Anshul Thakral

Anshul Thakral

 
Anshul has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries as a general manager, management consultant, commercial leader and entrepreneur. Most recently, he served as Chief Commercial Officer and EVP of Peri and Post-Approval Services at PPD. He started his career at PPD as Global Head of PPD Biotech and under his leadership PPD became a market leader for CRO services in the Biotech segment. Before PPD, Anshul ran the global life sciences business unit at Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), where he created a customer business model to serve the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Prior to GLG, he worked at McKinsey, where he was an associate principal in the health care practice. He currently serves on the boards of TriNetX, Saama Technologies, Orsini Specialty Pharmacy and Opthea Ltd. (observer).

Anshul earned his B.S and M.S.E in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

 

 

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Melanie Weinsten

Melanie Weinsten

 
Most recently, Melanie worked as an Associate at The Carlyle Group, focused on private equity opportunities in the healthcare sector. Prior to Carlyle, Melanie was an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group, where she advised clients on sell-side and buy-side M&A transactions.
 
Melanie earned her B.A. in economics, with minors in mathematics and neuroscience, from the University of Pennsylvania.
 

 

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James Cornwall, PhD

James Cornwall, PhD

 
James has close to 30 years professional experience in the pharmaceutical and CRO industries, working across a range of disciplines including academic research, clinical development, corporate development and investing. He works with the Abingworth investment team to source and evaluate new clinical co-development (CCD) investment opportunities and supports existing CCD investments.

Prior to joining Abingworth and Launch Therapeutics, James was Chief Business Officer at Nuvelution, a specialist CCD investment company. Before Nuvelution, he was with IQVIA as head of corporate development and regional board member for the Asia Pacific region, and previously with NovaQuest, Quintiles internal investment group, where he led multiple investments in Europe and the USA. James started his career in clinical research with positions of increasing responsibility at GSK, before moving to Quintiles in global operations and sales roles. He is a founder at Ninnion LLC and President US-Asia Pharma Advisory LLC.

James has a BSc in Pharmacology and a PhD in Neuropharmacology from the University of Bristol, UK, where he published over twenty peer reviewed papers. He completed postgraduate training in Executive Leadership, from the University of North Carolina Kenan Flagler Business School.
 

 

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Scott Brun, MD

Scott Brun, MD

 
Scott brings over twenty years of strategic and operational experience within the pharmaceutical industry. Scott most recently served as AbbVie’s VP Scientific Affairs and Head of AbbVie Ventures. Under his leadership, the ventures group expanded its investment portfolio to include over 20 active companies. In addition, Scott served as one of AbbVie’s primary spokespersons for R&D to global media, governmental officials and investors. Previously, as VP and Head of Pharmaceutical Development, he led the global organization responsible for the development of AbbVie’s portfolio of early and late-stage clinical preregistration pipeline compounds as well as marketed compounds within therapeutic areas including oncology, neurology, immunology, renal, infectious disease and women’s/men’s health. Prior to AbbVie’s launch, Scott held positions of increasing responsibility in drug development within R&D at Abbott Laboratories. Currently Scott sits on the boards of Axial Therapeutics and Horizon and serves as a Venture Partner at Abingworth. Scott earned his MD at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.
 

 

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Carlos Paya, MD, PhD

Carlos Paya, MD, PhD

 
Carlos is the former CEO of Immune Design Corp., a late-stage Immunotherapy company which was acquired by Merck & Co. in April 2019. He previously served as President of Elan Pharmaceuticals and spent several years with Eli Lilly and Co. in discovery research and clinical development leadership roles, including Global Leader of the diabetes and endocrine franchise. Prior to his industry roles, Carlos spent nearly a decade at the Mayo Clinic-Rochester where his roles included Professor of Medicine, Immunology and Pathology, and Vice Dean of the clinical investigation program. Carlos is a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Mallinckrodt, Highlight Therapeutics and Fluidigm.

After receiving his medical and doctorate degrees from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid Medical School, Dr. Paya completed his specialty training in Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. He was a research scientist in a post-doctoral position at Institute Pasteur in Paris and completed the advanced management program at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
 

 

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