CMO Insights and Advice on Tailoring Your Pitch to Investors

Dr. Howard Rutman is the CMO of Xalud Therapeutics where he oversees the development of plasmid-DNA based therapies for inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. Since joining Xalud in April 2021, Dr Rutman has been responsible for the development program for XT-150, an IL-10 based transgene therapy that has completed 5 clinical trials for arthritic conditions. The clinical neuroinflammation program targeting ALS has recently begun with an ongoing Phase 1 study. Dr Rutman serves as the scientific face of Xalud in discussions with investors and potential partners. He has appeared on numerous biotech panels related to gene therapy development programs. Prior to joining Xalud, Dr Rutman was VP of Medical Affairs for Daiichi Sankyo US. In that role, he led the Medical Affairs group across all therapeutic areas to enhance the awareness of Daiichi Sankyo approved and clinical stage products through the generation, interpretation and exchange of high quality medical and scientific information for internal and external stakeholders. While at Daiichi Sankyo he had a leadership role in launches across multiple therapeutic areas including cardiovascular thrombosis, pain and oncology. Previously, Dr Rutman was at Pfizer as Global Medical Affairs lead for multiple monoclonal antibody biosimilars that were developed in oncology and immunology. Dr Rutman began his career as a New York-based academic cardiologist with a focus on managing patients with chronic congestive heart failure. He received a BA in Biochemical Sciences and Molecular Biology from Harvard, an MD from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from NYU-Stern. Dr Rutman completed his medical residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and his cardiology fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He remains on the teaching faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Dr Daniel Chung is the Chief Medical Officer for SparingVision, an ocular genomic medicine company, focusing on gene agnostic gene therapy and CRISPR gene editing approaches to combat blinding diseases. Prior to his recruitment to SparingVision, Dr. Chung was the Ophthalmology Therapeutic Leader for Spark Therapeutics, Where he led the medical affair group and contributed to areas of clinical development and operations, marketing, commercial, patient advocacy, pre-clinical research and development and business development. Dr. Chung was intimately involved with the development of Luxturna, the first gene therapy approved by the FDA and EMA for use in a blinding genetic disease.Prior to joining Spark Therapeutics, at the Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania, working in retinal gene therapy. Also serving as a sub-PI on the RPE65 gene therapy clinical trial at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and made major contribution to the development of the Phase 3 MLMT novel endpoint, was PI of the MLMT study, and the RPE65 Natural History Study. He completed his ophthalmology residency at Summa Health Systems in Akron, Ohio. He then completed fellowships in pediatric ophthalmology and ocular genetics research at the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, and in retinal gene therapy at the National Eye Institute/NIH in Bethesda, MD.

Scott Harris has served as Chief Medical Officer of Altimmune (NASDAQ: ALT), a publicly traded company developing next generation peptide therapeutics for obesity and liver disease, since 2019. He has 20 years of experience of development in gastroenterology, hepatology and metabolism therapeutics. He co-founded Lyric Pharmaceuticals in 2015, where he raised a $20.8 M Series A financing round and served as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr Harris also served as Chief Medical Officer of Avaxia Biologics and Ocera Therapeutics, and he headed clinical development at Napo Pharmaceuticals, where he authored the ADVENT study, the first Phase 2/3 adaptive trial to result in a drug approval (Mytesi®, 2012). He has collaborated with the FDA Division of Gastroenterology and the American Gastroenterological Association on sponsored forums on drug development and clinical trial design. Dr Harris has an MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed medical residencies at John Hopkins Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania and a Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. He serves on the scientific advisory board of Protagonist Therapeutics and RedHill Biopharmaceuticals and holds a seat on the faculty of Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he teaches a graduate course in drug development.

Dr. Brown is an oncology drug development leader, with more than 16 years of translational, research, and clinical development expertise in the areas of oncology, immunology, and neurology.Dr. Brown joined Zai Lab from Nurix Therapeutics where he held various clinical development roles of increasing responsibility, most recently he served as Executive Vice President, Clinical Development. Prior to Nurix, he led clinical development programs for a wide variety of products in the areas of oncology, immunology, and neurology for companies including Allogene Therapeutics, Aduro Biotech, and Iovance Biotherapeutics.In addition to his drug development expertise, Dr. Brown is a trained pediatric oncologist and neuro-oncologist, having served as a physician at Yale University, the City of Hope National Medical Center, and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as well as in academic roles at the University of Southern California and the University of California Los Angeles.Dr. Brown received an M.D. from the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and a B.S. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.