Monte Rosa’s Epic Journey

Drew joined Aisling Capital in 1999 and serves as one of the Managing Partners. Prior to Aisling, Drew practiced internal medicine for six years at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he maintains his position as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine.

Drew currently serves as a director of Aclaris Therapeutics and ARMGO Pharma. His prior board service includes Adams Respiratory Therapeutics (acquired by Reckitt Benckiser), Agile Therapeutics, ArgiNOx Pharmaceuticals, Barrier Therapeutics (acquired by Stiefel Laboratories), Bioenvision (acquired by Genzyme), CardioKine (acquired by Cornerstone), Cempra Pharmaceuticals, F2G, Harmony Biosciences, Miramar Labs (acquired by Sientra), Myogen (acquired by Gilead Sciences), PowerVision (acquired by Alcon), Quintiles, SkinMedica (acquired by Allergan), Sirion Therapeutics (licenses acquired by Alcon), TransEnterix, Zavante Therapeutics (acquired by Nabriva), and ZELTIQ Aesthetics (acquired by Allergan). He is a longtime supporter and board member of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Drew received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, and his B.S. with honors in neuroscience from Brown University.

Ali joined NEA in 2007 and is currently a General Partner on the healthcare team. He specializes in investments in the biopharmaceutical, medical device, specialty pharmaceutical, and healthcare services sectors. Prior to joining NEA, Ali worked as an intern and later as a consultant in business development at The Medicines Company, a specialty pharmaceutical company developing acute care cardiovascular products. He previously held positions as a Venture Associate at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners and as a Healthcare Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers. He conducted basic science research in the fields of viral fusion inhibition and structural proteomics at the National Institutes of Health and at Duke University.

Ali concurrently earned his M.D. degree from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his MBA degree from The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, where he graduated with Honors and was a Palmer Scholar. He graduated summa cum laude and received his bachelor’s degrees with distinction in biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, and chemistry from Duke University.

Kimberly was previously Chief Executive Officer at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Zentalis, she served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Oncology Clinical Development, at Tempus Labs. In this role, she oversaw precision medicine initiatives to improve cancer care and guide therapeutic drug development and discovery. Prior to joining Tempus, Kim was VP of Early Phase Oncology and Immunology-oncology at Eli Lilly and Company, where she worked on early stage cancer therapeutics. During her time at Lilly, she was named as one of “Twenty extraordinary women in biopharma R&D who worked their way to the top” by Endpoints News. For 18 years, Kim was a faculty member at the Duke University Cancer Institute. While at Duke, she served as the principal or co-principal investigator for over 50 cancer clinical trials, co-founded the radiotherapeutics company Cereius, and co-directed the Woman’s Cancer Program and Precision Medicine Initiative. As one of the nation’s leading breast cancer researchers, she played a role in developing therapies that represent revolutionary non-chemotherapy-based approaches for treating cancer. This work led to Kim’s inclusion in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2013, recognizing her accomplishments contributing to the development of lapatinib and T-DM1 for the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer. She holds a BA degree in Bioethics from Duke University and a MD degree from Mayo Clinic Medical School.

Chandra joined the private equity team at HBM Partners in 2007. He has been responsible for investments in over 20 private biotech, medical device, and diagnostics companies in the United States and Europe, in most cases as a board member/board observer. These companies have so far generated seven NASDAQ IPOs, five M&A transactions, and five FDA-approved marketed products.

He currently serves as a director on the boards of Fore Biotherapeutics Inc., River 2 Renal Corp., River 3 Renal Corp., and Gynesonics. Prior to joining HBM, Chandra worked as a postdoctoral scientist at Stanford University, as a physician at the University Hospital Leipzig, and as a principal at Wellington Partners Venture Capital. He holds a M.D. from the Freie Universität Berlin (Charité), an MAS in Medicines Development from the University of Basel, and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD.

Christine is the Chief Operating Officer in Residence of BridgeBio. She formerly served as the Chief Financial Officer of Eidos Therapeutics, a BridgeBio company, and previously as Chief Operating Officer of Eidos Therapeutics. Prior to that, Christine served as the Chief Business Officer of the Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia; she was a Venture Principal at Third Rock Ventures, where she helped start Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) and was the first employee.Previously, she held roles of increasing responsibility at private equity and venture capital firms, Warburg Pincus and Thomas, McNerney & Partners, where she invested in life sciences companies. Christine holds her MBA from Harvard Business School and her B.S. with distinction in cellular molecular biology and economics from the University of Michigan.

