Company

Philip received his PhD degree in Cardiovascular Pharmacology from the University of Iowa, USA (1989) and graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy (Paris XI University) in 1984. He started his career at Servier where he contributed to the discovery of ivabradine as a co-inventor. Until the end of 2020 he was the head of Cardiovascular Research at Sanofi focusing on the development of new treatments in selected areas of unmet medical need where emerging science and a better understanding of human disease biology can be intersected with heart failure at the core. During his career he developed a long standing experience in the management of international R&D groups and in leading multiple research collaborations with biotechs (ie. MyoKardia) and academic institutions (ie. IMI).

Mark is a physician and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in the life sciences. Most recently he served as Chairman and Chief Execuve Officer of Versanis Bio where he spearheaded the development of novel therapies for obesity and other cardiometabolic diseases unl the company’s acquision in 2023 by Eli Lilly and Company. Prior to joining Versanis, he founded and was the longstanding Chief Execuve Officer of Intercept Pharmaceucals (ICPT). At Intercept, he pioneered a novel regulatory and development strategy in chronic nonviral liver diseases that resulted in the successful global commercializaon of the first-in-class FXR agonist obecholic acid for the treatment of primary biliary cholangis (PBC), marketed in more than 40 countries under the brand name OCALIVA™. He also led the effort to establish the regulatory, development and commercial basis for therapies targeng nonalcoholic steatohepas (NASH), which has become a leading reason for liver failure due to the global obesity epidemic. Mark is currently a member of the Board of Directors of several biotechnology companies, the Emerging Company Secon of the Biotechnology Innovaon Organizaon (BIO), and the Foundaon for Defense of Democracies. Mark received his M.D. from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, a M.A. degree in Internaonal Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced Internaonal Studies in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C., and a B.A. degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada

Thierry Laugel co-founded Kurma Partners in 2009 and currently serves as managing partner. Additionally, he is currently a board member of Corteria Pharma, Amolyt Pharma, Ermium, Coave Therapeutics, Minoryx, Blink Biomedical and Pathoquest, and is President of Argobio Studio. Dr. Laugel started his career in the industry (Laboratoires Fournier and Flamel Technologies), before moving to investments (Caisse des Dépôts and then AGF Private Equity) before launching Kurma. Dr. Laugel has led investments in more than 25 companies. He earned his PharmD from Strasbourg University, Ph.D. from Paris South University and MBA from INSEAD.

Aidan co-founded Fountain Healthcare Partners in 2008 and currently serves as a managing partner. Aidan is a pharmacist by training and started his industry career at Elan Corporation in pharmaceutical strategic marketing and business development before moving to New York to work in Elan’s corporate venture capital group. Aidan is a CFA charterholder and has led investments in over 30 private and public life science companies in the US and Europe.

Erez Chimovits is a Partner on the Private Equity team. Mr. Chimovits has 14 years of operational experience, including 10 years of senior managerial experience in public companies. Prior to joining OrbiMed, he was the CEO of NasVax. NasVax acquired Protea and struck Erez Chimovits is a Partner at OrbiMed Advisors LLC. Mr. Chimovits has 14 years of operational experience, including 10 years of senior managerial experience in public companies. Prior to joining OrbiMed, he was the CEO of NasVax. NasVax acquired Protea and struck agreements with GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. Previously, Mr. Chimovits spent more than seven years with Compugen, as President, Compugen USA Inc. and Executive VP, Commercial Operations. At Compugen, he had P&L responsibility for more than 100 people and led multiple transactions including J&J, Novartis, Teva, Abbott, Medarex and others. Mr. Chimovits earned his M.B.A., M.Sc. in Microbiology and his B.Sc. from Tel Aviv University.

Andreas Wallnoefer has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, including 14 years as a member of the F. Hoffmann-La Roche Pharma R&D Executive Leadership team. Andreas is Partner at Jeito Capital, a global leading investment company. Prior to joining Jeito, he was General Partner at BioMedPartners, a Swiss based venture capital firm. As an investor, Andreas has successfully developed innovative companies and has been a board member of several European biotech companies. Prior to his career in Venture, he has been Head of Cardiovascular and Metabolism (CVM) R&D at Roche and member of the Roche/Genentech R&D Committee. Andreas was part of several successful product developments and market introductions. Before the integration of Genentech (now a wholly owned member of The Roche Group), Andreas was Global Head of Clinical Research and Exploratory Development and led the R&D organization at multiple sites in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. He had a key role in the integration of the Roche and Genentech development organizations and subsequently led Roche’s Early Development Department. Andreas holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Basel, degrees in Pharmaceutical Medicine and was trained as a clinical research fellow at the Centre of Human Drug Research at the University Hospital of Leiden, Netherlands. He also holds an Executive MBA from IMD Lausanne.

Ward is Principal at V-Bio Ventures, which he joined in 2016. He has a PhD in molecular biology from VIB/Ugent, and held research positions at the John Innes Centre and Harvard Medical School. Prior to V-Bio Ventures, Ward worked as a senior analyst at Candriam Investors Group in Brussels.

Marc Semigran, MD is a cardiologist with subspecialty expertise in cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and cardiac transplantation. He was Senior Vice President of Medical Sciences and Chief Medical Officer at MyoKardia (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in Nov. 2020). There, he led the early development of mavacamten for the treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, as well as development of other pipeline agents for the treatment of cardiomyopathy. Prior to joining MyoKardia, Dr. Semigran led the Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Program at Massachusetts General Hospital as Section Head and Medical Director. Dr. Semigran was a member of the internal medicine and cardiology staff of Massachusetts General Hospital for more than 25 years and as associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Semigran has published numerous peer-reviewed papers, received many research awards, served as a principal investigator in major clinical trials, and served in scientific and medical advisory capacities to companies such as GSK, Medtronic, and Bayer. Dr. Semigran earned AB, AM and MD degrees from Harvard University. He completed his internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital.