Telavant, a Roivant company, is developing innovative therapies to help patients living with inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. We are proud to announce Roche has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Telavant.

Frank Torti is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Telavant and the Vant Chair at Roivant (NASDAQ: ROIV).

In his role at Roivant, Dr. Torti serves as Chairman, Executive Chairman, or CEO of the public and private biopharmaceutical companies (Vants) at Roivant and is responsible for those businesses. This group of companies has advanced over forty medicines into clinical development, produced positive phase three results in ten consecutive clinical trials, and generated over twelve billion dollars in value. In addition, companies created at Roivant have delivered six FDA approvals and have brought novel medicines in dermatology, oncology, immunology, men’s and women’s health, and rare disease to millions of patients.

During the course of his career, Dr. Torti has been Chairman of the Board of fifteen companies and served on more than thirty corporate boards. He has been involved in more than $22 billion in capital formation through fundraising, partnerships, and corporate acquisitions, and companies with which he has been involved have completed approximately twenty initial public offerings and M&A transactions.

Prior to joining Roivant, Dr. Torti was a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the largest venture capital firms in the world. In his eleven years at NEA, Dr. Torti partnered with entrepreneurial companies at all stages of their lifecycle and oversaw both early and growth stage investments in companies that were responsible for the development and commercialization of several new drugs and medical devices important to clinical medicine today. Before joining NEA, Dr. Torti worked for the Duke University Center for Clinical & Genetic Economics, where he was involved in clinical trials research and economic evaluations of clinical trials.

Dr. Torti received his BA with highest honors as a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina, his MD from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Bittoo Kanwar serves as Chief Medical Officer of Telavant. Before joining Telavant in 2023, Dr. Kanwar served as Chief Medical Officer of Applied Molecular Transport. Prior to joining Applied Molecular Transport in 2019, Dr. Kanwar held various roles at Protagonist Therapeutics, including Vice President, Clinical Development and Senior Medical Director. Dr. Kanwar also held various roles at Gilead Sciences, including Associate Director and Director of Clinical Research. Prior to joining Gilead Sciences, Dr. Kanwar was an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Gastroenterology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Kanwar holds a BS in Biology from the University of Minnesota and an MD from the University of Iowa.

Tiago Girão serves as Chief Financial Officer of Telavant. Mr. Girão has over 20 years of experience in finance, accounting and operations of global private and public biotech companies. Before joining Telavant in 2023, Mr. Girão served as Chief Financial Officer for Proteovant Therapeutics, Respivant Sciences and Cytori Therapeutics. Earlier in his career, he served roles of increasing responsibilities at NuVasive, KPMG and EY. Mr. Girão also currently serves on the Board of Directors of Landos Biopharma.

Mr. Girão holds a BS in Accounting from Unifor - Universidade de Fortaleza.

Amy Mahery serves as Chief Commercial Officer of Telavant and is the Chief Commercial Officer of Roivant Sciences. Ms. Mahery has more than twenty years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. She has held diverse global and U.S. commercial leadership roles spanning sales, marketing, and market access where she has been involved in the commercialization and launch of drugs in varied therapeutic areas including oncology, neurology, and immunology. Before joining Roivant in 2022, Ms. Mahery held multiple leadership roles at EMD Serono, Inc (Merck KGaA). Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Franchise, Neurology and Immunology at EMD Serono where she developed and led the implementation of the end-to-end franchise strategy for the N&I portfolio. Prior to that, Ms. Mahery led worldwide access strategy development across Oncology, Neurology, Immunology, Fertility, and General Medicines to create advanced approaches to pricing, reimbursement, and patient access as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Market Access and Pricing. 

Ms. Mahery holds a holds a BS in Neuroscience from Trinity College.

Srini Ramanathan serves as Chief Development Officer of Telavant and is the Chief Development Officer of Roivant Sciences. Dr. Ramanathan has worked in the biotechnology industry over twenty years and has been involved in drug approvals across ophthalmology, oncology and virology. Dr. Ramanathan was previously at Horizon Therapeutics, where he was Senior Vice President of Research and Development Sciences, with portfolio oversight of discovery, preclinical development, translational, and several development functions; he also oversaw scientific due diligence for business development evaluations. Before joining Horizon, Dr. Ramanathan served as Senior Project Leader at AbbVie, overseeing the development of multiple immunology programs for rheumatology and gastrointestinal indications. Prior to AbbVie, he served as Global Head of Clinical Pharmacology at Gilead Sciences with portfolio responsibilities across all therapeutic areas. He has been involved in various diversity and inclusion initiatives, and served on the board of the non-profit organization Asian University of Women.

