Dr. George Scangos, CEO, Vir Biotechnology & Former CEO, Biogen

Moderated by: Anna Protopapas , CEO Mersana Therapeutics

We’ll hear from Dr. George Scangos, CEO of Vir Biotechnology, about how Vir combines immunologic insights with cutting-edge technologies to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases, one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Vir is tackling the world’s largest and most serious infectious diseases, infections that are evasive, challenging, or insufficiently addressed by current approaches, including hepatitis B, influenza A, SARS-CoV-2, HIV, and tuberculosis.

Speakers

Dr. George Scangos, CEO, Vir Biotechnology & Former CEO, Biogen

George Scangos, Ph.D., is President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors of Vir Biotechnology. From July 2010 to December 2016, Dr. Scangos served as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of directors of Biogen Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious diseases. From October 1996 to July 2010, Dr. Scangos served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Exelixis, Inc., a drug discovery and development company.

From 1993 to 1996, Dr. Scangos served as President of Bayer Biotechnology, where he was responsible for research, business development, process development, manufacturing, engineering and quality assurance of Bayer Biotechnology’s biological products. Before joining Bayer Biotechnology in 1987, Dr. Scangos was a Professor of Biology at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Scangos has served as a member of the board of directors of various publicly traded companies, including: Exelixis, Inc., since 1996; Agilent Technologies, Inc., a life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical analysis company, since 2014; and Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from 2003 to 2010.

Dr. Scangos served as Chair of PhRMA in 2016, and as the Chair of the California Healthcare Institute in 2010. He was a member of the board of directors of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development from 2006 until 2010. Dr. Scangos currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Cornell University and the Board of Overseers of the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Scangos received his B.A. in Biology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts.

Anna Protopapas, CEO Mersana Therapeutics

Anna Protopapas joined Mersana in March 2015, bringing a substantial track record of executive leadership and business experience in the biotech industry. Prior to Mersana, Anna was President of Millennium, where she led Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s $1.3 billion oncology business. Anna also served as the Executive Vice President of Global Business Development for Takeda Pharmaceuticals where she oversaw global acquisitions, partnering, licensing, and venture investing.

In this role, she led Takeda’s $12 billion acquisition of Nycomed, a critical step in the company’s globalization. Anna was a member of Takeda’s executive committee and was elected a corporate officer in 2011. Earlier in her career, Anna served as an executive officer at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and served in various senior leadership positions, playing an integral role in the company’s transformation from a genomics start-up to a fully integrated oncology leader.

She was instrumental in the sale of Millennium to Takeda for $8.8 billion. Anna also served on the board of directors of Ariad Pharmaceuticals from May 2015 to February 2017, when it was sold to Takeda for $5.2 billion, and served on the board of Bioverativ from January 2017 to January 2018, when it was sold to Sanofi for $11.6 billion.

She currently serves on the board of directors of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Anna earned her B.S. in Science and Engineering from Princeton University, M.S. in Chemical Engineering practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Hellenic Innovation Network, with the support of the Greek Consulate of Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, was created to empower technology-based startups from Greece and Cyprus with a bridge to the U.S. through pitching and networking opportunities. Our dedicated group from the tech startup ecosystems in Boston and Athens organizes events twice per year to educate the Greek diaspora about Greek startup activity, and to offer Greek entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and network in the US. Our CEO group meets monthly to discuss common challenges. Our online platform allows for virtual connections of our members in between events, so please register at hellenic.org to become part of our community.

While our events are typically held in Boston, due to Covid-19 we are instead hosting a webcast series in order to keep our community connected until our next in-person event. 

During our live webcast, please send in questions with your name, and the speakers will address them at the end. 

If you missed our prior webcasts, you can catch up here

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