Leadership

Dr. Bill Symonds became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Enzyvant in 2022. Previously, Dr. Symonds served as the Chief Executive Officer of Altavant Sciences, starting at its inception in 2018.

Dr. Symonds was a member of the founding management team at Roivant Sciences, Inc. where he served as Roivant’s Chief Development Officer. In that role, Dr. Symonds crafted the research and development plans for several products including rodatristat ethyl for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension and was instrumental in the licensing and early development of RETHYMIC^®.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Symonds held senior positions at a number of pharmaceutical companies including Pharmasset, Inc. and Gilead Sciences, Inc. During his tenure at Pharmasset, Dr. Symonds led the development of Sovaldi^® for hepatitis C virus infection. Based on the early success at Pharmasset, Dr. Symonds and his team were brought into Gilead after its acquisition of Pharmasset, where he continued to advance Sovaldi^® through to FDA approval. Previously, he worked at GlaxoSmithKline and its predecessor companies on numerous approved medicines for HIV infection including Ziagen^®, Agenerase^® and Epzicom^®.

Dr. Symonds received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Campbell University and completed a fellowship in clinical pharmacokinetics at the Clinical Pharmacokinetics Laboratory at Millard Fillmore Hospital in Buffalo, New York. He has authored or co-authored over 35 clinical articles and is named on nine patents related to the composition of matter and methods of use of drugs for hepatitis C infection.

As Chief Commercial Officer at Enzyvant, Johanna Rossell provides overall strategic commercial direction for the company. Johanna leads both the U.S. commercial activities for RETHYMIC^®, including marketing, market access and patient support initiatives, as well as pre-launch commercialization planning for rodatristat ethyl, including strategic cross-functional planning and engagement with payers and other key stakeholders. She also provides leadership for Enzyvant’s growth strategies such as expansions into new geographies, additional indications for the company’s regenerative technology and new assets.

Johanna has a broad and deep background across consumer goods and healthcare categories in the U.S. and several geographies around the world. She has led multifunctional teams delivering strong business results for companies such as Procter & Gamble, Novartis, Merck, Mallinckrodt and Biogen. She has had extensive success leading new products to the U.S. market and creating integrated pre- and post-launch commercial plans, both in the U.S. and globally, including a Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT)-designated tissue-based product and several therapies for rare diseases.

Johanna received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and an MBA from Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela.

Dr. Howard Lazarus is Enzyvant’s Chief Medical Officer. He most recently served as Chief Medical Officer at Altavant Sciences, Inc. Prior to that, he was Medical Expert and Executive Director of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, where he was a member of the leadership team focusing on interstitial lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Earlier, at Gilead Sciences, Dr. Lazarus served as Director of Medical Affairs in the company’s cardiopulmonary division. In this role, he also contributed to clinical research and worked closely with cross-functional colleagues in marketing and commercial strategy, formulating communications plans for Gilead’s approved and pipeline programs for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and IPF.

Between 1997 and 2012, Dr. Lazarus practiced as a pulmonary and critical care physician at several health facilities, most recently at Oregon Pulmonary Associates in Portland. In that role, he and a team of experts diagnosed and treated patients with complex pulmonary vascular and interstitial diseases such as PAH and IPF, many of whom were referred to their sub-specialty center from area hospitals.

Dr. Lazarus earned both a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and an M.D. from McGill University in Montreal. His residency in Internal Medicine was at Boston University Medical Center and he completed a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He is a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and a member of the American Thoracic and European Respiratory Societies.

Dr. Steve Wring is Enzyvant’s Chief Development Officer, head of the translational medicine team and project lead for ALTA-2530. Dr. Wring has over a 30-year track record of drug development in the U.K. and U.S. with a focus on nonclinical and translational research.

Before joining Enzyvant, Dr. Wring was the Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Development at Altavant from its formation in 2018, prior to which he led non-clinical drug disposition and modeling at Roivant. Dr. Wring previously spent over 10 years with Trimeris and Scynexis where he focused primarily on anti-infective research and development. In these roles, Dr. Wring worked on the optimization and development of synthetic peptide fusion inhibitors for HIV, a cyclophilin inhibitor for hepatitis C, multiple anti-parasitic products for neglected tropical diseases and a first-in-class antifungal for treating VVC and invasive disease. Earlier in his career, he worked across portfolios in non-clinical research at GSK and Glaxo-legacy companies in the U.K. and U.S.

Dr. Wring earned Master of Science and Ph.D. qualifications in Chemistry at the University of the West of England, U.K. His recent research interests and publications have focused on use of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic efficacy data in nonclinical disease models to select doses for clinical evaluation together with clinical pharmacology studies to support development and regulatory submissions. Dr. Wring has extensive regulatory experience authoring and supporting nonclinical submissions to U.S., Canadian, EU and Japanese agencies.

Dr. Blair McNeill leads all aspects of CMC at Enzyvant, including process development, analytical development, external development, and clinical and commercial manufacturing. Additionally, Dr. McNeill is responsible for global strategic alignments with Sumitomo Pharma’s regenerative medicine division.

Dr. McNeill brings over 25 years of development and manufacturing experience in complex biologics from multiple startups and pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Bayer and Alkermes. Prior to his position at Enzyvant, Dr. McNeill served as Senior Vice President and Head of CMC for Sumitovant Biopharma, where he provided guidance and technical leadership spanning from initial development to commercialization, across five subsidiary organizations.