Dr. Ramanathan earned his MS in Pharmaceutics from Duquesne University and his PhD in Pharmaceutics from Rutgers University.

Navneet Alag is Vice President, Governance at Roivant Sciences, where he focuses on management and growth of multiple biopharmaceutical companies in the Roivant family. Navneet joined Roivant from H.I.G. Capital where he served as a Principal on the investments team, leading investments across the healthcare sector including biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, digital health and diagnostics. Previously, Navneet was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, where he led strategy development for pharmaceutical and medical device companies with a focus on research and development, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial launch topics. Prior to McKinsey, Navneet was a research scientist at Genentech. His research was focused on non-small cell lung cancer and discovering novel therapeutic targets to overcome drug resistance.

Mr. Alag holds a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management where he was a Jacobs scholar. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.

Ameer Basrai is Senior Engineer, CMC at Roivant Sciences, where he supports CMC development of biologic programs across the Roivant family of companies. He has experience in drug substance and drug product tech transfer and GMP manufacturing, as well as downstream process development.

Mr. Basrai earned a BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Cornell University.

Joe Bishop is Vice President, Governance at Roivant Sciences, where he oversees strategic and financial operations of new biopharmaceutical companies across Roivant, including serving as Chief Financial Officer of Telavant from November 2022 to September 2023.  Before joining Roivant in 2018, he was Head of Equities at Pine River Capital Management, a $15 billion multi-strategy investment firm where he led global investment decisions across a team of multi-sector equity portfolios.

Mr. Bishop holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jason Chamberlain is Vice President, Head of Nonclinical Development at Roivant Sciences and has over 15 years of experience in drug development in the
pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Roivant, he was Senior Director in the Translational Sciences Department at Horizon Therapeutics, overseeing nonclinical safety as well as bioanalytical sciences. During his tenure at Horizon, he contributed to multiple regulatory submissions for both small molecules and protein therapeutics, resulting in the approval of TEPEZZA (teprotumumab) for the treatment of thyroid eye disease and expansion of the label for KRYSTEXXA (pegloticase) plus methotrexate for the treatment of chronic gout. Before joining Horizon, Dr. Chamberlain held multiple roles of increasing responsibility within nonclinical development at Gilead Sciences and contributed to regulatory approvals in multiple therapeutic areas.

Dr. Chamberlain received an MBA and a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Kristin Clement is Director, Analytical Development at Telavant. Dr. Clement has over 25 combined years of academic, GLP contract research, consulting, and GMP experience developing release and stability assays, specializing in quantitative MOA-based bioassays. Prior to joining Telavant in 2023, she worked as a GLP study director for 11 years at Battelle Memorial Institute working on biodefense studies researching anthrax, plague, monkey pox, and tularemia in support of DoD, NIAID, and BARDA contracts. In 2013, Dr. Clement established Bio-Val Consulting, and for nearly a decade consulted on projects including antibody detection assays in support of organophosphate nerve agent antidotes, monoclonal antibody therapeutics for cancer and migraine, and vaccines for RSV, Bordetella pertussis, influenza, and SARS-CoV2 for Operation Warp Speed. In 2020, Dr. Clement also served as Director of Analytical Development for Aruvant, where she developed cGMP release assays for lentiviral and AAV gene therapy viral vectors, as well as assays for autologous CD34+ stem cell products for the treatment of hematologic disorders.

Dr. Clement holds a BA in Biology from Capital University and a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Cincinnati.

Caroline Cooper is Director, Clinical Operations at Telavant. Ms. Cooper has over 10 years of experience in clinical research across multiple indications and phases. Before joining Telavant, she oversaw clinical operations for studies at CymaBay Therapeutics and Theravance Biopharma in gastroenterology-focused trials. Prior to that, Ms. Cooper worked in support of trials at Genentech and at a small CRO.

Ms. Cooper received a BA from Boston University in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and an MBA from University of California, Davis.

Xiao-Dong Chen is Director of CMC Operations at Roivant Sciences, where he is responsible for execution of drug product development activities including process scale-up, validation strategies and manufacturing, and technical due diligence. Dr. Chen has over 10 years of industry experience in drug product and drug-device development and manufacturing across biologics and small molecule drugs. Prior to joining Roivant in 2021, Dr. Chen held roles of increasing responsibility in formulation and process development at Bristol Myers Squibb, where he led multiple drug product development teams and contributed to several BLA and IND submissions.

Dr. Chen earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Chongqing University and a PhD from the Ohio State University.

Jean Dodge is Director, Pharmacovigilance at Roivant Sciences, where she manages drug safety operations and supports the development of new biopharmaceutical companies. She previously worked in Drug Safety & Public Health at Gilead Sciences and has over 8 years of experience in a variety of drug safety roles, including case processing, aggregate report writing, risk management, medical coding, and vendor management. She also has 7 years of experience in drug information and medical communications.

Dr. Dodge earned her double-major BA in Biochemistry and French from University of Colorado Boulder and her PharmD from University of California San Francisco. She completed a pharmacy specialty residency in drug information and medical communications and is a registered pharmacist in California.

S. Craig Dyar is a pharmaceutical research and development professional with more than 30 years of combined experience in leading global R&D project teams, developing and assessing novel drug delivery systems, conducting GxP audits of pharmaceutical companies, CROs, and CMOs, and teaching graduate level pharmacy students in Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics. During the past 12 years, Dr. Dyar has focused more on quality related issues where he has conducted numerous GxP audits in the US, Europe, and India. Dr. Dyar has also conducted investigations into product complaints and deviations, root-cause analysis, created Corrective Action Preventative Action (CAPA) plans and evaluated their effectiveness. He currently is the Senior Director of Quality Operations at Roivant. Previously, he held various positions at Parke-Davis and Pfizer, including Pharmaceutical Sciences Team Leader for Ophthalmology and later for Dermatology. 

Dr. Dyar has a BS in Biology, another BS in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences. 

Eric Gaukel has over 17 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across discovery and developmental DMPK/ADME, preclinical pharmacology, and regulated bioanalytics. Prior to joining Roivant in March 2017, he supported discovery DMPK and early development in extensive hit-to-lead and lead optimization programs in human and animal health at Scynexis, GlaxoSmithKline, and Avista Pharma Solutions. His work in these preclinical programs contributed to successful anti-infective campaigns with cyclophilin inhibitors for the treatment of hepatitis C and triterpenoid glucan synthase inhibitors for the treatment of aspergillosis and candidiasis. Additionally, in collaboration with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, he supported the early development of benzoxazoles as parasiticides for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis and visceral leishmaniasis. Mr. Gaukel began his career in clinical bioanalysis at PPD developing and validating bioanalytical methods for a multitude of small molecule drug programs.

Mr. Gaukel holds a BS degree in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a member of the American College of Toxicology.

Abe Germansderfer is Senior Director, Process Development at Telavant. He has over 25 years of industry experience supporting chemistry, manufacturing and controls as well as non-clinical statistics across a range of companies, including at Amgen, Novartis and Charles River Labs. In various roles prior to joining Telavant, he was responsible for combination product development, validation activities, and statistical process control concepts. Mr. Germansderfer has also advised on method and product transfer, qualification of new instruments and methods, drug product stability, process and product comparability, and drug substance and product specification limit setting.

Mr. Germansderfer holds a MS from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Biological Sciences with emphasis in Chemistry and Biotechnology.

Hilary Hafeken has been a regulatory professional for over 25 years, with 20 years’ experience working with electronic regulatory submissions and regulatory systems. She is Director, Head of Regulatory Operations at Roivant Sciences, supporting Roivant’s pipeline across various therapeutic areas. She has submitted numerous 510(k)s, INDs, CTAs, NDAs, BLAs, and MAAs. Ms. Hafeken’s successes include leading the change from paper to electronic submissions, implementing five EDMS/RIMS and four electronic regulatory publishing solutions, and receiving the FDA commissioner’s Special Citation for her work on structured product labeling (SPL).

Ms. Hafeken received a BA in English Literature from Drew University.

Anne Hansen is Director of Clinical Data Management at Telavant, where she oversees data collection and data integrity across clinical studies. Before joining Telavant in 2023, Ms. Hansen led the clinical data management function at both Applied Molecular Transport and Revance Therapeutics. Prior to that, she led and managed a team which supported clinical data management activities in oncology and liver disease studies at Gilead Sciences. Ms. Hansen transitioned into clinical data management at Genentech after holding positions of increasing responsibility in clinical operations.

Ms. Hansen received a BA from the University of California at Davis and an MS in Regulatory Science from Johns Hopkins University.

