Panel session 2

Innovations in Therapeutic Development for Cardiometabolic Disease

 
 
 

Industry section: Biotech & Therapeutics; Investing & Entrepreneurship

This panel will delve into cutting-edge advancements in the treatment and management of cardiometabolic diseases. Experts from across the drug development spectrum - including private biotech, pharma R&D, commercial strategy, and venture investing - will explore the latest therapeutic breakthroughs.

Specific topics include:

  1. What are the next-generation therapeutics that will transform the landscape of cardiometabolic care?

  2. How to reconcile the slower pace of innovation and investment in cardiovascular disease with the surging demand and rapid advancements in obesity treatments?

  3. What are the synergies and potential market cannibalization between the obesity and cardiovascular sectors from the rise of incretins and other upstream therapeutics?

 

Panelists

 

kristen fortney, ph.d. | ceo, bioage

Kristen Fortney is the CEO and co-founder of BioAge, a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is harnessing the biology of human aging to develop new therapies for obesity and metabolic diseases. Kristen’s scientific background is in aging biology and bioinformatics. She received her PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto, followed by postdoctoral training at Stanford. She serves as an advisor to multiple biotechnology companies.

 

katie ellias, mba | managing director, t1D fund

Katie Ellias is a seasoned healthcare investor, board member, advisor, and operator with over 20 years of experience building and investing in healthcare and life sciences companies, focused on biotechnology and medical devices. Katie was most recently a Managing Director at the T1D Fund, an evergreen, Boston-based venture philanthropy fund launched in 2017, focused on accelerating life-changing solutions to cure, prevent and treat type 1 diabetes (T1D) through equity investments. She currently serves on the board of SAB Biotherapeutics, and has previously served on the board of DiogenX, Veralox, i2O, Biolinq, Seraxis, Enthera, GentiBio, Zag Bio, Pandion (sold to Merck), Protomer (sold to Eli Lilly), and Inversago (sold to Novo Nordisk).

Katie has been a life-sciences and medical device-oriented venture capital investor in the US and Europe for over a decade, previously with Endeavour Vision, a Geneva-based growth stage venture fund, investing in medical devices and digital health companies, and at Sofinnova Partners, a leading Paris based life sciences VC, investing in medical technologies. In her prior roles she served on several medical device boards including ReCor Medical (sold to Otsuka Holdings), Shockwave Medical (NASDAQ: SWAV, sold to JNJ in 2024), and RefleXion Medical.

Prior to VC, Katie held roles in Business Development, Sales and Marketing at Medtronic in the Cardiac and Vascular businesses both in the US and in Europe.  She began her career at McKinsey & Company and Partners Healthcare in Boston. Katie holds a M.B.A. in Healthcare Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. cum laude in International Relations and Political Science from Yale University.

 
 

robert plenge, m.d., ph.d. | Executive Vice President, Chief Research Officer, Head of Research, brisol myers-sqibb

Robert Plenge, MD, PhD, executive vice president, chief research officer and head of Research, leads scientific activities across eleven research sites around the world all focused on transforming patients’ lives through science.

Prior to his current role, Robert served as head of Discovery & Translational Sciences at Bristol Myers Squibb, which spanned all therapeutic areas at the company. Robert joined BMS as part of the acquisition of Celgene in November 2019. At Celgene, he served as vice president, Immunology & Inflammation portfolio, Research & Early Development. Prior to joining Celgene, Robert was vice president and Head of Translational Medicine at Merck. 

Robert received his MD and PhD from Case Western Reserve University and holds a BS from the University of California, San Diego. He completed his internal medicine residency as a molecular medicine fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. He served as rheumatology fellow at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and postdoctoral research fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He was an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate member of the Broad Institute while practicing clinical rheumatology and running a research laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Robert is an author of more than 125 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals, and frequently posts updates to his personal blog, Plenge Gen, commenting on critical discovery moments with a focus on the resulting patient impact. He is a recipient of several academic and corporate awards and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the PhRMA Foundation.

 

Moderator

peter barrett, ph.d. | Partner, atlas venture

As a Partner at Atlas Venture since 2002, Peter has been involved in the creation of several novel therapeutic and drug discovery platform companies. He is also a Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, where he is chair of the key advisory board of the Blavatnik Fellowship Program.

Prior to joining Atlas Peter was co-founder, executive vice president, and chief business officer of Celera Genomics, which announced the first successful sequencing of the human genome in 2001. While at Celera, Peter led strategic alliances, acquisitions, and business strategy and helped launch it as a public company in 1999.

Prior to founding Celera, Peter held senior management positions at Applera, most recently serving as vice president of corporate planning and business development. During his tenure, he ran several businesses and expanded the life science business through a series of licensing agreements, partnerships, and acquisitions.

Peter serves on the boards of Synlogic, Obsidian, Revvity, and the non-profits Nucleate and Living Independently Forever.

Peter received a BS in chemistry from Lowell Technological Institute (now known as the University of Massachusetts, Lowell), and a PhD in analytical chemistry from Northeastern University. He also completed Harvard Business School’s Management Development Program.