We Design

We apply our unique collective expertise to design small molecule therapeutics.

Breakthrough

We push the leading edge to solve drug discovery’s big challenges.

Medicines

We strive to develop meaningful medicines for patients.

John Alexander is Vice President, Head of Intellectual Property at Nimbus Therapeutics.

John has more than 20 years of legal experience in life sciences R&D, chemistry, medical devices, and patent prosecution. Before joining Nimbus, John served as Senior Intellectual Property Counsel at Amgen, where he provided intellectual property (IP) support for Otezla (apremilast). Prior to Amgen, he spent 10 years as a patent attorney at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) supporting various therapeutic areas including ophthalmology, infectious disease, and cardiovascular and metabolic disease. While at NIBR, John defined and implemented the initial IP strategy for FABHALTA (iptacopan). John began his career as a technology specialist, patent agent, and patent attorney at Edwards, Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP. He holds a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the direction of Nobel laureate Richard R. Schrock, and a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Dartmouth College.

Erin Cowhig is Chief People Officer of Nimbus Therapeutics.

Erin has more than 20 years HR leadership experience across biotech, medical device, manufacturing and entertainment industries. Before joining Nimbus, she served as Vice President of Human Resources at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for HR governance, portfolio management and organizational effectiveness, playing a key role on Vertex’s HR Leadership team. She was also responsible for leading Vertex’s diversity & inclusion strategy and overseeing several D&I programs related to talent, employee engagement and retention. Her work for Vertex was recognized by the Healthcare Business Women’s Association (HBA) with their Rising Star award. Earlier in her career, she built and led the Talent Acquisition and Talent Management function at Agios Pharmaceuticals and held corporate HR business partner roles at Covidien, now known as Medtronic and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals.

Erin earned a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and a master’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.

Scott Edmondson is Senior Vice President, Head of Chemistry at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Before joining Nimbus, Scott served as the Director and Head of Boston Oncology Chemistry at AstraZeneca, where he led a team of over 40 internal chemists and 25 CRO chemists to execute on oncology drug discovery programs from target validation through candidate discovery. He also co-led the Global Oncology PROTACs effort to help establish and grow a promising new modality. Before AstraZeneca, he held several positions of increasing responsibility at Merck, focusing on projects in the early discovery space (target validation, lead identification) through late-stage discovery and beyond. Over the course of his career, he has authored and co-authored over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and over 55 patents and patent applications. He has led teams who have delivered over a dozen clinical candidates and two marketed drugs.

Scott earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Cornell University and his Ph. D. from the Ohio State University with Professor Leo Paquette, moving to Columbia University for an NIH postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Samuel Danishefsky.

Nathalie Franchimont is Chief Medical Officer at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Nimbus, Nathalie served as Senior Vice President, Head of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Immunology Development Unit at Biogen. She has also previously held a variety of other leadership roles at Biogen, including leading the Multiple Sclerosis Research and Early Development Unit, the New Indications Research and Early Development Unit and the Immunology Drug Innovation Unit. Prior to joining Biogen, Nathalie held Medical Affairs and Clinical Research roles at Amgen. Nathalie also has served on the Board of OMASS Therapeutics since 2020.

Nathalie completed her Rheumatology training at the University of Liège and has held research fellow roles at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, and University of Liège.

Patricia Fraser is Vice President, Head of Pharmacovigilance at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Nimbus, Patricia was Executive Director of Drug Safety at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the clinical safety strategy and implemented risk management initiatives based on global regulatory requirements. Previously, she has also provided her expertise and guidance to clinical teams as a senior safety medical director in inflammation/immunity and rare disease groups at Sanofi Genzyme. At EMD Serono she was the therapeutic area head for rheumatology/immunology and fertility safety staff. Patricia is a rheumatologist in part time practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Prior to entering industry, she conducted NIH-sponsored research to study the possible genetic and environmental factors that may account for the disproportionate risk of systemic lupus erythematosus in African American women. She earned her M.D. from Columbia University and master’s degrees in Biostatistics and Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Stacie Halbert is Vice President, Program Management and R&D Strategic Operations at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Stacie is a biopharmaceutical project leader with more than 30 years of industry experience who has driven early- and late-stage cross-functional teams to develop drug development strategies for large and small molecules. Prior to joining Nimbus, she spent the majority of her career at GSK, where she began as a scientist involved in designing novel drug candidates and progressed to the role of Project Manager and later Team Leader and Project Director. Her experience includes work in multiple therapeutic areas and leading teams and initiatives focused on critical regulatory submissions, partner alliances, in-licensing due diligence, and overall project and budget management. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Organic Chemistry from The College of William and Mary.

Neelu Kaila is Vice President, Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Neelu is a medicinal chemist with more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She joined Nimbus in 2017 following a 23-year tenure at Pfizer/Wyeth where she worked across multiple therapeutic areas. Her R&D experience spans several target classes including kinases, GPCRs and lipases. She has executed programs through various drug discovery stages to deliver clinical candidates. Neelu has led multidisciplinary teams of chemists, biologists, pharmacokinetic scientists, toxicologists, and external collaborators that have delivered six development candidates and one marketed drug, CIBINQO (aberocitnib), for atopic dermatitis. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Chemistry from Delhi University. She holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from City University of New York-Hunter College. Neelu has authored and co-authored 58 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 26 patents and patent applications.