Coleenique Jefferson is Associate Director, Clinical Operations at Telavant. Ms. Jefferson has over 20 years of CRO, pharmaceutical, and vendor experience in clinical monitoring, project management, quality, and leadership. Ms. Jefferson has led Phase I-IV studies in the therapeutic areas of gastroenterology, hepatology, nephrology, endocrinology, and rare disease. 

Ms. Jefferson earned her BA from Peace College.

Reed Johnson serves as Vice President, Product and Portfolio Management of Telavant, where he oversees overall strategic and operational execution for all program areas. Mr. Johnson has more than 15 years of experience in late-stage drug development programs. He has held various leadership roles in Clinical Operations, Medical Affairs, and Program Manager, where he has been involved in multiple regulatory approvals and product launches in varied therapeutic areas including gastroenterology, neurology, and infectious disease. Before joining Telavant in 2023, he led the IBD portfolio strategy at Applied Molecular Transport, as the Head of Program and Portfolio Management.

Mr. Johnson holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of San Francisco.

Jeremy Lathen serves as Associate Director, Program Management at Telavant. He has over 20 years of program management and data management experience across a range of pharma and biotech companies, including Pfizer, Allergan, Genentech, Onyx and Amgen, as well as Google. Before joining Telavant in 2023, Mr. Lathen was Director of Program Management at a Bay Area startup focused on using real-world data to transform and improve the way clinical trials are conducted. He started his career as a Clinical Data Manager working on the Viagra research program at Pfizer. 

Mr. Lathen graduated from the University of Hertfordshire with a BSc in Environmental Science.

Li-Yin Lee is Associate Director of Biostatistics at Telavant, where supports development strategies and statistical needs for clinical programs. Prior to joining Telavant, she served as Associate Director of Biostatistics at Applied Molecular Transport, where she supported multiple Phase 2 studies for inflammatory bowel diseases. Earlier in her career, she spent over 13 years as the lead statistician for multiple clinical programs related to cardio rhythm management and neuromodulation therapies at Abbott's Global Biometrics team.

Dr. Lee holds an MS in Statistics from Stanford University and a PhD in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Peter Noolandi is Vice President, Head of Combination Product Development at Telavant. Mr. Noolandi has over 25 years of experience in combination product development and manufacturing of injectable products in therapeutic areas including GI, oncology, neurology, and endocrinology. Before joining Telavant, Mr. Noolandi had been leading cross-functional teams for the development and commercialization of drug delivery systems for biopharmaceuticals at several companies, including Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi, Novartis, and Amgen. Mr. Noolandi started his career in medical devices at Aptar Pharma managing projects focused on the development and manufacturing of non-invasive drug delivery systems.

Mr. Noolandi received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada and a MS in Applied Chemistry from McGill University.

Lee O’Brien has over 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry as a regulatory strategist and research scientist. Prior to joining Roivant Sciences in 2022, Dr. O’Brien worked as a regulatory strategist at several companies including Aruvant, Sarepta Therapeutics and Eli Lilly, where she developed regulatory strategy, led interactions with key global regulatory agencies and prepared plans for clinical trial applications and marketing applications in multiple countries. Her experience spans biologics, small molecules and gene therapies across therapeutic areas including GI, oncology, neurology, and endocrinology. Dr. O’Brien began her career at Eli Lilly as a research scientist developing biomarker strategies for several programs.

Dr. O’Brien received a BA in Biochemistry from Laurentian University, MSc in Biochemistry from McMaster University and a PhD in Pathology and Molecular Medicine from Queen’s University

Marie Parrish is Senior Director and Head of Regulatory CMC Strategy at Roivant Sciences. Dr. Parrish has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, in CMC, regulatory strategy, and largely in regulatory CMC strategy involving small molecules and biologics. Before joining Roviant, Dr. Parrish was Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company where she led several major submissions for small molecule and botanical programs in dermatology, immunology, oncology, and neurodegenerative disorders. Prior to that she was a regulatory lead at Glenmark, and a CMC strategist at Eli Lilly/ImClone and Sanofi.

Dr. Parrish holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Science from Rutgers University and an MS in Medicinal Chemistry from Rutgers University.

Dan Patterson has over 20 years of experience in CMC development in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Roivant in 2017, he was Vice President, CMC at Cempra, Inc. where he led development activities for an antibiotic in late phase development for community acquired bacterial pneumonia. Earlier in his career, he worked for 14+ years in the Product Development Group at GlaxoSmithKline supporting CMC programs in all phases of development including leading the development of the commercial manufacturing process for Tivicay (dolutegravir) for treatment of HIV. Throughout his career, he has focused on development of efficient, cost-effective manufacturing processes to allow for wide access to medicines.

