Lawrence Blatt, Ph.D., MBA – Founder, President & CEO

Dr. Lawrence Blatt has spent the last 28 years working in drug research and development with a specific focus on biology of the immune system, antiviral therapies and relevant therapeutic interventions. From 2002-2008, Dr. Blatt was the Chief Scientific Officer of InterMune, Inc. and led the discovery and development of Danoprevir®. From 1998 to 2002, Dr. Blatt was Vice President of Research at SIRNA (formerly Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals). From 1996 to 1998, Dr. Blatt served as Vice President, Product Development at National Genetics Institute, (currently a division of LabCorp). Dr. Blatt began his career at Amgen where he was ultimately Head of Interferon Research and also Development Team Leader for the consensus interferon product leading to an FDA approval of the drug Infergen®. Dr. Blatt earned his B.S. in Microbiology from Indiana University, a Master's in Business Administration at the California State University, Northridge and a Doctorate in Public Health at the University of La Verne, La Verne, Calif.

Leonid Beigelman, Ph.D. – Founder, Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Beigelman has 26 years experience in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery with specific expertise in nucleotide and nucleoside chemistry. From 2005-2009, Dr. Beigelman served as Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at InterMune, Inc. leading several teams in HCV drug discovery. From 2002 to 2005 Dr Beigelman worked at Transgenomic, Inc. as Vice President of Nucleic Acids Chemistry where he established large scale facility for GMP manufacturing of oligonucleotides and building blocks for oligonucleotide synthesis. While at Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals from 1992-2002 (now SiRNA) Dr Beigelman assumed positions of increasing responsibility culminating in appointment as Senior Director of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He initiated and led transition from ribosyme to siRNA technology that resulted in Merck acquisition of SiRNA. In 1991, Dr. Beigelman joined United States Biochemical as a research scientist and participated in the formation of Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Inc. Dr. Beigelman received his PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry from The Institute of Molecular Biology (USSR Academy of Sciences) and completed his Post Doctoral training at the Department of Pharmacology, Yale University Medical School.

John Donovan – Founder, Chief Business Officer 

John Donovan serves as Chief Business Officer of Alios BioPharma, Inc., and has over 15 years experience in biotechnology and investment banking.  Prior to joining Alios, Mr. Donovan was the Chief Financial Officer of CoMentis, Inc., where he was responsible for building the finance organization, raising capital, strategic planning and managing information technology, facilities and administration.  He previously held various senior management positions within InterMune, Inc., most recently as Vice President of Strategic Planning & Analysis.  During his tenure at InterMune, Mr. Donovan had been responsible for business analysis, strategy, long-term financial planning, investor relations and public relations.  Prior to InterMune, Mr. Donovan served as Vice President of Biotechnology Investment Banking at Banc of America Securities LLC, and he began his career in investment banking at Vector Securities International (subsequently Prudential Vector Healthcare) where he was involved in more than a dozen merger transactions and nearly two-dozen public and private capital raising transactions.   Mr. Donovan received his degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame.