Vanessa Kachadurian Bioscience researches the states of America and how each are establishing funds for Bioscience industry. Is this a smart move? Vanessa Kachadurian thinks so for many reasons. 1) builds the economy and jobs 2) keeps technology in the USA 3) Encourages more Americans to get into research and development.
Rocky
Hill, Conn. (PRWEB) December 23, 2013
Connecticut Innovations
(CI), the state’s quasi-public authority responsible for helping businesses
grow through innovative financing and strategic assistance, today announced the
names of the appointees to the 13-member Bioscience Innovation Advisory
Committee, which will steer the direction of the $200 million Connecticut
Bioscience Innovation Fund (CBIF) and approve expenditures. CI executive vice
president and chief innovation officer Jeremy Crisp, Ph.D., a former Novartis
Institutes for BioMedical Research executive, was hired earlier this year to
lead the CBIF. The committee held its first official meeting on December 5.
In July, Governor Dannel
P. Malloy signed Public Act 13-239 into law to create the CBIF, establish an
Advisory Committee to oversee the fund's operations and require CI to
administer the fund under the committee's supervision. Under the statute, the
governor appointed four members to the committee while the president pro
tempore of the state senate, speaker of the house, and majority and minority
leader of both chambers appointed one member each. The commissioners of the
state’s Department of Economic and Community Development and Department of
Public Health or their designees serve as ex-officio voting members, and CI’s
chief executive officer and executive director will serve as committee
chairperson. Appointed members were selected based on their skill, knowledge
and experience in relevant businesses and sciences related to health care
delivery, medical devices, life sciences, insurance or information technology.
"We are delighted to
have attracted such high caliber individuals to the advisory committee,"
said Claire Leonardi, CEO of Connecticut Innovations. "Their collective
depth and breadth of experience across the bioscience spectrum will ensure
great stewardship of the fund."
The new board members are
Peter Farina, Ph.D., executive in residence, Canaan Partners; Steven Hanks,
M.D., vice president of medical affairs for Hartford HealthCare - Central
Region; Joseph Kaliko, J.D., chief executive officer of Gaming Innovations
International; Marc Lalande, Ph.D., Health Net Professor and chair of the
Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, and executive director of
Genomics and Personalized Medicine Programs, UConn; William LaRochelle, Ph.D.,
head of healthcare and key opinion leader management, Roche 454 Sequencing
Solutions International; Charles Lee, Ph.D., scientific director, The Jackson
Laboratory for Genomic Medicine; Jewel Mullen, M.D., commissioner, Connecticut
Department of Public Health (ex-officio); Claire Leonardi, chief executive
officer of Connecticut Innovations (chair); Alan Mendelson, general partner,
Axiom Venture Partners; Edmund Pezalla, M.D., M.P.H., national medical director
for pharmaceutical policy, Aetna; Carolyn Slayman, Ph.D., Sterling Professor of
Genetics, professor of cellular and molecular physiology and deputy dean, Yale
School of Medicine; Catherine Smith, commissioner, Department of Economic and
Community Development (ex-officio); and Eleanor Tandler, founder and chief
executive officer, Novatract Surgical.
About Peter Farina, Ph.D.
Peter Farina, Ph.D., of North Salem, New York, is an executive in residence at
Canaan Partners, a venture capital firm located in Westport, Conn., where he
assesses and advises on pharma/biotech/healthcare investments. He is also the
managing partner of a consulting firm, Salient Science & Technology LLC,
which advises several U.S. and Chinese biotech firms on strategic and technical
matters in pharmaceutical research and development. Farina serves as co-chair
of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE) board and a member of the
advisory board of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, the NIH
Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN) steering committee, and the Emory
University DRIVE Advisory Board. Additionally, he was a founder and chief
executive officer of Developing World Cures, a nonprofit company working on
neglected diseases.
About Steven Hanks, M.D.