Dr. Patterson received a BA in Chemistry from Williams College, and a PhD in Chemistry from Stanford University.

Sudhir Penugonda serves as Executive Director, Clinical Development at Roivant Sciences, where he drives a strong translational perspective based on 10+ years of integrating -omics and clinical data to identify discovery and development opportunities. Dr. Penugonda joined Roivant from AbbVie, where he served in various roles of increasing responsibility across programs in oncology, immunology and neurology. In his role as global development lead in early oncology, he oversaw development of multiple large molecule/biologics and small-molecule therapies, from lead optimization through clinical proof-of-concept. Dr. Penugonda also remains on faculty in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and continues to participate in clinical work supporting patients needing solid-organ and stem-cell transplantation and those with hematologic and solid-tumor malignancies.

Dr. Penugonda earned his MD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his MPH in Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed his Residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University.

Chrissa Rizk is Senior Director, Clinical Operations at Telavant. Ms. Rizk comes to Telavant with over 17 years of experience in clinical operations across CROs and biotech/pharmaceutical companies, including Genentech, Bristol Myers-Squibb and IQVIA. Prior to Telavant, she led numerous programs at Genentech within IBD, respiratory, cardiovascular, and rare disease.

 Ms. Rizk earned her BS in Comprehensive Science from Villanova University.

Victoria Silva is Director, CMC Biologics at Roivant Sciences, where she supports biologics programs across the pipeline. Dr. Silva has over 20 years of experience across both academia and industry. Before joining Roivant in 2021, she led a team of analytical scientists to develop methods for cell and gene therapy programs at Precision Biosciences. At Bristol Myers Squibb, she held dual role as analytical lead and bioassay scientist developing potency and characterization assays for large molecules. At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, she worked as an academic researcher and project coordinator for pre-clinical drug development programs. She began her drug development career at Sanofi-Aventis supporting molecular and general toxicology studies.

Dr. Silva holds a BS in Biology from Seton Hall University and a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from Lehigh University.

Winston Su is a Regulatory Affairs Writing Associate at Roivant Sciences, where he supports global regulatory submissions across Roivant’s pipeline.

Dr. Su earned his PharmD at Rutgers University’s School of Pharmacy.

Suzanne Vyvoda serves as Vice President and Head of Clinical Development Operations at Telavant, where she leads the clinical operations, compliance, and clinical regulatory functions and is responsible for the conduct and operational oversight of all clinical programs. Ms. Vyvoda has over 20 years of clinical trial experience across roles at study sites, CROs and biotech/pharma. She has overseen studies from Phase I-IV in multiple therapeutic areas with an emphasis on inflammation and IBD. Prior to joining Telavant, Ms. Vyvoda held positions with increasing responsibility at Applied Molecular Transport, AbbVie, Gilead, BioMarin and others.

Ms. Vyvoda earned her BS from the University of Utah.

Eric Wasserstrum is Head of Governance Transactions at Roivant Sciences, where he focuses on acquisitions of promising medicines and building new biopharmaceutical companies to develop them. Before joining Roivant in 2018, he was a corporate attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he represented companies and financial institutions in a variety of matters, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and bank financings. Prior to that, he was an economic consultant at Analysis Group, concentrating on intellectual property valuation.

Mr. Wasserstrum earned a BA in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a JD from Columbia Law School.

Emily Weng is Vice President, Head of Biometrics and Data Science of Telavant, where she is responsible for building and managing the biostatistics, clinical data management, statistical programming, and data science functions. Dr. Weng has over two decades of drug development experience across multiple therapeutic areas in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to joining Telavant, Dr. Weng was Vice President, Head of Biometrics at Applied Molecular Transport, where she built and grew the biometrics organization to enable the successful completion of multiple data readouts in inflammatory bowel disease trials. Earlier in her career, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Allergan (Now AbbVie) and Theravance Biopharma. During this time, she was instrumental in developing and launching multiple drug products in dermatology, ophthalmology, and urology.

Dr. Weng earned her MS in Epidemiology and ScD in Cancer Cell Biology with a minor in Biostatistics from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an Executive MBA from Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles.

Agata Woldanski is Associate Director of Clinical Data Management at Telavant. She has over 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as Associate Director of Clinical Data Management at Theravance. She was also a data management consultant through her own firm. Prior to that, Ms. Woldanski held various positions in Clinical Data Management at Amgen including leading a team of data managers in oncology and was involved in the development and governance of data acquisition standards.

