About

Endeavor

to Help People Feel Better and Live Longer

Our Story

At the root of the matter.

With advances in next-generation sequencing and molecular profiling, we now have the tools to uncover the genetic culprits of disease. We can go after targets and indications we were not scientifically capable of investigating in the past. And we can finally bring patients best-in-class medicines across a spectrum of indications that target the core drivers of disease – making a significant impact even in terminal conditions.

At Endeavor BioMedicines, we are pursuing novel science and developing precision medicines. We combine advancements in technology with insights into the causes of disease to develop best-in-class medicines with the potential to treat the most severe health conditions, including cancer and fibrosis.

Leadership

Proven experts with a precise mission.

Across our leadership team, we are known for delivering life-changing treatments for even the most dire conditions. Our clinical development experience and deep biological knowledge uniquely position us to accomplish this endeavor.

Management Board Advisors

John Hood, PhD

January 18, 2022/in Management

Dr. Hood is a veteran of the California life science community who has founded and led several successful biotechnology companies in his 20-year career. He is currently Founder, CEO and Executive Chairman of Endeavor Biomedicines, a company funded in 2021 to develop novel therapeutics for oncology and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Prior to that, John was the Founder and CEO of Impact Biomedicines (now owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb), the developer of fedratinib, which has subsequently been approved worldwide for the treatment of myelofibrosis. He began his career as Director of Research at TargeGen in 2001, where he co-discovered fedratinib and led a team identifying small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and eye disease. John is an inventor on 100+ patents and the author of 50+ scientific articles. He received his Ph.D. in Medical Physiology and a B.S. in Biochemistry from Texas A&M University.

Miguel de los Rios, PhD

January 18, 2022/in Management

Miguel de los Rios is an entrepreneur focused on developing novel therapeutics to satisfy unmet needs in human medicine. Prior to Endeavor, he was Founder and CEO at Rift Biotherapeutics, a therapeutic antibody company focused on cancers. Prior to that Miguel served as Vice President of Research and Development at Sevion Therapeutics (formerly Fabrus, Inc.), a clinical stage therapeutics company focused in oncology and autoimmune disorders. Miguel founded Chimeros, Inc., a venture-backed biologics therapeutic company in 2003 while working to complete his PhD. He is lead author or inventor on 50+ publications, patents and patent applications. He received his PhD in Biophysical Chemistry and a B.S. in Cell Biology, both at UC Santa Barbara.

Raghu Saripalli

January 18, 2022/in Management

Prior to joining Endeavor, Mr. Saripalli was co-founder of Impact Biomedicines. Before that he was the CFO of Rocket Gaming Systems and HemoLife Medical. Previously he was an investment banker specializing in mergers & acquisitions at Wasserstein Perella & Co., Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital. He has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and dual MS degrees in Engineering and Computer Science from Virginia Tech.

Anita DiFrancesco

January 18, 2022/in Management

Ms. DiFrancesco has over 25 years of industry experience; primarily with small to mid-size biotech companies. She has designed and managed numerous clinical trials from Phase 1 to Phase 3 in therapeutic areas including Oncology, Pulmonology, Musculoskeletal and Pain. Ms. DiFrancesco has built teams and clinical departments from inception to fully functional independent internal teams. Prior to joining Endeavor, Anita was the Vice President of Clinical Operations for Samumed, LLC, where she was responsible for the management and leadership of the Clinical Operations department. Prior to that she worked at Huya Bioscience, Cypress Bioscience and Chiron Corporation. She received her BS from Georgetown University.

Sunil KC, PhD

January 18, 2022/in Management

Dr. KC is an experienced chemist who has over two decades of experience in drug discovery and CMC with a proven track record of successfully leading medicinal chemistry and CMC projects in every stage of drug discovery and development processes spanning from HTS to process validation and cGMP manufacturing of registration/PPQ batches of drug substance to support approval and post approval commercialization. Previously, Dr. KC was the Vice President of Chemistry at Samumed LLC where he played a key role in discovering and advancing seven NCEs to the clinic, and led CMC operational and strategic activities that included process development and cGMP manufacturing of drug substances to support phase 1-3 clinical trials of seven NCEs for eight different indications. At Samumed, Dr. KC successfully oversaw the design and execution of PPQ enabling multifunctional projects and PPQ campaign of Lorecivivint drug substance. Prior to Samumed, Dr. KC was the Associate Director of Chemistry at Avanir Pharmaceuticals, where he led a team of medicinal chemists working in drug discovery of various therapeutic areas. His team at Avanir discovered two NCEs that entered into the clinic and delivered two projects that were successfully out-licensed to Novartis and AstraZeneca. Dr. KC is an author of 21 peer reviewed scientific publications and inventor on more than 400 pending and issued patents. Dr. KC received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Regensburg, Germany and M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

