continuing strong investor interest in cell therapies and rare diseases, are they all attractive for biotechs and venture capital?  What factors are executives and investors looking for in new opportunities?   Please join a panel of industry veterans for a discussion and Q&A “Inside the Veil” of cell and rare disease therapies and business development evaluations.

​Key Discussion Questions

​·       What key business questions will investors consider for cell and rare disease opportunities?

​·       Does the stage of an opportunity matter in terms of how investors will weigh scientific and operational questions against the overall business and commercial opportunities?

​·       How can startups and entrepreneurs best articulate their value proposition to raise money and attract potential partners?

​Panelists: 

​Rich Brodsky, Principal, Head of Strategy, Naveos Biopharma Consulting 

​Amanda Hayward, Global Head of Business Development, Rallybio 

​Han Lee, President, CFO, ImmPACT Bio 

​Moderator: 

​Manuel Mohr, Blavatnik Fellow, Yale Ventures

​Speaker Bios: 

​Richard Brodsky 

​​Richard Brodsky is a highly skilled and experienced leader in the biopharmaceutical industry, with an impressive track record of more than 25 years working at top-tier companies like Pfizer, Alexion, and Naveos Biopharma Consulting. His most recent corporate role in Global Marketing Leadership saw him successfully launch Soliris for Myasthenia Gravis, an achievement that marked the first product approved for MG in 60 years.  
 
Rich's background in science and business is both varied and extensive, and he has worked with numerous areas of disease and technology. His passion lies in specialty and rare diseases, gene therapies, neuroscience, and immunology. He is well-versed in the global healthcare environment, customers' needs, and key market trends, with unparalleled knowledge of the product lifecycle spectrum, from clinical development to launch and in-line marketing. 
 
Rich has led many high-performing cross-functional teams in various efforts, including therapeutic strategy development, commercial development, global product launch, portfolio management, and licensing/acquisition evaluations. As the founder of Naveos Biopharma Consulting, he leverages his experience to help clients with critical activities such as new product launch planning, long-range forecasting, market development, global positioning, KOL development, lifecycle planning, and business development. Rich also serves as an ongoing interim commercial leader for earlier-stage biotechs and leads fixed projects, focusing on bridging business strategy and scientific innovation. 
 
Rich obtained his BS in Mechanical Engineering and MBA from the University of Michigan. 

​​Amanda Hayward 

​​Amanda Hayward is Global Head of Business Development at Rallybio, a Company focused on developing transformational therapeutics for rare and devastating diseases. Amanda is a molecular geneticist with 23 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience, specifically in business development and licensing transactions, venture capital, company building, and strategy consulting.  Before joining Rallybio, Amanda was Managing Director of Venture Investments for Connecticut Innovations. Prior to that, she was Head of Business Development for Velocity Pharmaceuticals and a Partner at Baxalta Ventures. In addition to her role at Rallybio, she is a Founding Partner in Eir Ventures, and is a member of the Board of Governors at Gordonstoun School. Amanda earned her Ph.D in Cell Biology and Anatomy from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale. 

​​Han Lee 

​​Han Lee is a biotechnology executive with corporate finance, strategy, business development, and company building experience in the biopharmaceutical industry.  Prior to joining ImmPACT Bio as President and CFO, he most recently served as CFO of Neogene where he led the financial operations and investor relations activities for the company and played an instrumental role in the acquisition by AstraZeneca. Prior to that, he served as CFO of Arcellx, Inc., where he was an integral leader in the company’s clinical stage transition and successful financings including getting the company prepared for an IPO. Earlier in his career, he worked in the Corporate Development and Ventures group at AstraZeneca, where he focused on M&A, corporate strategy, and management of the company’s portfolio of public and private investments. He has served as a pivotal member of two cell therapy biotechnology companies with successful exits and has also served as a corporate board member for multiple companies. 

​​Han earned a B.A. in genetics and minor in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in genetics and an MBA from Yale University. 

​​Manuel Mohr 

​​Manuel Mohr is a biotechnologist with strong hands-on experience working in different pre-clinical biotechnology settings from Europe to the US.  He is trained across a number of specialties including gene and cell therapy, CRISPR gene editing, protein and viral vector engineering, and next generation optical microscopy. He has applied this experience to clinical indications such as CNS and PNS neuropathies, ophthalmology, metabolic and auto-immune disorders, musculoskeletal malignancies, and oncology. As a scientist and entrepreneur, it is his goal to drive biomedical innovation to generate safe, effective, and accessible therapeutics and diagnostics for all of humanity. 
 
As director of gene delivery engineering at CellInfinity Bio, Manuel worked on platform development, team and project management and corporate strategy, growing the company from 3 initial employees to a thriving well-funded 15 employee company. At Scribe Therapeutics – a bay area based in vivo CRISPR-gene therapy company – Manuel worked on engineering optimized CRISPR-delivery vectors. Across these early and growth-stage biotech start Manuel contributed to raising capital, monitoring progress and meeting milestones, negotiating collaborations, evaluating platform-disease, as well as acquiring and retaining talent. He advises senior biotech executives in the gene and cell therapy start-up space on strategy, CDMO-contract negotiations, and the strategic formation of alliances. 
 
Manuel holds a PhD in molecular biotechnology from TU Munich in his home country Germany as well as a MSc and a PhD in Bio Systems Science and Engineering from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He spent several years as a Research Fellow at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus and as Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University and UC Berkeley entering private biotech industry. Manuel has authored well over a dozen high impact publications and is an inventor on almost as many granted and pending patents.