Careers, Life, and Yale Thursday Show: Yale in Biotechnology Panel

For the past 14 years, Jerry Lee has covered the global biotechnology and pharmaceuticals landscape, helping to identify, fund and nurture innovations in health care. He has been an adviser on more than $250 billion worth of announced mergers and acquisitions. He plays a leadership role in Goldman’s China healthcare franchise, helping biotechnology companies with strategy and financing. As the Diversity Champion for the firm’s recruiting team at Yale, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in economics, he has helped coach and mentor minority candidates. He holds an M.B.A. from Wharton.

Dr. Coric is chief executive officer and director of Biohaven (NYSE: BHVN). Under his leadership, Biohaven has grown from a start-up company with a handful of employees to a publicly traded company valued at about $5B with approximately 1,000 employees. Biohaven’s stock performance has exceeded that of many biotech peers, with an increase in stock valuation of over 50% year over year since the company’s IPO in 2017. Dr. Coric was the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year 2018 Award in New York Region.

Dr. Coric has more than 20 years of drug discovery and clinical development experience at Yale School of Medicine and Bristol-Myers Squibb prior to leading Biohaven. Within the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Coric has expertise working across therapeutic areas including neuroscience, virology, oncology and immuno-oncology. He has been involved in multiple drug development programs, including marketed drugs such as Nurtec ODT (rimegepant), Abilify (aripiprazole; partial dopamine agonist), Opdivo (nivolumab; anti-PD1), Yervoy (Ipilimumab; anti-CTLA-4), Daklinza (daclatasvir; NS5A inhibitor) and Sunvepra (asunaprevir; NS3 inhibitor). Since July 2001, Dr. Coric has also continued to serve as an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. He previously served as the chief of the Yale Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit and the director of the Yale Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Research Clinic. He has served as president of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society. Dr. Coric received his M.D. from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He completed his internship at Yale-New Haven Hospital and residency training at the Yale Psychiatry Residency Training Program, where he also served as the program-wide chief resident for the Yale Department of Psychiatry, and chief resident on the PTSD firm at the West-Haven Connecticut Veterans Administration Hospital. Dr. Coric was an honors scholar in neurobiology and physiology at the University of Connecticut, where he received a B.S. degree.

Schmertzler has taught private equity and corporate finance courses in the Economics Department at Yale and Yale NUS and at the Yale School of Management for more than 20 years and has been actively involved in the funding and leadership of biotechnology companies for almost 40. He is currently the chairman of PTC Therapeutics (a publicly traded commercial stage biotechnology company for which he co-led the first round of institutional funding in 1998) and the chairman of SHY Therapeutics, a private early-stage biotechnology company. He has previously served as the founding CEO for a Yale biotechnology spin-off developing monoclonal antibodies; as co-head of CSFB’s private equity business, where he oversaw its biotechnology portfolio; and as founder and a Managing Director of Morgan Stanely’s biotechnology investment banking department. Mr Schmertzler has been an investor and director in public and private health care companies addressing cancer, heart disease, genetic diseases, infectious diseases, kidney disease, neuromuscular disorders, and skin care and utilizing technologies ranging from small organic and inorganic molecules to biologics, including gene therapies. Mr. Schmertzler is a named inventor on patents concerning cancer and renal disease therapeutics and teleradiology systems.

Mr. Schmertzler recently completed serving as the court appointed independent director for the liquidation of the largest subsidiary in the bankrupt Lehman Brothers estate, Lehman Commercial Paper. He previously served as Chair of the Investment Committee and Co-Head of Credit Suisse First Boston Equity Partners and as President of Morgan Stanley’s private equity funds. Previously, he was a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley’s Mergers and Acquisitions Department and led different industry groups for that firm; and was Head of International Investment Banking and Capital Markets at Shearson Lehman Brothers and the Chief Financial Officer and a Managing Director of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb which Shearson acquired in 1984.

Mr. Schmertzler majored in MBB, History, and City Planning and earned a B.A. at Yale in 1974; attended Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs; and earned an MBA at the Harvard Business School.

Dr. Shannon has served as a venture partner and general partner with Canaan Partners, a venture capital firm, since November 2009. Dr. Shannon was the founding president and Chief Executive Officer of Aldea Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of toxic aldehyde-related diseases, from November 2010 to September 2013, and the founding CEO of Arvinas from 2013 to 2014. Dr. Shannon was also Chief Executive Officer of Curagen Corporation from 2007 to 2009, after serving as Executive Vice President of R&D and the Chief Medical Officer at Curagen from 2002 to 2007. From 1992 to 2002, Dr. Shannon served in various senior research and development roles at Bayer Healthcare, including Senior Vice President of Global Clinical Development.

Dr. Shannon serves as chairman of the board of publicly traded Arvinas (IPO 2018) since July 2013 and served on various committees and most recently as chairman of Ideaya Biosciences, Inc. (IPO 2019), since March 2016. He also currently serves as member of the board of several privately held companies: Vivace Therapeutics, since January 2015; RallyBio since 2018; Halda Therapeutics, since February 2019, and Normunity Holding Company, since June 2020. He previously served as a member of the boards of directors of publicly traded NextCure Inc. (IPO 2019), from December 2015 to March 2020;  CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (IPO 2015), from July 2012 to March 2017;  Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX) from October 2009 to December 2014 and CuraGen Corporation (CRGN) from September 2007 until its acquisition by Celldex in October 2009.

Dr. Shannon began his career as an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, received his M.D. from the University of Connecticut and a B.A. in chemistry from Amherst College.