Steven D. Hanks, M.D., M.M.M., F.A.C.P., F.F.S.M.B., of Farmington,
Connecticut, is vice president of medical affairs for Hartford HealthCare’s
central region. He is the former executive vice president and chief medical
officer for The Hospital of Central Connecticut (THOCC). Hanks has been and
will continue to serve as THOCC’s chief academic officer and remains the
assistant dean for graduate medical education at the University of Connecticut.
An internist and emergency physician, Hanks joined THOCC in 2004 from the
Finger Lakes Regional Health System, where he served as senior vice president
of medical affairs and chief medical officer. Prior to that he was chief
medical officer of Adroit Research Solutions, a doctor's research organization
that he co-founded, as well as chief medical officer of the Rochester Community
Individual Practice Association, at the time one of the largest IPAs in the
nation.
About Joseph J. Kaliko
Joseph J. Kaliko of Greenwich, Connecticut, serves as president and chief
executive officer of Gaming Innovations International LLC, which designs
innovative gaming products and services for lotteries and their suppliers
internationally. He is a member of the Connecticut and Ohio bars and is
registered to practice as a patent attorney before the United States Patent and
Trademark Office. As an inventor, Kaliko has been awarded patents that have
been used to launch businesses in the U.S. and abroad.
About Marc Lalande, Ph.D.
Marc Lalande, Ph.D., of West Hartford, Connecticut, is Health Net Professor and
chair of the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology and executive
director of Genomics and Personalized Medicine Programs at the University of
Connecticut. He received a Ph.D. in medical biophysics from the University of
Toronto in 1981. His postdoctoral training was with Samuel A. Latt, M.D, Ph.D.,
in the Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School and Children's
Hospital, Boston, Mass. From 1985 to 1988, he was assistant professor, Department
of Pathology and Center for Human Genetics, McGill University, in Montreal,
Quebec, before returning to Boston Children’s Hospital. He remained at Harvard
Medical School until 1998, where he was an associate professor of pediatrics
and an assistant investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
About William J.
LaRochelle, Ph.D.
William LaRochelle, Ph.D., of Madison, Connecticut, is currently a member of
the Roche 454 Sequencing Solutions International Business Team and head of key
opinion leader management. In addition, he is the Roche 454 global liaison to
Genentech, Roche Pharma, Chugai
Pharmaceutical Co. and
external key opinion leaders for Roche’s personalized healthcare strategy in
cancer genomic medicine. He has over 25 years of translational research and
drug development experience beginning with 13 years at the National Cancer
Institute, Bethesda, Md., and almost 13 years at CuraGen/454 Corporation,
Branford, Conn.
About Charles Lee, Ph.D.
Charles Lee, Ph.D., of Farmington, Connecticut, is the scientific director of
The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine. Prior to joining the laboratory,
Lee was director of the Molecular Genetic Research Unit at Brigham and Women’s
Hospital, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and a board-certified
clinical cytogeneticist. He received his doctoral degree from the University of
Alberta, Canada; completed a research fellowship at Cambridge University,
England; and conducted his clinical training at Harvard Medical School.
About Commissioner Jewel
Mullen, M.D.
Jewel Mullen, M.D., of Middlefield, Connecticut, oversees the state’s leading
public health agency as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public
Health. Appointed to this position by Governor Dannel Malloy in December 2010,
Dr. Mullen has combined clinical work, research, teaching and administration
throughout a career focused on improving the health of all people, especially
the underserved.
About Claire Leonardi
Claire Leonardi of Avon, Connecticut, is chief executive officer of Connecticut
Innovations, where she manages the organization’s full array of business
startup and growth initiatives, which include diverse lending programs, venture
and equity investment funds, and programs to support innovation, entrepreneurship,
collaboration and commercialization. Claire is a veteran investment and venture
capital executive with more than 30 years of experience in the financial
services industry. Leonardi will serve as committee chairperson.
About Alan Mendelson
Alan Mendelson of West Hartford, Connecticut, is the founder and a general
partner of Axiom Venture Partners. Prior to founding Axiom Venture Partners,
Mendelson had a 24-year career in investments at Aetna Life & Casualty in
Hartford, Conn., where he was involved in more than $3 billion of private
placement debt financings with estimated combined losses of under $10 million.