Abbas Kazimi is Chief Business Officer at Nimbus Therapeutics. He helped drive key transactions at Nimbus, which have resulted in over $700M in capital from pharmaceutical companies. In his role, he is also responsible for expanding Nimbus’ computational drug discovery engine through strategic alliances with providers of novel experimental approaches that complement the organization’s deep expertise in structure-based drug discovery and medicinal chemistry.

Abbas has spent over fifteen years in planning and executing strategic transactions for life sciences clients with industry partners and financial investors. Prior to Nimbus, he was with Extera Partners, LLC (formerly PureTech Development, LLC) where he provided strategic advice, supported fund-raising efforts and executed numerous business development transactions. Prior to Extera Partners, he was with JSB-Partners, LP, a specialized investment banking and advisory services organization, supporting biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Abbas earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree from Harvard University.

Jeb Keiper, M.S., M.B.A., has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our board of directors since October 2018. He previously served as Chief Business Officer from November 2014 to October 2018 and as Chief Financial Officer from February 2017 to October 2018. Since joining Nimbus, Mr. Keiper has overseen the discovery and development of three programs into clinical testing across a range of indications, over $400M raised in equity funding, executed deals worth over $7B, and the return of over $4B in gains back to equity holders.

Prior to joining Nimbus, Mr. Keiper served as the Vice President of Business Development at GSK Oncology (a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK)) from March 2011 to October 2014, where he was responsible for identifying and concluding several critical collaborations for GSK in Oncology, including the Novartis-GSK Oncology integration, and spent a decade at GSK in various business development leadership roles. Prior to GSK, Mr. Keiper was a consultant at McKinsey & Company starting in September 2000-2002, then September 2004 to 2005, after having started his career as a pharmaceutical chemist at Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) in 1998.

Mr. Keiper currently serves as a member of the board of directors at private biotechnology companies Cardurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and ROME Therapeutics, Inc.

Mr. Keiper received two B.S. degrees, one in Chemistry and one in Chemical Engineering, as well as an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management with joint program in Biomedical Enterprises with the Harvard Medical School.

Pavan Kumar is Vice President, Head of Translational Medicine & Clinical Pharmacology at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Pavan has more than 15 years of experience developing and integrating cutting edge technologies and real world data in translational strategies aimed at accelerating delivery of new therapeutics to patients. Prior to joining Nimbus, Pavan served as Vice President of Translation at Kronos Bio, and was previously Head of Biomarkers and Companion Diagnostics at H3 Biomedicine. He was a Senior Scientist in the Biomarkers and Personalized Medicine Unit at Eisai and began his industry career developing a novel RNA detection platform at Somagenics. Pavan earned a Ph.D. in Plant Biology and Virology with a designated emphasis in Biotechnology from the University of California, Davis and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Biotechnology from Anna University in India.

Denise Levasseur is Vice President, Commercial Strategy at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Denise brings nearly 30 years of experience in clinical development and commercialization strategy across a broad range of therapeutic areas.  Before joining Nimbus, Denise was Head of Global Commercial Strategy and Evidence at Janssen where she led teams to deliver significant portfolio growth and pipeline acceleration for immunology. Prior to that, she was Vice President and Head of Worldwide Commercial Insight and Analytics for Teva Pharmaceuticals, where she redesigned the organization and achieved significant savings while building a return-to-growth portfolio. She began her pharmaceutical career as a statistician at AstraZeneca where, after experiencing her first medicine approval, transitioned from R&D to commercial and held various roles of increasing responsibility for 16 years across marketing, sales, and new product strategy. Having launched a dozen new products/indications across 10 different specialties, she is passionate about bringing new, meaningful medicines to people all over the world. Prior to her career in the industry, she taught high school mathematics and undergraduate statistics. She remains an active volunteer and mentor for people typically underrepresented in STEM professions. Denise received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science from Kentucky Wesleyan College and earned a Master of Science in Statistics from the University of Kentucky.

Christine Loh is Senior Vice President, Head of Biology at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Christine has more than 20 years’ experience in drug discovery. Prior to joining Nimbus, she was Vice President of Translational Medicine at Kymera Therapeutics, where she facilitated biomarker strategy, patient selection and resource-building initiatives to transition pipeline programs into clinical development. Previously, she served as Executive Director of Research at Bioverativ, leading a discovery group focused on hemophilia and sickle cell disease; she helped facilitate Bioverativ’s spinoff from Biogen, where she directed rare disease and immunology research. She also served as a lead researcher at Sirtris, Pfizer and ICOS Corporation, advancing several programs from concept to IND in autoimmunity, oncology and metabolic disease.

Christine earned a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Wellesley College and a Ph. D. in immunology from the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard University.

