Ventyx Biosciences, Inc.
12790 El Camino Real
Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92130
Ventyx is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative oral medicines for patients living with autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. We believe our ability to efficiently discover and develop differentiated drug candidates will allow us to address important unmet medical needs with novel oral therapies that shift the immunology markets from injectables to oral drugs. Our current pipeline includes four clinical-stage programs targeting NLRP3, S1P1R and TYK2, thereby positioning us to become a leader in the development of oral immunology drugs.
Raju founded Ventyx Biosciences and has served as a member of our board of directors since the company’s inception. Prior to Ventyx, Raju founded Akarna Therapeutics, which was acquired by Allergan for up to $1.2B. In addition to Ventyx, Raju has founded Oppilan Pharma, Zomagen Biosciences, Escalier Biosciences and Vimalan Biosciences, all immunology-focused specialty pharmaceutical companies. From 2006 to 2011, Raju served as Vice President and head of the San Diego site for Exelixis and Vice President of Chemistry at X-Ceptor Therapeutics (acquired by Exelixis). Raju started his pharmaceutical career at Berlex Biosciences, a subsidiary of Bayer/Schering AG, where he held positions of increasing responsibility. Raju is responsible for the discovery of multiple small molecule drug candidates that have entered clinical trials. He is the inventor of MINNEBRO®, an approved therapeutic for hypertension. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor on 64 issued US patents. Raju received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Illinois and a Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.
John brings more than 25 years of small molecule drug discovery and development experience to the company, primarily in the areas of immunology, inflammation, oncology and metabolic disease. Prior to joining Ventyx, John was Vice President of Drug Discovery at the Ferring Research Institute where he was responsible for global drug discovery activities. John also previously served as Senior Vice President of Chemistry at Exelixis. Under his leadership, his teams have advanced more than 30 molecules into the clinic. He is the co-inventor of the approved therapeutics COMETRIQ®/CABOMETYX® and MINNEBRO®, and led the team that discovered COTELLIC®. Earlier in his career, he held positions of increasing responsibility in discovery at Chiron and served as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. John has more than 80 publications and 30 issued patents. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Kansas, a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow in organic synthesis at Stanford University.
Matthew is our Chief Operating Officer and has over 25 years of transactional and operational experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Before joining Ventyx, he served as Chief Business Officer at Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc., where he led corporate strategy, business development and project management functions. Earlier in his career, Matthew held positions of increasing responsibility at AbbVie, Allergan and its predecessor companies, Actavis and Forest Labs, where he was responsible for creating and executing business development growth strategies across multiple therapeutic areas including medical aesthetics, neuroscience, anti-infectives, and critical care. Matthew started his career in the healthcare investment banking group at CIBC Oppenheimer. Matthew earned his BA in psychology from Trinity College.
Mark serves as our Chief Medical Officer. Mark is a physician scientist with deep expertise in clinical drug development. Prior to joining Ventyx, Mark served as Chief Medical Officer at Passage Bio, where he oversaw and managed their research and development portfolio focused on gene therapies for central nervous system disease. Dr. Forman has nearly two decades of experience in translational research for neurological disorders, including positions of increasing responsibility at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, and Merck. Earlier in his career, Mark was an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania. Mark received his Ph.D. at Rockefeller University, M.D. at Duke University and B.S. at Yale University.
Sheila Gujrathi, MD
Executive Chair
Sheila is the co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Gossamer Bio, Inc. She serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of ADARx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and as a Director at Janux Therapeutics, Inc. She previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc. and on the Board of Directors at Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Amgen Inc.) and Ambrx, Inc. (acquired by a consortium of investors). Prior to Gossamer Bio, Sheila served as Chief Medical Officer of Receptos, Inc. (acquired by Celgene Corp.). At Receptos, she built the development, regulatory and quality organizations and advanced the pipeline of drug candidates, including Zeposia®, which is approved for multiple sclerosis and for ulcerative colitis. Prior to Receptos, Sheila was Vice President of the Global Clinical Development Group in Immunology at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), where she led clinical development and supported numerous global regulatory filings and approvals for Orencia® and Nulojix®. She was also an immunoscience franchise leader with strategic oversight over the BMS immunology clinical and discovery pipeline and business development activities. Prior to BMS, Sheila held roles in the immunology, tissue growth and repair clinical development groups at Genentech, Inc. where she worked on Ocrevus®, Rituxan®, Xolair®, and a number of other programs across all stages of development and served as the Avastin® franchise team leader. Earlier in her career, she was a management consultant in McKinsey & Company’s healthcare practice. Sheila received both her MD in the accelerated Honors Program in Medical Education and her BS in Biomedical Engineering with highest distinction from Northwestern University. She completed her internal medicine internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and additional fellowship training in allergy/immunology at UCSF and Stanford.
Raju Mohan, PhD
Founder, CEO & Director
Raju founded Ventyx Biosciences and has served as a member of our Board of Directors since the company’s inception. Prior to Ventyx, Raju founded Akarna Therapeutics, which was acquired by Allergan for up to $1.2B. In addition to Ventyx, Raju has founded Oppilan Pharma, Zomagen Biosciences and Vimalan Biosciences, all immunology-focused specialty pharmaceutical companies. From 2006 to 2011, Raju served as Vice President and head of the San Diego site for Exelixis and Vice President of Chemistry at X-Ceptor Therapeutics (acquired by Exelixis). Raju started his pharmaceutical career at Berlex Biosciences, a subsidiary of Bayer/Schering AG, where he held positions of increasing responsibility. Raju is responsible for the discovery of multiple small molecule drug candidates that have entered clinical trials. He is the inventor of MINNEBRO®, an approved therapeutic for hypertension. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor on 64 issued US patents. Raju received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Illinois and a Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Onaiza Cadoret-Manier
Independent Director
Ms. Onaiza Cadoret-Manier currently serves as CEO of a stealth biotech company and as an advisor to Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Previously she was an Executive Vice President, Chief Global Product Strategy and Operations at Ionis. Prior to Ionis, she served as the Chief Commercial Officer for Grail Biosciences. Prior to Grail, she served as Vice President of the immunology franchise at Genentech. Ms. Cadoret-Manier also has held multiple senior management positions overseeing corporate strategy, alliances and marketing and sales for Genentech, Pfizer and Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Cadoret-Manier currently serves on the board of Ardelyx. Onaiza has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting from Queens College of City University of New York.
