The un­der-40s: How does the next gen­er­a­tion of bio­phar­ma ex­ec­u­tives view the fu­ture?

A group of out­stand­ing up-and-com­ing bio­phar­ma pro­fes­sion­als un­der 40 talk about their jobs, their plans and their dreams — and some of the things that just have to change about this in­dus­try.


The young stand­outs fea­tured here have worked hard to get where they are, and they’re nowhere near fin­ished. If you’re look­ing for a com­mon theme, it’s about mak­ing a dif­fer­ence — in a big way — in how peo­ple will deal with dis­ease in the fu­ture. To­geth­er, they are think­ing about groups of mil­lions that all have to be stripped down to one sin­gle case at a time.

Men­tors fig­ure promi­nent­ly for many on the list, with grat­i­tude for the help and pos­i­tive guid­ance in map­ping ca­reers that have decades to run. And it’s in­flu­enc­ing how they deal with the gen­er­a­tion com­ing up from be­hind.

No one is deny­ing the risks in­volved. They’re not keen on tra­di­tion. And they all like to sur­round them­selves with smart, savvy col­leagues.

But more than any­thing, this is a sto­ry about work­ing to change bio­phar­ma for the bet­ter — both a rev­o­lu­tion and an evo­lu­tion. That may be about push­ing new tech that can de­liv­er dra­mat­ic im­prove­ments in R&D and de­vel­op­ment pro­grams, new at­ti­tudes about work and life, or work­ing to­ward the day when thorny is­sues like gen­der di­ver­si­ty are dealt with once and for all.

None of it will be easy. But they have decades to ful­fill their dreams.

  • Yasir Al-Wa­keel: CFO, Neon Ther­a­peu­tics
  • Lau­ra Dem­ing: Founder & gen­er­al part­ner, The Longevi­ty Fund
  • Chris Gib­son: Co-founder & CEO, Re­cur­sion Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals
  • David Giljo­hann: CEO, Ex­i­cure
  • Michael Glad­stone: Prin­ci­pal, At­las Ven­ture
  • Ar­jun Goy­al: Co-founder & man­ag­ing di­rec­tor, Vi­da Ven­tures
  • Julie Pa­panek Grant: Part­ner, Canaan Ven­tures
  • Rachel Hau­r­witz: CEO, Cari­bou Bio­sciences
  • Christi­na Isac­son: Chief busi­ness of­fi­cer, Ma­gen­ta Ther­a­peu­tics
  • Cigall Kadoch: Co-founder, Foghorn Ther­a­peu­tics; As­so­ciate pro­fes­sor, Dana-Far­ber Can­cer In­sti­tute and Har­vard Med­ical School; Mem­ber, Broad In­sti­tute
  • Samarth Kulka­rni: CEO, CRISPR Ther­a­peu­tics
  • Neil Ku­mar: CEO, Bridge­Bio
  • Tim­o­thy Lu: CEO, Sen­ti Bio­sciences
  • Kush Par­mar: Man­ag­ing part­ner, 5AM Ven­tures
  • Ar­mon Sharei: CEO, SQZ
  • Alok Tayi: Co-founder & CEO, Tetra­Science
  • Ge­of­frey von Maltzahn: Part­ner, Flag­ship Pi­o­neer­ing
  • Feng Zhang: Co-founder, Ed­i­tas Med­i­cines & Ar­bor Biotech­nolo­gies; Pro­fes­sor in neu­ro­science, Mc­Gov­ern In­sti­tute for Brain Re­search at MIT; Core mem­ber, Broad In­sti­tute

7,000 words re­main in this ar­ti­cle. Please sign-in or sub­scribe to con­tin­ue read­ing.

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