Markus brings over 20 years of experience in data-driven drug discovery and precision medicine to Monte Rosa Therapeutics. He joined Monte Rosa Therapeutics from Third Rock Ventures, where he worked as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and played an integral role in the venture capital firm’s formation of new biotech companies. Prior to his role at Third Rock Ventures, Markus spent seven years as the Chief Executive Officer of H3 Biomedicine, a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in the discovery and development of genomics-based precision oncology treatments. Markus has also previously served in multiple roles at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), including as the Director of Kinase Biology, Head of Oncology Pharmacology. While at Novartis, he and his teams were involved in the development of Ceritinib and Ribociclib, as well as the discovery of allosteric inhibitors of SHP2 and Abl, amongst others. He also currently serves as a Venture Partner at Versant Ventures. He earned his M.D. from Ludwig Maximilian University, in Munich, Germany, and currently resides in Boston, MA.

Follow Markus on Twitter: @markus_warmuth

Jan is an Executive Chairman at DEM Biopharma, and a member of the Board of Directors at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ZNTL). Previously, he was the CEO of Trillium Therapeutics (Nasdaq:TRIL), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company, where he led a highly successful, 360-degree turn-around that produced a leading CD47 drug candidate, while taking the company from a $16M valuation to a $2.3B buy-out by Pfizer in two years. Prior to that, Jan was the CEO of Tal Medical, a private, clinical stage neuroscience company; a partner in the life sciences practice at Bain & Company, Boston; and a manager at Price Waterhouse Corporate Finance in London, UK and Vienna, Austria. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Economics in Slovakia, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Anthony M. Manning, Ph.D., is a seasoned biochemist with a 30-year career in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He has led the discovery and development of multiple therapeutics, contributing to the approval of two drugs for autoimmune diseases. As the former Chief Scientific Officer at Momenta Pharmaceuticals, he built a pipeline of first-in-class therapeutics, leading to the company’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson for $6.5bn in 2020. Earlier, he spearheaded research and drug discovery at Roche Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacia Corp., and Biogen Idec. Currently, Manning is the Principal at Manning Bio Worldwide, LLC, assisting in the development of transformative medicines. He also serves as a Board Director for Palatin Technologies, Chairman of the Institute for Biomedical Entrepreneurship, and a Scientific Advisor for several organizations. His contributions extend to over 120 scientific publications and patents in autoimmune diseases, novel therapeutics, and drug discovery.

Dr. Eric A. Hughes, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed Executive Vice President, Global R&D and Chief Medical Officer at Teva in August 2022. He is an accomplished scientist and licensed physician with specialty training in infectious diseases and immunology paired with 20 years of experience in all phases of drug development in leading global pharmaceutical companies.

At Teva, Dr. Hughes oversees a global R&D organization of ~4,000 colleagues responsible for the discovery and development of innovative medicines and high-quality generics and combination products that provide meaningful therapeutic benefit to patients worldwide. With an innovative medicines pipeline focused on immunology and neuroscience, a diverse portfolio of generic products covering all major therapeutic categories and a broad early stage biosimilars pipeline, Teva’s Global R&D team uses sincere understanding of patient experience, deep scientific knowledge and a strong understanding of diverse technologies to discover new pathways, spark unique connections and make bold discoveries to step up innovation.

Prior to Teva, Dr. Hughes was Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and Translational Medicine at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, Massachusetts, in the US.  From 2015 to 2021, he was Global Development Unit Head for Immunology, Hepatology and Dermatology at Novartis in Switzerland, ultimately responsible for leading all clinical development activities and biostatistician talent across multiple therapeutic areas and for expanding development in China.

During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Dr. Hughes served as Co-Chair of the Therapeutics Clinical Working Group for The Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines public-private partnership at The National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Hughes launched his career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2004 at Bristol Myers-Squibb Company (BMS) and moved to Schering-Plough Research Institute in 2006.  Beginning in 2009, he spent a year at Merck Research Laboratories as the Director of Clinical Research for Hepatology before returning to BMS in 2010 where his career there culminated in 2015 as Head of Virology, Fibrotic Diseases, Genetically Defined Diseases, Autoimmunity, and Cardiology Discovery Medicine, Exploratory Clinical & Translational Research.

Dr. Hughes earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at Yale School of Medicine. He completed his medical residency with the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital/Yale University School of Medicine, and a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is a prolific and widely published scientist, co-authoring more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has a deep passion for helping patients.