Over the course of the Spring 2024 semester, the Business Development Seminar Series hosted three speakers with expertise in the areas of serial biotech entrepreneurship, biotech venture capital, and data analytics for biopharmaceutical quality control. Our first speaker, Francisco Leon, MD, PhD, served as the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Provention Bio, which was acquired by Sanofi in 2023. Dr. Leon spoke about the founding, IPO, FDA approval, and acquisition of his company to an audience of over fifty people during his talk titled Provention Bio’s journey – A case study in resilience and value creation. Our second speaker, Meg Krench, PhD, gave a talk titled Working in Biotech Venture Capital to an audience of over twenty-five people. Dr. Krench, Director of Investments at Sanofi Ventures, shared how she made her way into venture capital following her PhD studies, and she provided pertinent advice to attendees aspiring to do the same. Our third speaker, Vanessa Kitova, Manager of Cell Therapy Analytics at Bristol Myers Squibb, shared her talk Data Analytics in Cell Therapy Operations with an audience of thirty people. In her talk, she overviewed her company’s research on CAR T-cell therapies and highlighted how data modeling, machine learning, and simulations can improve process productivity. This Business Development Seminar Series was made possible by a dedicated team, including Senior Associates (Alexander Bevacqua and Amanda Hornick) and Associates (Meredith Arterburn, Jessie Liu, and Tara Thakurta) of MIT Biotech Group’s Industry Initiative.
