H3 Biomedicine is a leading company in cancer genomics based drug discovery, delivering on the promise of precision medicine. The company was launched in 2011 with an unprecedented $200 million funding commitment from Eisai plus additional funding for clinical programs. As a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, we uniquely leverage our distinct insights from cancer genomics and real-life patient data to advance our projects to clinical proof of concept and beyond. H3 embraces a novel business model in which it collaborates with Eisai, a leading global pharmaceutical company to create a prolific drug discovery engine and partnership platform.
About Us
Who we are
Leadership
Markus Warmuth, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Markus Warmuth became President and Chief Executive Officer of H3 Biomedicine in 2011 and is responsible for the overall scientific and business direction of the company. Prior to joining H3, Markus was Head of Oncology Drug Discovery for the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR), Cambridge (U.S.) Site where he led a significant portion of NIBR’s global oncology drug discovery portfolio. From 2002 to April 2008, he served as Director of Kinase Biology, Head of the Oncology Pharmacology Program and as a member of the Research and Drug Discovery Steering Committee for the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), San Diego.
Markus received his doctorate in medicine from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany, where he trained in Internal medicine and oncology.
Tarek Sahmoud, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Tarek joined H3 Biomedicine as Chief Medical Officer in May, 2016. He has more than 20 years of experience in oncology drug development and medical affairs, including the approval of several cancer medicines. During his career, he has led global drug development programs for several novel oncology drugs in multiple indications, including adjuvant breast cancer (Arimidex), hormone receptor positive breast cancer (Afinitor) and Tuberous Sclerosis (Afinitor), resulting in successful global registrations. His experience also includes the development and leading of global and US medical affairs teams, multi-disciplinary teams of physicians and clinical scientists, as well as serving as on the protocol review committee of a number of companies. Prior to joining H3 Biomedicine, Dr. Sahmoud most recently served as Vice President, Oncology Clinical Development and Medical Affairs for the United States business at Boehringer Ingelheim. Before his tenure at Boehringer Ingelheim, Dr. Sahmoud held positions of increasing global responsibilities at AstraZeneca, Bristol-Meyers Squib, Novartis, and Celgene.
Dr. Sahmoud received his medical degree from Cairo University Medical School, Egypt and a Ph.D. from University Bordeaux II, France.
Yutaka Ishizaka, J.D.
Planning and Operations
Yutaka “Ish” Ishizaka serves as H3 Biomedicine’s Senior Vice President, Planning & Operations and provides leadership in all aspects of the company’s business, including legal, finance, business development, communications and operations. Previously, Ish was Vice President of Eisai Inc.’s largest US-based R&D site in Andover, MA and led business planning, operations and legal affairs. During his tenure, he guided the Andover group’s growth from a mid-sized research laboratory of 50 employees to its peak level of engagement of approximately 300 employees, and also led the development of a new $65 million research facility.
Ish received his J.D. from Columbia University Law School and is a member of the New York and Massachusetts Bar Associations. He earned a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
Peter Smith, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Peter Smith joined H3 Biomedicine in 2011 as the Director of Target Biology and has since become Vice President, Drug Discovery Biology. Within this capacity, he leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists towards the identification and early development of novel small molecule oncology therapeutics. Under his leadership, the team has delivered 3 pre-clinical candidates, two of which have completed IND-enabling safety studies.
Peter came to H3 Biomedicine from Millennium Pharmaceuticals/Takeda Oncology in Cambridge, MA where he held positions of increasing scientific and management responsibility in the oncology discovery group. His work spanned projects from discovery to early clinical development for multiple novel target classes and indications.
Prior to Millennium, Peter served as a post-doctoral researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School; at the Molecular Medicine Unit, St James’s University Hospital, University of Leeds, U.K.; and at the Cancer Research Unit, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. Peter earned a Ph.D. from the Cancer Research Unit at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. and a B.S. in pharmacology from the University of Sheffield, U.K.
Lihua Yu, Ph.D.
Chief Data Sciences Officer
Dr. Lihua Yu is H3 Biomedicine’s Vice President, Data Science and Information Technology. In this role, she is driving the expanded use of data and technology by developing a leading data science, cancer genomics, and information sharing engine. Dr. Yu has spent more than 17 years in computational biology and bioinformatics, and has deep experience in the area of cancer genomics and predictive biomarkers. Her expertise and keen interest in addressing problems — be it a drug target or an operational challenge — with computational means, has enabled her to integrate the bioinformatics discipline into drug discovery and translational science continuums.
Before coming to H3 Biomedicine, Dr. Yu spent 12 years with AstraZeneca’s research and development unit, helping to build and deliver the multinational pharmaceutical company’s oncology bioinformatics capabilities. During her time there, she provided bioinformatics support to key areas of oncology drug discovery programs, including target identification and patient selection initiatives.
Lihua received a B.E. in biomedical engineering and a B.E. in automation from Tsinghua University in Beijing. She earned her master of engineering from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. from Boston University. Lihua is a two-time recipient of the AstraZeneca Global Scientific and Technical Achievement Award, and is an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research. She is a recipient of PharmaVoice 100, 2015.
