FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN & CEO

Jean-Pierre Sommadossi, PhD

Jean-Pierre has over 30 years of scientific, operational, strategic and management experience in the biotech industry. Previously Jean-Pierre was the Principal Founder of Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDIX) and a Co-Founder of Pharmasset, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRUS). Both of these companies were acquired; Idenix by Merck for $3.85 billion in 2014 and Pharmasset by Gilead for $11 billion in 2012. Jean-Pierre held a number of key executive positions at Idenix, including Chairman of the Board of Directors, Executive President and Chief Scientific Officer from 1998 to 2000, and then as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2010. Under his leadership, Idenix entered into multiple strategic collaborations, including those with Sumitomo and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as well as a landmark biotech-pharma transaction with Novartis Pharma AG in 2003. During Jean-Pierre’s tenure, Idenix discovered, co-developed and co-launched telbuvidine (Tyzeka™/Sebivo®) for the treatment of hepatitis B, and established a major clinical pipeline of antiviral therapeutics for the treatment of hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS.

Jean-Pierre is Chairman of PegaOne, Chairman of Panchrest, Inc., and a member of the Board of The BioExec Institute, as well.

Prior to his entrepreneurial career, Jean-Pierre was on the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine since March 1985. Jean-Pierre served as a Professor of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacology from June 1992 to November 2000. He has authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications and holds more than 60 U.S. patents associated with cancer and antiviral therapeutics.

Jean-Pierre holds a PharmD and PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Marseilles, France and was a post-doctoral Fogarty fellow at the National Cancer Institute and the Medical College of Virginia, and is a recipient of a Faculty Award from The American Cancer Society.

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