Vanqua Bio: Jim Sullivan, CEO
“Not many people get out of bed every morning with the opportunity to transform the way a disease is treated”
For decades we have been able to cure mice afflicted with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions in the lab. “Vanquishing” this pathology in human patients has so far remained elusive—with no disease modifying therapies available. Vanqua Bio is taking a human-centric approach, leveraging a deep understanding of genetics and cutting-edge patient-derived stem cell models, to develop next-generation drugs for neurodegeneration. They are starting with Parkinson’s (PD): “We have the opportunity to come up with a transformative medicine for patients with PD,” says Dr. Jim Sullivan, CEO and co-founder of Vanqua (Q #3).
Based on the science of renowned neurologist-neuroscientist Dr. Dimitri Krainc (co-founder), and incubated by a team at Orbimed (including Jim Sullivan and Jonathan Silverstein), Vanqua got up and running with an Orbimed-funded series A in 2019. Their lead program is a small molecule activator of GCase—a lysosomal enzyme deficient in a subset of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Patients with GCase mutations have disrupted sphingolipid metabolism and lysosomal dysfunction—hallmarks thought to drive PD pathogenesis. Vanqua also has earlier stage assets in the pipeline, designed to modulate innate immune activation in Alzheimer’s and ALS. In September 2021, Vanqua raised a series B from a syndicate including OrbiMed and new investors Omega Funds, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Avoro Ventures, Casdin Capital, Pontifax, Eli Lilly and Company, Logos Capital, and Osage University Partners.
Jim Sullivan, PhD (CEO) is a neuroscientist by training, with decades of experience in biotech and pharma. Following a Parkinson’s focused PhD (Keith Tipton’s group), Sullivan moved to Northwestern to study neurobiology in Bill Klein’s lab. After a three-year post-doc, he joined Nova Pharmaceuticals where he developed a passion for working on a team and cut his teeth in research and development. What follows is a storied career at Abbvie, where he helped discover and develop multiple therapies, including RINVOQ™, VENCLEXTA® and MAVYRET®, which have transformed the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, certain blood cancers, and hepatitis C. From his post as Vice President of Research at Abbvie, Jim was recruited to Orbimed as a venture partner in 2019.
In our interview below, Sullivan defines an “impactful” company as one that has “delivered transformative medicines to patients.” He certainly has the tools, team and experience to turn Vanqua Bio into such a company.
Below is an interview with Dr. Jim Sullivan from July 2022:
1. Tell us a bit about your academic career as a grad student at Trinity College Dublin and postdoc at Northwestern? What drew you to science initially? What led you to make the jump to industry?
During my PhD at Trinity, I was fortunate to work in the lab of Keith Tipton, who is a well-known biochemist and neuroscientist. I worked on Parkinson’s disease and was exposed to the impact that finding a beneficial small-molecule [medication] could have for patients. I worked on monoamine oxidase and how it metabolized the toxin MPTP. I then came to the United States and went to Northwestern, where I did a 3-year post-doc in Bill Klein’s lab, which was neurobiology focused. As I was going through that [post-doc], I increasingly had this yearning to be involved in efforts to find treatments for patients. This can be done in academia, but I think it is best done in biotech or pharma. [After the post-doc] I had a choice to go down either the academic or biotech route.
By far the biggest decision and most consequential decision I made in my career was to go work for a biotech company in Baltimore, Nova Pharmaceuticals. I encourage any post-doc or MD-PhD student thinking about discovering a medicine to explore opportunities in in biotech or pharma. If you go to a biotech first, you will likely be exposed to many aspects of drug discovery and development—you get to help build a company. If you go into a larger pharmaceutical company, you can still do this, but may have less hands on exposure to all of the scientific disciplines involved in discovering a drug—it is a different experience.
That said, after a couple of years in Baltimore at Nova Pharmaceuticals, I went to Abbot/Abbvie and through a lot of good luck and hard work had a fantastic career, which I enjoyed tremendously.
[On making the transition to industry]:
One thing I would always encourage people: don’t run away from something, run to something. If someone tells me when they are interviewing that they want to come to biotech/biopharma because they are ‘tired of writing grants,’ —well, that’s a really bad reason. If your passion is doing great academic, basic science—that is fantastic. If your passion is being part of a team to find a therapeutic that can impact health—well, go follow that passion in industry. Of course, it is not black and white-there is great basic science performed in companies and, increasingly, drug discovery is being undertaken in academia.
[On making the transition to leadership].
Early in my career at Abbott, I was asked to lead a group of scientists. Anybody who tells you it is easy when they start leading a group—well, they likely are not a particularly good leader. It is really challenging to be a good leader. You can manage people, but to lead is to inspire, give people autonomy, hold them accountable and help them grow as scientists and perhaps seek opportunities in areas outside of their scientific expertise. Much like you take the time to learn new techniques in the lab, you also need to take the time, and seek guidance on how to become a good leader.
2. What is one book that has influenced the way you think, which you would recommend to fellow scientists or entrepreneurs?
It gets to this topic of leadership. There is a small book by Patrick Lencioni called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Anybody who is going into biotech/biopharma, who is part of a team or wants to be a leader, should read this book. It is 120 pages, an easy read. If you stop and think about what can hinder progress in drug discovery, beyond the science, it is really this issue of a dysfunctional team. Over the course of my career, I have found that the vast majority of research teams have the same level of scientific acumen but what differentiates the successful teams is a high degree of trust among team members, a willingness to openly debate issues and an unrelenting focus on getting to an answer on a project. Highly encourage reading this book.