During his final six years with Aetna, he focused its venture investing on the
medical/healthcare area, where he made a number of successful investments,
including investments in GMIS, Geron, Human Genome Sciences and SyStemix. In
several of these companies, he was a founding investor, and in the case of
SyStemix, also its de facto chief executive officer. Overall, the $65 million
portfolio of direct investments generated approximately $265 million of
proceeds.
About Edmund Pezalla,
M.D.
Edmund Pezalla, M.D., M.P.H., of Wethersfield, Connecticut, is Aetna’s national
medical director for pharmaceutical policy and strategy. He is responsible for
the integration of pharmacy policy and activities into Aetna’s overall strategy
and operations. He also serves as the lead clinical spokesperson for Aetna in
pharmacy-related issues and represents Aetna on industry work groups and
conferences. He is Aetna’s leading executive on pharmaceutical development,
reimbursement strategy and drug evaluation. He is active on projects with the
IOM, CDC and FDA as well as MIT’s Center for Biomedical Innovation. Recently,
Pezalla served as a consultant for the President’s Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology for their report “Propelling Innovation in Drug
Discovery, Development and Evaluation.”
About Carolyn Slayman,
Ph.D.
Carolyn Slayman, Ph.D., of Hamden, Connecticut, is the deputy dean of Yale
School of Medicine (YSM), where she is also Sterling Professor of Genetics and
a professor of cellular and molecular physiology and heads a laboratory
focusing on the biogenesis and molecular mechanisms of membrane transport
proteins. She chaired the medical school’s Department of Genetics for 11 years,
and since then has served as deputy dean for academic and scientific affairs.
In the latter role, she has broad oversight of YSM research, working with the
heads of the school’s 29 departments and five interdepartmental centers to
recruit faculty, launch new areas of investigation, and stimulate partnerships
and collaborations. She also participates on behalf of YSM in the development
of Yale’s new West Campus (purchased from the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company in
2007), where work is underway to form interdisciplinary institutes in areas
including biodesign, cancer biology, chemical biology, microbial diversity, and
systems biology.
About Commissioner
Catherine Smith
Catherine Smith of Northford, Connecticut, is commissioner of the Connecticut
Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), the lead state agency
responsible for attracting and retaining businesses and jobs, revitalizing
neighborhoods and communities, expanding affordable housing opportunities and fostering
appropriate development in Connecticut’s towns and cities. Governor Dannel P.
Malloy appointed her to the position in April 2011. Prior to joining DECD,
Commissioner Smith had a distinguished career in the insurance and financial
services industry, beginning with Aetna in 1983.
About Eleanor L. Tandler
Eleanor L. Tandler of Guilford, Connecticut, is the founder and chief executive
officer of NovaTract Surgical Inc. Prior to NovaTract, Tandler was the director
of venture development at the University of Connecticut Research and
Development Corporation (UConn R&D), where she worked to create new
business startups based on innovative technologies developed by the faculty and
staff at the university. During her tenure at UConn R&D, she served as
interim chief executive officer of New Ortho Polymers, a UConn startup focused
on the development of new orthodontic appliances based on utilizing
high-performance polymers. Prior to that, she spent five years as a venture
capital investor with Radius Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm
focused on health and life sciences with approximately $230 million under
management.
About Connecticut
Innovations Inc.
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is the leading source of financing and ongoing
support for Connecticut's innovative, growing companies. To maximize the growth
potential of each business, CI tailors its solutions and often combines its
funds with resources from other financial leaders to provide venture capital
and strategic support for early-stage technology companies; flexible loans for
established companies with new innovations; grants that support innovation and
collaboration; and connections to its well-established network of partners and
professionals. Through all these initiatives, CI has helped bring $4 billion in
financing to Connecticut companies. The state’s most active early-stage
investor, CI has created more than 26,000 jobs. For more information on CI,
please visit http://www.ctinnovations.com.
