Fortis was founded based on technology exclusively licensed from UCSF and developed in the laboratory of Bin Liu, Ph.D. The Company’s investors include Avalon Ventures, Bregua Corporation, Lilly Asia Ventures, Osage University Partners, Vivo Capital, the Myeloma Investment Fund, the venture philanthropy fund of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and Fulcrum 2020, LLC, which shares a portion of its profits with the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) to fund future research.
Fortis Therapeutics is located in COI Pharmaceuticals, Avalon’s Community of Innovation, in San Diego.
Jay B. Lichter, Ph.D. is an experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical business executive and investor with 25 years of experience in management, scientific research, and business development. Throughout his career, Dr. Lichter has applied his exceptional combination of business acumen and deep technical knowledge to creating commercially successful biotech companies and identifying the commercial potential of scientific discoveries at their earliest stages. Dr. Lichter was an Avalon entrepreneur for four portfolio companies in Avalon V, Avalon VI and Avalon VII. Prior to his work with Avalon, Dr. Lichter got his PhD from the University of Illinois and did postdoctoral research at Yale and Dupont Merck Pharmaceuticals company. During his tenue as a managing director at Avalon, Dr. Lichter led 25 investments. Between Avalon V and VI, Dr. Lichter worked as a licensing executive for Pfizer. Dr. Lichter has executed over $6B in transactions and is the inventor on over 250 patents and patent applications.
Marc Nasoff brings over 35 years of industry experience to COI Pharmaceuticals and currently serves as the company’s chief scientific officer. Most recently, he served as the director of biologics at GNF, a subsidiary of Novartis Pharma, where he worked closely with Novartis Biologics on the development of human therapeutic antibodies. Before moving to San Diego to become research director for Pharmacia, Dr. Nasoff worked at Genetics Institute in Boston. Dr. Nasoff received his Ph.D. in microbial genetics from the University of Maryland. This was followed by postdoctoral training in organic synthesis at the University of Colorado. Dr. Nasoff has authored more than 50 patents and 30 publications.
F. Andrew Dorr is a medical oncologist with a long history of successful cancer drug development experience, with leadership participation in the development of Eulexin (flutamide) for prostate cancer, Taxol (paclitaxel), Nolvadex (tamoxifen), Evista (raloxifene) and Talzenna (talazoparib) for breast cancer, Gemzar (gemcitabine) in pancreatic and non-small cell lung cancers, Treanda (bendamustine) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, as well as Avastin (bevacizumab) in glioblastoma. Dr. Dorr has had a successful consulting business in cancer drug development since 2005. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Salmedix Inc., Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Isis (now Ionis) Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He also served as clinical research physician and medical advisor at Eli Lilly & Company where he was responsible for the strategy for Lilly’s cancer pipeline from pre-clinical through Phase III development. While at the National Cancer Institute, he was responsible for national clinical trial programs in breast, prostate, kidney, bladder and testicular cancers, as well as melanoma. Dr. Dorr has over 60 publications on drug development in books and journals. Dr. Dorr received his B.S. degree from Davidson College and holds his M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Post brings more than three decades of pharmaceutical experience spanning companies of all sizes. He served as chief scientific officer of BioMarin, a publicly held biopharmaceutical firm with a focus on rare diseases. He joined BioMarin when the company acquired LEAD Therapeutics, where he was CSO, and was responsible for inception as well as subsequent development of talazoparib until it was sold to Medivation by BioMarin. Positions prior to LEAD included senior vice president of research and development for Onyx Pharmacueticals and vice president of discovery research for Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Post holds a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan.
Tighe Reardon joined Avalon in 2014. Mr. Reardon has over 22 years of senior finance and technical tax experience ranging from start-ups to large public companies. Mr. Reardon is also CFO of the Accelerator and all portfolio companies within the Accelerator. Mr. Reardon served as Acting CFO of Synthorx (THOR) through its IPO and through its eventual sale to Sanofi, as well as Sitari Pharmaceuticals and Calporta through their sales transactions. Mr. Reardon serves on the board of directors of AristaMD, Cellular Approaches, Nerio, PDI and RQX Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Jay B. Lichter, Ph.D. is an experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical business executive and investor with 25 years of experience in management, scientific research, and business development. Throughout his career, Dr. Lichter has applied his exceptional combination of business acumen and deep technical knowledge to creating commercially successful biotech companies and identifying the commercial potential of scientific discoveries at their earliest stages. Dr. Lichter was an Avalon entrepreneur for four portfolio companies in Avalon V, Avalon VI and Avalon VII. Prior to his work with Avalon, Dr. Lichter got his PhD from the University of Illinois and did postdoctoral research at Yale and Dupont Merck Pharmaceuticals company. During his tenue as a managing director at Avalon, Dr. Lichter led 25 investments. Between Avalon V and VI, Dr. Lichter worked as a licensing executive for Pfizer. Dr. Lichter has executed over $6B in transactions and is the inventor on over 250 patents and patent applications.
Mahendra G. Shah, Ph.D. is a highly successful pharmaceutical entrepreneur and executive who has been at Vivo Capital since March 2010. He is also the founder and executive chairman of Semnur Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Shah currently serves as chairman of the board of Essentialis Therapeutics, board member of Biotie Therapies (NASDAQ: BITI), and a member of the board of trustees of St. John’s University. He is also a board member and charter member of EPPIC and a charter member of TIE.
From September 2005 to December 2009, he was the founder, chairman, and CEO of NextWave Pharmaceuticals, a pediatric-focused specialty pharmaceutical company, which was sold to Pfizer for a total of $700 million in upfront and milestone payments. From 1993 to May 2003 he was the chairman and CEO of First Horizon Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded specialty pharmaceutical company, where he raised over $200 million and built a highly profitable company before it was sold to Shionogi Pharmaceuticals for $1.4 billion. From 1991 to October 1999, he was vice president of E. J. Financial Enterprises, Inc., which manages a fund that invests in healthcare companies. He previously served on the boards of Unimed Pharmaceuticals (UMED), Introgen Therapeutics (INGN), Inpharmakon, Protomed, Structural Bioinformatics, and Zarix.
From 1987 to 1991 he was the senior director of new business development with Fujisawa USA (Astellas). Prior to that time, he worked in various scientific and management positions with Schering-Plough and Bristol Myers-Squibb. Dr. Shah received his Ph.D. in industrial pharmacy from St. John’s University and his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Pharmacy from L.M. College of Pharmacy in Gujarat, India.
Judith Li, is a Partner with Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV). Prior to joining LAV, she previously worked at McKinsey and Company’s New York office, focusing exclusively on pharmaceutical and medical devices, health insurance and healthcare provider engagements, Partners Healthcare, Harvard’s umbrella hospital network, where she focused on hospital administration, and co-founded a start-up focused on interventional nephrology. Judith holds a Bachelor’s in biology from Harvard and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Stefan Heller, Ph.D. is the Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. He has served as Director of Research and then Vice-Chair of Research in the Research Division of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He is also a primary faculty member of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Heller’s research is focused on regenerative medicine in the inner ear. He employs molecular and single-cell transcriptomic methods and he works on developing stem cell-based cellular drug screening assays. Dr. Heller has served as an advisor for Otonomy, an Avalon Ventures company, and he is currently a scientific advisor for Pipeline Therapeutics. Dr. Heller currently serves as a board member for Janux Therapeutics, Adanate, Fortis, and Nerio Therapeutics. Prior to joining Stanford University, Dr. Heller was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. He held a postdoctoral position at The Rockefeller University and obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.