Hutch Humphreys

January 18, 2022/in Management

Mr. Humphreys is an experienced regulatory professional with over 15 years of increasing responsibility for programs in all phases of product development, from pre-IND to NDA submission and post-approval lifecycle management. Prior to Endeavor, Hutch was at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Therapeutics, Inc., Samumed, LLC, and Intercept Pharmaceuticals, all in San Diego, CA, serving in expanding regulatory leadership roles for compounds in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including metabolism/endocrinology, dermatology, rheumatology, oncology and pulmonology. Hutch is also an adjunct faculty member at the Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) in Claremont, CA, teaching a course on current issues in regulatory affairs.

Hutch earned a BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of Kansas. After college, he spent 5 years as a nuclear-trained submarine officer in the US Navy, serving onboard the USS Helena, homeported in Pearl Harbor, HI, and San Diego, CA. Following military service, he attended KGI, earning a Master of Bioscience degree prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry.

Gabriela Tobal

April 26, 2022/in Management

Ms. Tobal has over 25 years of industry experience in the life sciences with a career spanning research, business development, corporate venture capital, alliance management, and organizational culture. She most recently served in business development and alliance management for Everest Medicines and held similar roles at La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company and The Scripps Research Institute. Previously, she worked in business development and corporate venture capital at Amgen. She has enjoyed her roles at every stage of the drug development process and is passionate about working with motivated scientists and great teams to develop therapeutics that bring health to patients.
Ms. Tobal received her B.Sc from the University of California: Santa Cruz; her M.Sc in Marine Biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California: San Diego and an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Luis Dellamary

January 18, 2022/in Management

Mr. Dellamary is a drug development and manufacturing leader with over 28 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Endeavor, Luis worked at Gossamer Bio. He has also worked at Samumed, Otonomy, Amylin, Targegen, Isis Pharmaceutical and Alliance Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Dellamary holds 60 US patents and has 89 pending applications. He has been involved in the development of three commercial drug products (TOBI Podhaler, INREBIC and OTIPRIO).

John Hood, PhD

January 18, 2022/in Board

Bernard Davitian

January 18, 2022/in Board

Bernard joined Omega Funds in 2020. He has extensive experience in the life sciences and biotech industry, marked by a number of successful transactions involving financing and M&A. Bernard previously served as SVP and Managing Director at Sanofi Ventures, having first joined Sanofi in 2010 as Vice President, Deputy Global Head, Business Development. Over his seven-year tenure, Sanofi Ventures invested in 28 new companies and generated 14 exits (12 NASDAQ IPOs, one trade sale and one option deal). Prior to Sanofi, Bernard held CEO, CFO and other leadership roles at Fovea Pharmaceuticals (which was sold to Sanofi in 2009 in a €370 million cash transaction), Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, Transgene (which successfully raised $100 million in a 1998 IPO on the NASDAQ/EuroNext) and Institut Mérieux (now Sanofi Pasteur).