Ms. Woldanski received a BA from University of Hawaii.

Yan Xin is Vice President, Clinical Pharmacology at Roivant Sciences, where she supports programs across Roivant’s pipeline of investigational drugs and assists the evaluation of potential new assets. She has over 16 years of experience in small and large molecule drug development in oncology, inflammation, respiratory, and rare diseases. Prior to Roivant, she built and led the clinical pharmacology and DMPK department at Horizon Therapeutics. She was previously at Gilead Sciences and Genentech.

Dr. Xin obtained her PhD at Ohio State University in Pharmacy, and has a MS in biochemical engineering (Tsinghua University) and BS in pharmaceutics from Beijing Medical University.

Frank Torti serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Telavant and is the Vant Chair at Roivant Sciences. In his role as Vant Chair, Dr. Torti serves as Chairman, Executive Chairman, or CEO of the public and private biopharmaceutical companies (Vants) at Roivant and is responsible for those businesses. This group of companies has advanced over forty medicines into clinical development, produced positive phase three results in eight consecutive clinical trials, and generated over five billion dollars in value. In addition, companies created at Roivant have delivered six FDA approvals and have brought novel medicines in dermatology, oncology, immunology, men’s and women’s health, and rare disease to millions of patients.

During the course of his career, Dr. Torti has been Chairman of the Board of fifteen companies and served on more than thirty corporate boards. He has been involved in more than $15 billion in capital formation through fundraising, partnerships, and corporate acquisitions, and companies with which he has been involved have completed approximately twenty initial public offerings and M&A transactions.

Prior to joining Roivant, Dr. Torti was a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the largest venture capital firms in the world. In his eleven years at NEA, Dr. Torti partnered with entrepreneurial companies at all stages of their lifecycle and oversaw both early and growth stage investments in companies that were responsible for the development and commercialization of several new drugs and medical devices important to clinical medicine today. Before joining NEA, Dr. Torti worked for the Duke University Center for Clinical & Genetic Economics, where he was involved in clinical trials research and economic evaluations of clinical trials.

Dr. Torti received his BA with highest honors as a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina, his MD from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Irena Melnikova is a Partner at Pfizer Ventures. She is an accomplished biopharma and finance executive with over 20 years of experience in equity financings in both public and private markets, corporate strategy, business development, and operations. Prior to Pfizer Ventures, Dr. Melnikova served as the Chief Financial Officer at Umoja Biopharma, where she was a senior member of the executive team responsible for all aspects of financial strategy and operations of the company.

Prior to Umoja, Dr. Melnikova served as a Managing Director, Biopharma Investment Banking at SVB Leerink, where she provided critical advice to biopharma companies and their boards on equity financing strategies, completing over 80 transactions raising over $9 billion for clients. Earlier in her career, she held leadership positions at Sanofi and TVM Capital; the latter - a global life sciences venture capital firm.

Dr. Melnikova holds a PhD in Molecular Medicine/Molecular Biology from the University of Texas.

Eric Venker serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Roivant Sciences. Dr. Venker first joined Roivant in 2014 and has since served in various roles of increasing responsibility, including Chief of Staff to the CEO. Prior to joining Roivant, Dr. Venker was a physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, where he trained in internal medicine. While there, Dr. Venker served as the Chair of the Housestaff Quality Council and led operational initiatives to improve efficiencies across a large hospital system with $5 billion in annual revenue. Earlier in his career, Dr. Venker was a Clinical Pharmacist at Yale-New Haven Hospital. 

Dr. Venker received his PharmD from St. Louis College of Pharmacy and his MD from Yale School of Medicine.

Jay Zhou is Executive Director, Head of Programming at Telavant. He is a seasoned programming leader with more than 25 years of clinical development experience across CRO, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies. Before joining Telavant, Mr. Zhou was the co-founder and Head of Programming Operations at Pharmapace (acquired by WuXi AppTech). He also held managerial positions in programming at MAP (acquired by Allergan, now AbbVie), Amylin (acquired by Bristol-Mayers Squibb), Quintiles, and Hoechst Marion Roussel. During those years, Mr. Zhou led clinical and statistical programming functions to support drug development programs that resulted in approvals in several therapeutic areas including metabolic, CNS, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and oncology.

Mr. Zhou received his MS from Louisiana State University and MBA from the Rady School of Management, University of California at San Diego.