Biotech CEO Sisterhood: Daré Bioscience's Founder & CEO Sabrina Johnson describes her company's mission to make women's health a priority

Interviewed by Sisterhood editorial board member Grace Colón, she describes the unmet need for developing evidence based products for women's heath, and women's sexual health specifically. Plus, how Daré has thought outside the box regarding its path to market, including utilizing compounding, her experience running a public company, thoughts on mitigating potential FDA delays, and advice for entrepreneurs.

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Biographies

Sabrina Martucci Johnson is the Founder and CEO of Daré Bioscience (NASDAQ:DARE), a biopharmaceutical company driven by a mission to challenge the status quo, making women's health a priority. Daré’s goal is to bring to market as soon as practicable innovative evidence-based solutions that address decades of unmet needs in women’s health and enhance outcomes and convenience. Sabrina has a record of achievement in building successful companies, launching innovative products into specialty markets, delivering returns on shareholder investments, and implementing complex directional change. Prior to founding Daré, Sabrina was President of WomanCare Global Trading, a global provider of women’s health products, CFO/CAO of the California Institute for Biomedical Research (currently Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines, part of Scripps Research), CFO/COO of Cypress Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYPB), held marketing and sales positions with Advanced Tissue Sciences, and began her career in the biotechnology industry as a research scientist with Baxter Healthcare, Hyland Division, working on the recombinant factor VIII program.

Sabrina has a Master of International Management with honors from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird); a MSc. in Biochemical Engineering from the University of London, University College London; and a BSc. in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University, magna cum laude.

Sabrina currently serves on the boards of ATAI Life Sciences, a publicly-traded clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders, BIOCOM California board chair, and BIO emerging company board member. Additionally, Sabrina serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council of Newcomb Institute and is a Board of Advisors, Emeritus of Tulane University School of Science & Engineering.

Ms. Johnson is an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2022 Pacific Southwest Region Award winner. She has been named on the Medicine Maker’s Power List and Endpoints Women in Biopharma 2022. In 2023 she was recognized as one of Fierce Pharma’s Most Influential People in Biopharma for her contributions to innovation and advocacy in the women’s health space.

Dr. Grace E. Colón has a 30-year career spanning biopharma, genomics, diagnostics, digital health, synthetic and industrial biotechnology, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. She is co-founder of Inaya Therapeutics and was CEO of InCarda Therapeutics, raising $120M and advancing the lead program from pre-clinical stage to Phase 3. Previously she held leadership roles at Gilead Sciences, Intrexon, New Science Ventures, Affymetrix, and McKinsey. She serves on the board of Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VYGR), as board chair of Bloom Science and Emm, on the Board of the MIT Corporation, and as Vice Chair of the Emerging Companies Section and on the Board Executive Committee of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).

Previously she served on the boards of CareDx (NASDAQ:CDNA) and on multiple early-stage biotech boards.

A native of Puerto Rico, she is passionate about advising and mentoring entrepreneurs as well as aspiring board directors, particularly women and underrepresented minorities. She is also an active advocate for women’s health, having experienced the long-term impact of severe endometriosis. She received her Ph.D. from MIT and a B.S.E. from the University of Pennsylvania, both in chemical engineering. In 2023 she was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).