Dominic Reynolds, Ph.D.
Chemistry
Dominic Reynolds, PhD, leads H3 Biomedicine’s Chemistry department and within this leadership role oversees a group of small molecule projects in collaboration with an external H3 scientific partner company. For each project, Dominic and his team of chemists establishes mutually agreeable research plans and timelines, coordinates resources across multiple sites and time zones, mediates and resolves conflicts, and influences internal and external leadership to gain support for critical project needs. Under Dominic’s leadership, these projects have delivered a clinical candidate in a highly competitive oncology area by employing a de-novo design strategy, the molecule is currently undergoing GLP toxicity assessment.
Andrea Gerken, M.B.A.
Business Development
Andrea Gerken leads the Business Development department at H3 Biomedicine, a position she has held since 2012. Under Andrea’s leadership H3 has established an open and collaborative environment which aligns best-in-class scientists and research, with H3’s capabilities and integrates this expertise, insight and resources into novel scientific partnerships. Andreas’s effort has led to the establishment of a host of strategic development partnerships with companies such as Selvita (2013) and Foundation Medicine (2015). Prior to joining H3, Andrea held the position of Manager of Research Operations in Ophthalmology and prior to that as Alliance Manager in the External Drug Discovery group at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). At NIBR she was responsible for global alliances which delivered multiple clinical candidates to the NIBR pipeline.
Andrea began her career in industry at Triad Therapeutics and GNF (The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation) as a researcher in drug discovery biology. Andrea received her M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and her B.S. degrees in physics and mathematics from the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
Aijalon Pyrtel, M.S.
Human Resources
Aijalon is an accomplished senior Human Resources professional with 15 years of experience within the biopharmaceutical industry in escalating management roles, supporting executives and managers on strategic and tactical HR issues. In her current position at H3 Biomedicine, she is responsible for leading HR business transformations, building organizational capabilities, and helping to shape the company’s performance culture. Prior to joining H3, Aijalon held the position of Human Resources Director, Oncology Translational Medicine unit of Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA. Within this capacity Aijalon provided HR guidance to the Leadership team and Business Partner support to global employee population of 400+ associates; while also disseminating advice and coaching on employee relations issues, salary planning, and retention strategies, and leading the performance management, annual compensation planning & employee development processes for this business division. Aijalon also served in senior HR management position at Merck & Co., Inc.; including Change Manager, HR Operations & Integration, Senior Human Resources Business Partner, Merck Research Laboratories, Human Resources Business Partner, HR Leadership Program, and Compensation Analyst, Merck Manufacturing Division, HR Leadership Program.
Aijalon received a Masters of Labor Relations from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Illinois State University.
Business Development
H3 Biomedicine continues to build and grow its preclinical and clinical portfolio. We are actively engaged in partnering and business development with a goal to advance and build its pipeline through continued collaboration with Eisai as well as with additional partners that can strengthen H3’s ability to quickly deliver novel precision cancer therapies to patients.
H3 is creating novel cancer therapies that will have the potential to impact the disease state and quality of life for those patients who are living with cancer. Our scientists are dedicated to designing a group of best-in-class cancer therapeutics with broad therapeutic potential. In order to accomplish this goal, we are actively seeking partners to advance and expand the H3 pipeline.
H3 has created a culture of “open and innovative collaboration,” which brings together the best scientists, groups and companies and harnesses their expertise, insights and resources through novel working relationships and alliances. In the short time since its inception in 2011, H3 has entered into collaborative relationships with:
In February 2015, Foundation Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:FMI) and H3 Biomedicine Inc. announced a multi-year collaboration for the discovery and development of precision medicines in oncology. The collaboration marries Foundation Medicine’s comprehensive genomic knowledgebase of more than 40,000 genomic profiles, FoundationCORE™, with H3 Biomedicine’s drug discovery engine and computational biology platform. The approach aims to identify potential drug targets based on the unique genomic dependencies of individual cancers, rapidly accelerate clinical development, and lead to the commercialization of new, safe and effective precision medicines for individuals living with cancer.
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H3 Biomedicine and Selvita (PL: SLV), one of the largest drug discovery companies in Eastern Europe, entered into a strategic collaboration (2013) to validate the importance and druggability of several kinase targets in specific genomic contexts, and to generate multiple novel drug candidates against those targets. Working together, the two companies leverage the strengths of both partners in target validation, precision chemistry, cancer genomics and target biology to advance novel therapies through discovery and in to the clinical setting.
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In the Community
At H3 Biomedicine, we are fortunate to be part of an extraordinary community that universally incorporates the ethic of giving back. It’s not just a philosophy in words, but all of us at H3 feel compelled to actively participate and support by donating our time and resources. As part of its commitment to social responsibility, H3 stresses the importance of community support by making contributions in a variety of ways. H3’s commitment to supporting community service provides its employees with a unique opportunity to give back to the community where they work. H3 makes a difference through its support of local in and around Greater Boston. Supporting programs like the Pan Mass Challenge, Making Strides, and Light the Night.
