ABOUT US

Prof. Dr. med. Thomas D. Szucs is Professor of Pharmaceutical Medicine and Director of The Institute of Pharmaceutical Medicine/European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine at the University of Basel. He is also a Professor and part-time lecturer for Medical Economics at the University of Zurich and a honorary professor at the University of Peking Health Science Center.

Previously he was Chief Medical Officer of Hirslanden Holding, the largest private hospital chain in Switzerland. From 1998 to 2001 he was head of the Department of Medical Economics, a joint venture of the University Hospital in Zurich and the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine of the University of Zurich. Professor Szucs’ former appointments include head of research and founder of the Center of Pharmacoeconomics of the University of Milan, head of the working group for Clinical Economics at the University of Munich, senior consultant at Arthur D. Little Inc and head of the Department of Health Economics at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in Basel.

He holds a medical degree from the University of Basel, a Master in Business Administration from the University of St Gallen, Switzerland, a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University, a LL.M in International Business Law from the University of Zurich and a Doctorate in Law from the Private University of Liechtenstein. Thomas is board certified in Pharmaceutical Medicine as well as in Prevention and Public Health. He is also member of the editorial board of several scientific journals and has published more than 300 articles, book chapters and monographs. He has worked extensively in the field of pharmaceutical economics and epidemiology. From 2004-2014 he was the president of the Swiss Association of Health Economics. In 2016 Professor Szucs was rated among the 20 most influential economists in Switzerland. In 2020 he was recognized as Global Fellow in Medicines Development by the International Federation of Associations of Pharmaceutical Physicians and Pharmaceutical Medicine. Since 2013 he started to work as a clinician in genomic medicine.

Mathieu Simon, MD, is Venture Partner at B|B Pureos Bioventures Bellevue Venture Capital based in Zurich, Switzerland and Senior Strategic Advisor at Messier Maris & Associés, an international investment banking boutique. Since May 2019, Dr. Simon serves as Chairman of the Board of Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

He previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cellectis (NASDAQ: CLLS), one of the biopharmaceutical companies leading the development of next-generation CAR-T cell immunotherapies. He also was a member of Cellectis’ Board of Directors. Prior to joining Cellectis, he was Senior Vice President Head of Global Pharmaceutical Operations at Pierre Fabre SA. From 1994 to 2010, Dr. Simon served at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in both senior corporate and regional roles in the US and Europe (Head of International Marketing and Medical Affairs and Managing Director of several Wyeth affiliates).

Dr. Simon is an advisor to the European Commission D.G. Research and Innovation. Dr. Simon was certified in internal medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Paris VII.

Huaizheng Peng, PhD, serves as General Manager of International Investment and Operations for China Medical System Holdings, a specialty pharmaceutical company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He is in charge of international operations for the company, including pharmaceutical asset acquisition/product licensing-in/out, international business development, outbound investment and asset management, among others. Dr. Peng previously was a partner of Northland Bancorp, a private equity firm.

Before that, he worked as a head of life sciences and as a director of corporate finance at Seymour Pierce, a London-based investment bank and stockbroker. Earlier in his career, Dr. Peng was a senior portfolio manager, specialising in global life science and Asian technology investment at Reabourne Technology Investment Management Limited.

Dr. Peng received a Bachelor´s degree in medicine from Hunan Medical College (now Central South University Xiangya School of Medicine) in Changsha, Hunan Province, China, and a Master´s degree in medicine from Hunan Medical College. Dr. Peng was awarded a PhD in molecular pathology from University College London (UCL) Medical School, London, UK and subsequently practiced as a clinical lecturer there.

John Castle, PhD, is Chief Data Scientist at Monte Rosa Therapeutics. Dr. Castle has deep expertise in biomarkers and therapy development using computational immunology, bioinformatics, biotechnology, and genomics. Having built translational bioinformatics and genomics units focused on immunotherapies, Dr. Castle pioneered computational approaches to neoantigen identification for anti-tumor immunity. His bioinformatics and ‘omics approach revolutionized neoantigen vaccine platforms, TCR target identification and I-O response biomarkers. Prior to joining Monte Rosa, he was Associate Vice President for Translational Sciences at Agenus, served as associate director at Rosetta Inpharmatics/Merck & Co. and subsequently co-directed the Biomarker Development Center of Translational Oncology at the University of Mainz, Germany. Dr. Castle built the bioinformatics and genomics department at BioNTech AG. Dr. Castle studied physics at Rice University in Houston and at the University of Göttingen in Germany, was a Fulbright Scholar at the Australian National University in Canberra, and received his Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Washington in Seattle.