Allison J. Hulme, Ph.D.
Independent Director
Dr. Allison Hulme currently serves as Chief Executive Officer, President and a board member of Aeovian Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this, she served as Chief Operating Officer, Head of Research and Development and a board member at Sophiris Bio. Prior to joining Sophiris, Dr. Hulme served as the Executive Vice President and Head of Global Development at Elan Corporation. Before Elan, Dr. Hulme held several positions in clinical research at Glaxo Wellcome Pharmaceuticals and was a lecturer in biological sciences at University of Bedfordshire. Dr. Hulme holds a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Cranfield Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Combined Sciences from Luton University in 1985.
Somu Subramaniam
Board of Directors
Somu is the co-founder and Managing Partner of New Science Ventures (NSV). Somu serves on the Board of Directors of Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, BrightVolt, Cambridge Epigenetix, Dali Wireless, Ferric, Inc, NorthSea Therapeutics, Oxyrane, ProterixBio, Ralexar Therapeutics, Resolve Therapeutics, Svelte Medical Systems, Vascular Therapies and Zeotap GmbH. Somu has also served on the Boards of Dezima Pharma (acquired by Amgen), Ception Therapeutics (acquired by Cephalon), BioVex (acquired by Amgen), Lightwire (acquired by Cisco), K2M (acquired by Welsh Carson) and Akarna Therapeutics (acquired by Allergan). Prior to founding NSV, Somu was a Director at McKinsey & Company where he advised leading multinational companies in the pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, photonics, software and semiconductor industries. At McKinsey, Somu was leader of the Strategy Practice, the Technology Practice, the Biotechnology Group, and the Healthcare Practice. He also served on the firm’s Investment Committee and led its Equity Portfolio Committee. Somu holds a B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
William White, JD
Independent Director
Bill currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Development at Akero Therapeutics, a publicly traded biotechnology company. Prior to joining Akero, Bill spent 18 years as a life-science-focused investment banker. He was most recently Head of US Life Sciences Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank, and previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Prior to his time on Wall Street, Bill was an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell, and a Law Clerk to the Honorable Kimba M. Wood of the Southern District of New York. He holds an AB from Princeton University, MPP from Harvard University, and a JD from Columbia University.
Alexa Kimball, MD
Advisory Board
Alexa is CEO and President of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a large academic multi-specialty group that includes Harvard Medical School faculty. A Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, Alexa’s areas of research include psoriasis and hidradenitis suppurativa. She has published over 340 papers, conducted over 150 clinical trials, has extensive experience in drug development and was recognized by Fierce HealthCare with a Women of Influence Award in 2020. Alexa received her MD from the Yale School of Medicine, her MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Public and International Affairs from Princeton University.
James G. Krueger, MD, PhD
Advisory Board
James is the Director of the Milstein Medical Research Program and D. Martin Carter Professor in Clinical Investigation at Rockefeller University in New York. James’ group at Rockefeller was the first to conduct clinical trials with specific, targeted immune antagonists in psoriasis. Recent focuses of his group include definition of new inflammatory pathways, as well as new types of inflammatory cells in psoriasis lesions that are now being targeted with new biologic drugs. James is certified by the American Board of Dermatology. He earned his PhD in Virology and Cell Biology from the Rockefeller University. He earned an MD from Cornell University Medical College, where he also completed his internship in internal medicine and residency in dermatology.
Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD
Advisory Board
Emma is the System Chair of the Department of Dermatology, and the Waldman Professor of Dermatology and Immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. She is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Eczema and the Laboratory for Inflammatory Skin Diseases and current President of the International Eczema Council/ICE. Emma’s major research focus areas are atopic dermatitis (AD)/eczema and alopecia areata. Her research has included paradigm-shifting discoveries on the immunologic basis of AD/eczema in both adults and children, opening the door for novel, pathway-specific drugs to treat this disease. Emma earned her MD from Sackler School of Medicine at the Tel-Aviv University, and her PhD degree from the Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Bruce Sands, MD, MS
Advisory Board
Bruce is the Dr. Burrill B. Crohn Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. After completing a GI fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School and served as the Acting Chief of the Gastrointestinal Unit at MGH before moving to Mount Sinai in 2010 as Chief of the Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology. Bruce is widely recognized for his clinical investigations of new therapeutics for the inflammatory bowel diseases and has published over 250 original manuscripts. He was the lead investigator of the landmark studies ACCENT 2, UNIFI and VARSITY, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Bruce received his BA and MD from Boston University, and trained in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Luisa Salter-Cid, PhD
Advisory Board
Luisa currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Pioneering Medicines. Prior to joining Pioneering Medicines, Luisa was Chief Scientific Officer at Gossamer Bio. Previously, she spent 13 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, most recently as Vice President and Head of Immunology, Small Molecule Immuno-Oncology and Genomics Discovery. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, she was a Senior Project Leader at La Jolla Pharmaceuticals and held positions at Genset Corp and Johnson & Johnson. She has authored over 80 publications and patents and holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Miami.
Ventyx Biosciences, Inc.
12790 El Camino Real
Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92130