Avinash Phadke is Vice President, CMC at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Before joining Nimbus, he held numerous roles of increasing responsibility in chemistry and CMC at Achillion Pharmaceuticals, most recently as Vice President, Head of CMC. He and his team discovered eight clinical candidates, developed manufacturing processes and oversaw the manufacturing of these investigational therapeutics across various stages of clinical development for the treatment of Hepatitis C and PNH. Previously, he served as a research chemist and Miravant Pharmaceuticals and a scientist at Antivirals Inc. He has authored/co-authored more than 30 publications and holds over 60 patents/patent applications.

Avinash earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Pune University, a master’s degree in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and a Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry from Pune University. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Professor H.C. Brown at Purdue University.

Gabrielle Poirier is Vice President, Clinical Operations, at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Before joining Nimbus, Gabrielle served as Vice President of Clinical Operations for Entasis Therapeutics, where she was responsible for strategic and operational planning of all clinical trials. Her career in biopharma spans more than 20 years, including clinical operations leadership roles with Proteostasis Therapeutics, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Gabrielle earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University.

Dan Price is Vice President, Computational Chemistry & Structural Biology at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Dan joined Nimbus following a 16-year tenure at GSK, where he most recently served as Director, Computational Chemistry. At GSK, Dan contributed to the discovery of four clinical-stage drug candidates in distinct therapeutic areas. In addition to his expertise in structure-based drug discovery and ligand-based drug discovery, Dan has specialized experience in kinase targeting, cross-domain informatics, and ADME modeling. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He completed his postdoctoral research fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute.

Ian Sanderson is Chief Financial Officer at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Before joining Nimbus, Ian served as CFO of Boston Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for financial strategy and operations and was recognized by Boston Business Journal as “Small Company CFO of the Year” in 2019. He previously was CFO at Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, where he led the re-positioning and successful IPO of the company and prior to that, spent 20 years with Cowen and Company, most recently as a Senior Pharmaceuticals Analyst, leading their emerging and specialty pharmaceuticals research team. While at Cowen, he was named to several Institutional Investor Analyst All-Star teams for coverage of the specialty pharmaceuticals sector and helped build one of the top-ranked healthcare research teams on Wall Street. Prior to his pharmaceuticals research analyst career, he was a healthcare investment banker with Cowen and Houlihan Lokey.

Ian earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Economy from Williams College and a MBA in Finance from the Wharton School. He is the treasurer and a director of Youth Enrichment Services in Boston, an organization which provides outdoor experiences and educational opportunities to inner-city adolescents. He also serves as a director of the Kelly Brush Foundation, which helps people with spinal cord injuries obtain adaptive athletic equipment to lead active lives.

Steve Simmons is Vice President, Information Technology at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Steve brings to Nimbus more than 25 years of experience implementing innovative digital and cybersecurity solutions and processes, enabling biotechnology companies to realize and benefit from their strategic goals. His prior roles include Chief Information Security Officer at Orchard Therapeutics and Executive Director of Enterprise Architecture at AMAG Pharmaceuticals. Steve’s depth of experience ranges from digital transition and information security planning to enterprise risk, mergers, business process continuity, governance, and policy design. Steve received bachelor’s degrees in History and Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Western New England University, respectively.

Bhaskar Srivastava is Senior Vice President, Clinical Development at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Nimbus, Bhaskar was Senior Director of Translational Science and Medicine in Immunology at Janssen Research & Development, where he led a group of physician-scientists responsible for the strategy, design and execution of early phase clinical programs across indications in dermatology and rheumatology. He also played a key role in the founding of Janssen’s Immunodermatology Disease Area Stronghold. Prior to his R&D role, he was Director of Medical Affairs in Dermatology at Janssen, where he served as the U.S. medical lead for the launch of an important psoriasis treatment and the study-responsible physician for the PSOLAR psoriasis registry. A board certified dermatologist, he spent five years in clinical practice and was Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Yale School of Medicine. He has published extensively in high-impact journals including The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Bhaskar earned his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Harvard University and his M.D. and Ph. D. in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his clinical training in dermatology at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Peter Tummino is Chief Scientific Officer at Nimbus Therapeutics.

Peter brings over 25 years’ experience in drug discovery across a range of therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Nimbus, he served as Vice President, Global Head of Lead Discovery at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. In this role, he led multiple aspects of discovery operations with teams located globally, working across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Janssen, he held leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline, including Head of Biology for the Cancer Epigenetics Discovery Performance Unit, where his team progressed first-in-class epigenetic agents into oncology clinical trials against multiple novel targets. While at GSK, he contributed to the discovery and progression of several clinical candidates, including dabrafenib (BRAF inhibitor) and trametinib (MEK inhibitor), which were approved for multiple oncology indications and daprodustat, which is completing Phase 3 clinical trials in chronic kidney disease. He also co-led GSK Oncology’s novel target selection effort. Earlier in his career he held scientific positions of increasing responsibility at Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis, AstraZeneca and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles with greater than 12,000 citations.

Peter earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts and his Ph. D. from the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis.