Susan K. Whoriskey, PhD
Biotechnology Entrepreneur; pioneering scientific breakthroughs to save lives
Dr. Whoriskey has been on the Founding Executive Team of four companies. The unifying theme among the four companies: Pioneering the development of new technologies and clinical candidates to address unmet clinical needs. She always chooses to work on projects that have never been done before, but will save lives when they work.
As Head of Technology Strategy Susan has a unique role creating cohesion at the interface of research, intellectual property and business in the critical early phases of translating the scientific vision from lab bench to approved drug products. She aligns teams to conduct due diligence, establish technology proof of concept, raise additional capital to optimize the technology, and establish an intellectual property strategy to incentivize collaborations and obtain exclusivity. Success de-risks the drug development opportunity enabling the company to attract additional domain expertise to build critical mass to evolve from technology foundation through drug candidate selection and manufacturing, clinical and marketing activities.
Vera is pioneering potential first-in-class disease-modifying biologics for serious immunological diseases. Susan was on the Founding Executive Team of Vera when it came into being, evolving from Trucode Gene Repair.
Moderna pioneered the field of Messenger RNA therapeutics. In 2018, Moderna executed the largest biotech IPO ever. The Company currently has over 15 programs in clinical trials and was one of the first companies to have a COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the clinic.
Momenta pioneered the field of biogenerics achieving the first FDA approval ever for a complex mixture generic drug, M-enoxaparin, to prevent and treat deep vein thrombosis and acute coronary symptom. It was the most successful IV generic launch ever in the US, saving the U.S. health care system hundreds of millions of dollars. The company also received FDA approval for Glatopa, to treat multiple sclerosis. The strength of the technology platform allowed the company to simultaneously develop novel therapeutics to treat autoimmune diseases. Momenta was purchased by Johnson & Johnson for $6.5B in 2020.
Cubist pioneered lipopeptide antibiotics to address the serious infectious disease threats posed by emerging drug-resistant bacteria. Cubist received FDA approval for Cubicin®, the first new chemical class approved by the FDA in over 50 years, to treat drug resistant superbugs. The company became the top antibiotics company in the US and was purchased by Merck for $9.5B in 2014.