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).

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.

Peter is a Medical Doctor, educated at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich as well as Harvard Medical School and holds an MBA from INSEAD. After tenures at Großhadern University Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital followed by McKinsey & Company and several leadership positions at Novartis, he entered the Venture Capital industry. He took on responsibilities as an Investment Manager and collected valuable operational experience in various executive roles in company creations. Since January 2019 he heads the investment business of Kurma Partners in Germany.

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.

Nitza represents Omnes Capital at Corteria's board of directors. She founded her company, NtzConsulting, in 2018 and is the co-founder of Gensight Biologics (Gene therapy for ophthalmologic diseases) as well as BrainEver (Advanced medicinal products to treat neurodegenerative diseases). After a post doc at Northwestern University & Rush Hospital (Chicago, USA), she joined the pharma industry to develop medicines for neurologic and psychiatric disorders at Servier. Then, she moved to the biotech world, joining Fovea Pharma in 2009, that became Ophthalmology Division of Sanofi. She contributed to the start of Tissium, while co-founding GenSight Biologics, then BrainEver. Her salient skill remains the translation of transformative technology/science into human innovative therapeutics addressing unmet medical needs.

Luis is the founding Partner of two Venture Capital funds (Healthequity and Invivo Ventures) focused in early-stage investments in the healthcare sector, where he has led the investment strategy and transaction processes. He serves or has served at the Board of Directors of many life-sciences companies including Sanifit, Minoryx, Versantis, Glycardial Diagnostics, n-Life Therapeutics, Peptomyc, Arthex, Pulmobiotics, Gyala, Telum, OneChain Immunotherapeutics, Telomere Therapeutics and Corteria. Deeply involved in the innovation ecosystem, he is a member and advisor of many healthcare innovation organizations, and author of numerous books in the field of innovation, venture capital and healthcare. In the academic space, he teaches at several business schools about healthcare innovation and venture capital. Degree and PhD in Medicine (UB), specialist in Neurosurgery and Global Executive MBA (IESE).

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.

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.