Dr. McNeill holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics from Vanderbilt University.

Diane Lifton has served as Enzyvant’s lead corporate attorney since August 2020.  She brings more than 25 years of experience providing legal advice to life sciences companies, supporting senior leaders on key areas of drug development, commercialization, compliance, corporate governance, IP portfolio strategy, strategic partnering and business transactions.

Diane holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School, a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Pre-Medical Studies from Cornell University, and a certificate in pharmaceutical law and compliance from Seton Hall Law School’s Health Law Program.

As Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacovigilance, Beth-Anne Lang brings decades of experience leading global regulatory affairs organizations in biotechnology as well as mid and large pharmaceutical companies.

Beth previously served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Horizon Therapeutics through the company’s acquisition of Viela Bio. She was also Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at LEO Pharma, where she helped guide the company through many regulatory milestones including FDA and EMA submission for the company’s lead biological asset and initiated significant transformation in support of the corporate strategy of being a leading global medical dermatology company. Prior to that role, Beth served as Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs for Marketed Products at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where she led the team responsible for the maintenance and lifecycle of more than 500 products in over 100 countries. In addition, Beth was instrumental in initiating the regulatory diligence in the divesture of the mature products portfolio. She also worked in several strategic regulatory roles across multiple therapeutic areas and led multiple global health authority interactions, submissions and approvals across the globe.

Beth earned an MBA from Marquette University and a Bachelor of Science in Food Science / Microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Kevin Healy is Enzyvant’s Senior Vice President, Quality and Compliance. In this role, Dr. Healy serves as the Chief Compliance Officer and leads Enzyvant’s Compliance and Quality departments. He is responsible for oversight of quality systems at Enzyvant and its partner organizations. Dr. Healy has had multiple leadership positions at Enzyvant, including responsibility for Pharmacovigilance and Regulatory Affairs. His leadership of the Regulatory Affairs department included guiding RETHYMIC^® to an FDA approval in 2021.

Dr. Healy brings over 15 years of biotech and pharmaceutical experience to his role at Enzyvant. He was previously the head of Global Regulatory Affairs at Roivant Sciences and led development and successful filings for several therapies in the autoimmune and rare disease portfolio at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. He also served on global development teams for hepatitis B and C virus treatments at Gilead Sciences.

Dr. Healy received his Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Cornell University, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jim Bishop is Senior Vice President of Business Operations at Enzyvant. Previously, he served in this role and as Chief of Staff at Altavant Sciences and similar role in the development unit at Roivant Sciences. He joined Roivant in February 2017 from Teva Pharmaceuticals where he was Director of Portfolio and Operations Management for the personalized and predictive medicines and big data analytics unit.

In the roles prior to Teva, Jim was the Director of Project Management at Cabernet Pharmaceutical with a full-time consultant commitment to the tailored therapeutics group at Eli Lilly. He led the preclinical R&D efforts at Oxygen Biotherapeutics and was a senior scientist in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics at GlaxoSmithKline.

Jim has an MBA from Meredith College and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Nicolas Mourier brings to his role over 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with expertise in CMC for preclinical through commercial development programs, spanning multiple indications.

Dr. Mourier previously served as Vice President of Manufacturing at Anchiano Therapeutics. Dr. Mourier has also held key leadership positions as Senior Vice President of Manufacturing at Sanifit, Vice President of CMC at Inotek Pharmaceuticals (now Rocket Pharmaceuticals) and Senior Vice President of CMC at Celsus Therapeutics, PLC (now Akari Therapeutics, PLC), where he oversaw the manufacturing and pharmaceutical development for all the pre-clinical and clinical assets. He also consulted for several small and large biotechnology companies as subject matter expert where he contributed to the development and approval of several drugs: OBIZUR^® (Baxalta), ICLUSIG^® (Ariad), FIRAZYR^® (Shire), Velcade^® and MEPACT^® (Takeda).

Dr. Mourier received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Luminy in Marseille, France.

Larry Weiner is Enzyvant’s Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing. In this role, Larry was instrumental in securing FDA commercial approval for RETHYMIC® and leads CMC operations activities and is responsible for the delivery of a new internal manufacturing facility.

Previously, Larry was the Vice President of Technical Operations & CMC at Unum Therapeutics, a cell therapy company. Other experience includes engineering, program management, process development and manufacturing leadership roles at Biogen, MassBiologics, Pfizer, Serono, Indigo Ag and Amgen. He has led and supported cell therapy, gene therapy, biologics, oligonucleotides, tissue therapy, blood fraction and vaccines strategy development, cGMP operations and regulatory inspections.

Larry has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University, an MBA from Babson College and a Masters in Bioengineering from Tufts University. Larry serves on the Tufts University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering Advisory Board.

Fabien Vial joined Enzyvant in September 2020, bringing over 20 years of global financial leadership experience in the pharmaceutical sector.

Before joining Enzyvant, Fabien held numerous leadership positions at Alexion, including as the Head of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) for the EMEA region, Head of Finance for the MidSize Markets and finally as the Finance Lead for strategic corporate FP&A projects.

Previously, Fabien served in roles of increasing responsibility with Shire Pharmaceuticals, from country CFO of the French affiliate, Head of Finance for the U.K. and Ireland affiliates and Head of Finance Business Partnering for all Specialty Pharmaceutical business outside of the U.S.

Fabien holds a degree in Finance from Institut Commercial de Nancy (I.C.N.) Business School in France.