Biotech CEO Sisterhood: Stealth BioTherapeutics' CEO Reenie McCarthy describes the fortitude and close relationship with a patient community that led to the first approved therapy for Barth Syndrome

Interviewed by Sisterhood editorial board member Erika Smith, Reenie McCarthy discusses how working with the Barth Syndrome Community, an ultra rare disease, helped the company better understand outcomes that are important to daily life for these patients. She also highlights the role that mitochondria play in biology, and the future of treatments for diseases of mitochondrial dysfunction.

Biographies

Reenie McCarthy is the Chief Executive Officer, President and a member of the Board of Stealth BioTherapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing investigational therapies to treat diseases of mitochondrial dysfunction including diseases of aging.

Reenie previously led the US-based investment team of Morningside Ventures from 1993 through 2015, providing operational and Board-level management oversight to venture- and private-equity backed companies in the United States, Canada, Europe and China. Reenie is a member of the Board of Directors of Biotechnology Innovation Organization. Reenie earned her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law and her B.A. from Bates College.

Erika Smith is life sciences entrepreneur who has combined technical and business expertise with 30-years of industry experience building, investing in, and successfully exiting life-science and technology companies

Previously, she led EpiTET Therapeutics, developing novel oral therapeutics that selectively eliminates pathogenic macrophages, and ReNetX Bio, a venture funded neuro-science company

As an investor, she served as the inaugural director of the $65M Blavatnik Fund at Yale, launched the Johnson & Johnson investment fund in partnership with the Center for Innovative Technology and was a Venture Advisor to Epidarex Ventures, a transatlantic life-science venture firm. These early-stage investments enabled successful exits including medSage (acq: Philips Healthcare), Isoplexis (NASDAQ: ISO), and Biorez ($250M Acq NYSE: CNMD).

She is the Board Chair (ECS) and on the Executive Committee Board of Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and a recognized thought leader holding numerous awards including: “Industry Superstar”, “Entrepreneur of the Year,” and co-author of playbook “Empowering Women Entrepreneurs” sponsored by JPMorgan Chase; and TEDx speaker. Erika received a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration (MBA).