Patrick Enright

January 18, 2022/in Board

Mr. Enright is a Managing Director and Founder of Longitude Capital. Prior to Longitude Capital, Mr. Enright was a Managing Director of Pequot Ventures, where he co-led the life sciences investment practice. Prior to Pequot, he was a Managing Member of the Delta Opportunity Fund at Diaz & Altschul Capital Management. Mr. Enright began his investment career at PaineWebber Development Corporation. Mr. Enright also has significant life sciences operations experience, including senior executive positions at Valentis (VLTS), Boehringer Mannheim (acquired by Roche), and Sandoz (now known as Novartis). Mr. Enright currently serves on the boards of Aptinyx (APTX), CuraSen Therapeutics, Dascena, Epirium Bio, Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), Orbus Therapeutics, Rivus Pharmaceuticals, Vera Therapeutics (VERA), as well as the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Selected prior board memberships include Aimmune (AIMT, acquired by Nestlé Health Science), Codexis (CDXS), Corcept Therapeutics (CORT), Esperion Therapeutics (ESPR), Horizon Pharmaceuticals (HZNP), InfaCare Pharmaceutical (acquired by Mallinckrodt), MAP Pharmaceuticals (MAPP, acquired by Allergan), Prestwick Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Lundbeck), Sequenom (SQNM, acquired by LabCorp), Threshold Pharmaceuticals (THLD), and Vaxcyte (PCVX). Mr. Enright holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.

Andrew Lam, PharmD

January 27, 2022/in Board

Andrew Lam, Pharm.D. is a Senior Vice President at Ally Bridge Group, a leading global life science-dedicated investment group, where he leads private equity therapeutics investments which include Arbor Biotechnologies, Shoreline Biosciences, and Sonoma Biotherapeutics. Andrew has over 15 years of biopharma-focused experience across industry, equity research, and investment banking and joined Ally Bridge Group in 2021 from Intercept Pharmaceuticals where he was Senior Director of Business Development. Prior to Intercept, Andrew was Vice President, Healthcare Investment Banking at Jefferies where he completed over 30 biopharma financing and M&A transactions, and equity research associate at BMO Capital and Canaccord Genuity, where he covered biotech. Prior to Wall Street, Andrew spent a decade in medical affairs at several biotech companies including Celgene and Shire. Andrew holds a Pharm.D. from Long Island University and M.B.A. from Drexel University.

Monal Mehta, PhD

February 3, 2022/in Board

Monal Mehta, Ph.D., is a Therapeutics Analyst on the Avidity Partners private investment team. Previously, she was a Director at Pfizer Oncology where she was a key member of the Business Development team responsible for several pre-clinical and clinical stage licensing and acquisition opportunities. Monal also served as Alliance Manager for Pfizer Oncology. Prior to Pfizer, she was at Navigant Consulting in the Life Sciences practice. Monal holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology and Pharmacology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and was an NSF fellow.

Cindy Wang

December 21, 2022/in Board

Dr. Wang is a Vice President at Longitude Capital. Prior to joining Longitude Capital in 2022, Dr. Wang was the Senior Director of Strategy & Corporate Development at Dascena, a Longitude portfolio company. Prior to Dascena, Dr. Wang was an Engagement Manager at L.E.K. Consulting where she consulted life sciences companies on drug development, commercial, and portfolio strategy. Dr. Wang holds a PhD in Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley, and a BA in Chemical and Physical Biology from Harvard University.

Noelle Hutchins, PhD

April 26, 2022/in Board

Dr. Hutchins is an Associate at Omega Funds. She focuses on private company investing, with an emphasis on Oncology and Immunology.

Prior to joining Omega Funds in 2020, Noelle advised and led scientific strategy and vetted healthcare solutions for an emerging venture of the American Heart Association. She also worked as an independent consultant for TreMonti Consulting, where she performed market analyses, evaluated early-stage inventions, and advised clients on partnering for commercialization and in-licensing opportunities. In addition, she previously mentored entrepreneurs and startups in Science and Technology as an angel investor with Pipeline Angels.

Noelle earned her PhD in Immunology from Brown University, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and holds a BS in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Toby Maher, PhD

January 18, 2022/in Advisors

Toby Maher currently is Professor of Clinical Medicine at USC. Previously he was the British Lung Foundation Chair in Respiratory Research and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinician Scientist. He was Professor of Interstitial Lung Disease and headed up the Fibrosis Research Group at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London. Prof Maher’s research interests include basic and translational research into idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, with a major focus on biomarker discovery, early phase clinical trials and the pre-clinical validation of putative targets and compound for the treatment of fibrosing lung disease. Prof. Maher qualified from Southampton Medical School. He trained in Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital. During his training he gained an MSc in Respiratory Medicine from Imperial College London. In 2005 Dr Maher was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellowship undertaken at the Centre for Respiratory Research, University College London and culminated in the award of a PhD.