Christopher O’Donnell
Company: Pfizer Ventures
Job title: Partner & Vice President of Worldwide Business Development
Bio:
Christopher O’Donnell, PHD is a Partner at Pfizer Ventures and Vice President, Worldwide Business Development. Chris is responsible for identifying, evaluating, making and managing equity investments aligned with the future directions of Pfizer. He currently has responsibility for Pfizer’s investments in Arrakis Therapeutics, Circle Pharma, Enlaza Therapeutics, Incendia Therapeutics, Kestrel Therapeutics, MindImmune, Nimbus, Pyxis Oncology (PYXS), Storm Therapeutics, Strata Oncology and Triana Biomedicine. He is also responsible for managing our investment in the Avant Bio, Mission BioCapital and Phoenix Venture Partners funds. His prior investment responsibilities include Adapsyn Bioscience, Arkuda Therapeutics, BioAtla (BCAB), Kymera Therapeutics (KYMR), Mitokinin, Morphic Therapeutic (MORF) and Petra Pharma.
Chris brings 25+ years of scientific leadership, a strong track record of delivering clinical candidates across multiple disease areas and modalities, and proven ability to build and lead highly engaged teams. He built and led the Applied Synthesis Technologies group within Pfizer R&D to help accelerate the delivery of Pfizer’s small molecule portfolio. Prior to that, Chris built and led Pfizer’s Antibody Drug Conjugate Oncology Medicinal Chemistry group which delivered new linker, payload and conjugation methods resulting in over 10 conjugates entering clinical development. Chris started his career in the Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry group where he invented and helped deliver numerous clinical candidates.
Chris received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign and his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined Pfizer after completing post-doctoral studies at the University of California – Irvine.
Seminars:
Panel Discussion: Building Strategic Collaborations & Investment Pathways to Accelerate RNA-Targeted Drug Discovery Across Biotech & Pharma 8:45 am
• Discussing the importance of pharma-biotech-academic collaborations and what each sector can provide to successfully create RNA-targeted therapeutics • How are large pharma and biotech companies structuring risk-sharing partnerships to access innovation and accelerate RNA-targeted therapeutic pipelines • How can early-stage companies leverage academic collaborations, tool compound sharing and co development deals to validate targets…Read more
day: Conference Day Two