3. What excites you most about working at Vanqua? Briefly, what is the secret sauce or competitive advantage?
The most exciting thing about working at Vanqua is that we have the opportunity and responsibility to come up with a transformative medicine for patients with GBA Parkinson’s disease [for our lead program]. There is nothing more professionally gratifying than to be associated with a team that discovers a drug that makes it to market, and then you get to meet the patients who are benefitting. I am most excited by the fact that we have the potential to do that: we have the right team and approach, and it will play out in the next few years. This is incredibly exciting; not many people get out of bed every morning with the opportunity to transform the way a disease is treated.
[On the “secret sauce” that will allow Vanqua to find the first disease modifying therapy for PD]:
Our approach builds on recent breakthroughs in terms of pinpointing the causes of various diseases, like GBA Parkinson’s disease [PD], and then creating new and improved preclinical models to study disease, and test compounds.
The application of human genetics to Parkinson’s has revealed genes that are causative or strongly associated with disease. Patients with a mutation in a gene called GBA, develop disease at an earlier age and have accelerated cognitive and motoric decline relative to patients with idiopathic disease. So how are we going to attack GBA PD? Our work builds the work of our scientific co-founder Dimitri Krainc, whereby we use patient derived neuronal cells to study the disease and evaluate potential therapeutics. You take skin fibroblasts from patients, create stem cells, differentiate them into neuronal cells—and if you study these neurons over 120-150 days you see the emergence of disease phenotypes in the absence of any exogenous challenge. You have a sophisticated disease model in a dish—you can then better understand disease pathogenesis, screen compounds and come up with biomarkers.
Starting with a gene that causes disease and having the necessary reagents and tools, led us to the development of next generation activators of our primary target [GBA1] which are progressing quickly towards the clinic.
4. What is the company’s origin story, and how did Vanqua come together at Orbimed?
It starts with a patient. Jonathan Silverstein had a very prolific career as a venture capitalist at Orbimed for many years—unfortunately he got diagnosed with GBA-PD in his late forties. Rather than sit back and lament his diagnosis, he created the Silverstein Foundation with the goal of funding research in academic labs that could turn into companies. When I left Abbvie, Jonathan recruited me to Orbimed with a view to find the right project so that we could create a company. The work going on in Dimitri Krainc’s lab fit very nicely. We started the company in 2019, and Orbimed was the series A investor. We made good progress and had a series B last year where we brought in more top tier investors and capital which allowed us to expand the company. It started with a patient and some great science.
5. What are you currently working hardest on at Vanqua? What are the upcoming milestones you are using to keep your team motivated?
We are still preclinical, so our major focus right now is making a compelling activator of GCase, our lead target. No one has successfully developed a small molecule GCase activator. We are focused on finding a small molecule that has tolerability and efficacy in our preclinical models, such that it can be a really good test of this hypothesis when we move into humans. We want to find a molecule that can help patients like Jonathan as soon as possible. Similar to all drug discovery programs—we are trying to optimize for multiple properties in a single molecule including in vitro efficacy, pharmacokinetic properties, metabolic properties, solubility, safety and tolerability. We have been able to generate molecules that are highly efficacious in our patient-derived neurons, with very nice PK properties. So, we are now testing several of these compounds to ensure we have one with the best blend of qualities to move into humans.
6. What is another biotech (public or private) that you think serves as a paragon of an impactful company? What are the key learnings from this case study?
The key word you have used here is ‘impactful.’ The way I am defining this is as a company that has delivered transformative medicines to patients. Vertex is an example of a company that has had a huge impact for patients with cystic fibrosis and deserves great credit. I would also look at companies like Abbvie that have transformed the treatment hematologic cancers with BCL-2 inhibitors. We always have to think about the impact we want to have, and [in biotech/pharma] that should be on delivering treatments to patients.
7. In today’s climate what is one short piece of advice you would give to prospective and first-time biotech entrepreneurs on making the jump into biotech?
Pressure test your assumption that the science you are working on will truly deliver a meaningful impact to patients. You may have a great idea, but what data supports the assumption that you can replace the standard of care? How are you differentiated from what’s in the market today, and also other therapies in the pipeline? Also be very clear on what steps are needed to not only get into phase I but also demonstrate a signal of activity in phase I studies. Most importantly, find a mentor who has discovered a therapeutic and/or built a company.
8. What has most impressed you about any experienced or thoughtful investors with whom you have interacted? As a venture partner at Orbimed, and a CEO, what is one piece of advice you would give to new biotech investors?
Good investors have the ability to quickly assess science—something that will move the needle—but also understand if there is a market for what the company is pitching. This could be a strategic collaboration or an IPO. As someone once said to me: ‘We always have to be thinking about the exit strategy, and what defines a successful exit.’ Understanding the path to a successful exit is key. Thoughtful investors also have a very good sense of the quality of the team. If you are going to put significant dollars behind a company, you really need to trust the team.
What I love about the venture world is that you get to see some fantastic ideas, people and companies every day.
9. Anything else you want to add about the burgeoning biotech community in Chicago?
Chicago has a thriving biopharma ecosystem. Home to some of the world’s largest biopharma companies as well as world-class hospitals and research institutions, Chicago offers companies in the biopharma sector access to tremendous talent, funding, and facilities. In particular, a number of state-of-the art facilities have been built in the last five years that are housing an increasing number of biotechs and incubators.
10. Any recent announcements (hires, abstracts/publications, funding, awards, job openings) or key milestones regarding Vanqua that you want the public to be aware of?
Vanqua is a great company on the cusp of solving a really big problem. We are looking for bright team-orientated scientists to come and join us on this journey. In particular, we are looking for scientists with expertise in neuroscience, lysosomal biology and translational biology/medicine