West-China Biotech Collaboration Dynamics

Holger Kissel, Ph.D., serves as Senior Vice President Scientific Relations & Liaison at BioNTech. Being a part of the Company since 2013, he assumed this role in 2023. With an extensive background in business development and licensing, he is dedicated to advancing global health initiatives and fostering public-private partnerships.In his previous roles as Vice President Business Alliances and Director Business Development at BioNTech, Holger played a pivotal role in establishing the Company’s extensive corporate and scientific network, resulting in numerous in- and out-licensing deals, including collaborations with Genentech and Pfizer. The latter resulted in the joint development of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, Holger was responsible for managing key collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotech companies as well as academic partners. Prior to joining BioNTech, Holger served as the Head of Oncology Program as part of the Global Business Development team at Taconic Biosciences GmbH, where he led strategic initiatives to position the company as a leading contract research organization in pre-clinical cancer research. Holger holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Hamburg. Conducting research at the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York during his Ph.D. and working as a postdoctoral researcher at Rockefeller University in New York, he brings a wealth of scientific expertise to his role.

Aamir Mecklai is a Managing Director within the Global Healthcare Group, based in New York. Aamir specializes in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector.Aamir Mecklai is a healthcare investment banker covering global pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies (both public and private). His product focus is on strategic advisory (i.e. M&A and strategic partnerships) and capital issuances (i.e. equity, debt, royalty, and convertibles). Aamir previously worked at Pfizer for 10 years in the global manufacturing / operations division responsible for active pharmaceutical ingredient production.Aamir holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University).

Mike Patten is Chief Strategy Officer of Harbour BioMed, a global biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel antibody therapeutics focusing on immunology and oncology. Mike is responsible for formulating and overseeing the global growth and business development strategies for Harbour BioMed. He leads efforts to manage and strengthen Harbour BioMed’s global strategic partner network and ecosystem, with a particular focus on high-potential markets outside of China, further enhancing Harbour BioMed’s global presence.Mike brings extensive experience and a strong track record in the biopharmaceutical industry. During his tenure at Bristol Myers Squibb, he held several key leadership roles. Most recently, as Head of Equity & Venture Capital, he led and managed several strategic equity investments and LP commitments across the life science ecosystem. Prior, he held roles of increasing seniority in Business Development and Alliance Leadership, successfully executing transactions and managing multiple early- and late- stage business development alliances. In addition, Mike is a board and corporate strategy advisor to several early stage biotechs globally.

Leon ‘Jun’ Tang, PhD, is the founding partner of InScienceWeTrust BioAdvisory, a business development company focused on the US/APAC cross-border partnerships in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr Tang is also the founder of InScienceWeTrust Community, which has more than 2,000 members from the Asian biotech community. Dr Tang serves as a scientific advisor to Mianus Capital, a boutique US-based healthcare PE/VC fund currently focused on ophthalmology. He is also an advisor to BioSpark, an Asian biotech professional’s association based in Massachusetts. Previously, Dr Tang was a senior director of BD Search & Evaluation at Shanghai Henlius Biotech, a public biotech listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a biotech sell-side analyst at Barclays Investment Bank and a senior manager/senior analyst at the philanthropic venture fund of Cancer Research Institute of New York. Dr Tang has published 50+ academic papers, some of which are in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Lancet Oncology, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, Science Advances, PNAS, etc. Dr Tang received his bachelor’s degree from Tianjin University, master’s degree from Nankai University, PhD from Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai and postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Axel Hoos, MD, PhD, was most recently the CEO of Scorpion Therapeutics. Prior to this, Dr Hoos was Senior Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head, Oncology R&D at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK).As leader of the Oncology TA he oversaw both its discovery and development functions and built the Oncology portfolio of GSK across several modalities including antibodies, small molecules, bispecific molecules and cell & gene therapies. The TA’s scientific focus is on Immuno-Oncology, Epigenetics and Cell Therapy. Dr Hoos also served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the HIV Cure Center, a co-venture of GSK and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Dr Hoos further serves as Executive Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sabin Vaccine Institute (SVI), a Global Health organization, Non-executive Director on the Board of Imugene, a biotech company, Co-Chairman of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC) and Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI). He further is a Scientific Advisory Group member at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), and Industry Co-Chair of the Partnership for Acceleration Cancer Therapies (PACT) of the US Cancer Moonshot.His efforts in Medicines Development and Global Health focus on novel and transformational therapies for life-threatening diseases, scientific and procedural innovation, and broad collaboration across multiple constituents to solve complex health problems. Through his leadership, a new paradigm for the development of cancer immunotherapies has been defined, which helped launch the field of Immuno-Oncology.Previously, Dr Hoos was the Global Medical Lead in Immunology/Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) where he developed Yervoy (Ipilimumab), the first life-extending therapy in Immuno-Oncology. Before BMS, Dr Hoos was Senior Director of Clinical Development at Agenus Bio (previously Antigenics), a biotech company.Dr Hoos holds an MD from Ruprecht-Karls-University and a PhD in molecular oncology from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) both in Heidelberg, Germany. He trained in surgery at the Technical University in Munich, Germany and further in surgery, molecular pathology and tumor immunology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is an alumnus of the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.