Janssen's Elena Diez and Odyssey Therapeutics' Gary Glick share advice on success factors for pharma - biotech partnerships, and more

They discuss Odyssey's work, the investments it has made regarding in silico and AI/ML tools, the unique value of the Boston biotech ecosystem, and keys to successful collaborations.

The Experts

Elena Diez Cecilia, PhD, MBA is Senior Director of External Innovation within Discovery, Product Development & Supply (DPDS) at Janssen R&D and part of the J&J Innovation East North America team, located at the Boston Innovation Center. She is responsible for scouting and evaluation of external opportunities across all synthetic drug modalities and disease areas. In addition, she supports Therapeutic Area Innovation Leads with scientific and technological expertise and the transaction team with deal structure. Elena also partners with the JLABS organization to identify and foster start-up companies aligned with DPDS strategy. Additionally, she is the Global DPDS DE&I and ORTHE (Our Race to Heath Equity) Lead and member of the Engagement and Culture core team.

Elena obtained her Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin in medicinal chemistry followed by research positions at University of Toronto and San Francisco State University, researching oncology and neurological diseases drug discovery. She also completed an executive MBA from EAE Business School.

Gary Glick, PhD is a founder and CEO with expertise in small molecule therapies for inflammation and cancer. He founded Lycera Corp., leading it to partnerships with Merck and advancing programs into clinical testing. Gary also founded FirstWave Bio and IFM Therapeutics, where he led the sale of assets worth over $4B. He co-founded Scorpion Therapeutics, raised $270M, and launched Odyssey Therapeutics, securing over $500M in funding and closing several pharma partnerships.

Gary holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Columbia University and has over 100 papers and 54 patents.