About us

Jan started his medicinal chemistry trajectory in high school, studying chemical and pharmaceutical technology from 2005. He received his undergraduate degree in medicinal chemistry from The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, and continued to earn his Ph.D. in the same field at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Following his doctoral studies, Jan spent his postdoctoral period at the Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery Center in Baltimore. He then returned to Czechia and started a collaboration with IOCB Tech, ultimately joining the team officially in 2023.

jan.skacel@uochb.cas.cz

Dr. William “Bill” Lee served as the Executive Vice President of Research at Gilead Sciences. He received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California San Diego. He did postdoctoral work at the EPFL in Switzerland and at the University of California Santa Barbara. He began his industry career at Syntex Research in Palo Alto in the Preformulation Department and then moved to California Biotechnology where he was head of Drug Delivery. He came to Gilead Sciences as Director of Pharmaceutical Development in 1991.  Dr. Lee is a co-inventor of Cellcept®, Viread® and tenofovir alafenamide, a lymphatic targeting prodrug of tenofovir which was recently approved for the treatment of HIV in the combination product, Genvoya®.

Professor James Lorens, Ph.D. is an academic entrepreneur with over 35 years research and industry experience from the US and Europe. Head of Oncology and a founding scientist at Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc (RIGL). Founder and CSO of BerGenBio ASA (BGBIO). Developed the first AXL targeting agent (bemcentinib) into the clinic. Member of the Norwegian National Academy of Sciences and Letters, Principal Investigator in the Norwegian Centre of Excellence in Cancer Biomarkers and Professor in the University of Bergen Medical Faculty.

Jiri Michal is a highly experienced professional in the pharmaceutical industry. He has been with Zentiva for 36 years and served as its CEO from 1993-2010.

Vit Perlik, M.D., PhD. has an extensive expertise in clinical development, non-clinical and clinical study design, data mining, data evaluation and interpretation. Vit has built his expertise by working as a basic research scientist in the USA and in pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi, Zentiva Inhalationprodukte and Zentiva with more than 20 years’ experience in research, clinical pharmacology, inhalation drug development, locally applied and acting products, long-acting injectables, generics and drug candidates for pain management. Currently, he is a consultant and partner at Cadore INV and Synavia, and contributing to spin-off initiatives e.g. LAM-X. Vit and his colleagues built and successfully divested PharmInvent (now part of PrimeVigilance). Additionally, he is the founder of BioBridges, a conference for professionals from pharmaceutical industry, academia and regulatory agencies.

Ursula Vogel, a biopharmaceutical industry veteran, started her career at Merck & Co (MSD) in West Point, PA, USA, where her research led to significant discoveries in the field of oncology. After another R&D position at Rhone-Poulenc (Sanofi), she was recruited to launch the European operation of the pioneering US biotech Genetics Institute (Pfizer) where she was responsible for managing key product development and business development activities for several programs, including InductOs(R), BeneFIX(R)and DiscoverEaseTM. She then joined ZS Associates where she co-managed the newly established European headquarters.

In 1999 she started her own independent consulting practice, specializing in providing C-level business development support to companies in all stages of the deal-making process. In this capacity, she has led in /out licensing and other partnering efforts for large pharmaceutical companies, publicly traded biotech companies, and VC backed companies (USA, Europe, and China), resulting in an extensive list of transactions. She has also served as an Advisor to top tier venture capital and private equity firms, not-for-profit entities, foundations, and universities and has a broad experience across various therapeutic areas and modalities.

Ursula holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cambridge University, a B.Sc. from Imperial College and an MBA from INSEAD.

Stepan has more than 19 years of experience in preclinical drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. He is co-inventor of Pevonedistat (Ph3), directly contributed to advancement of 3 molecules into clinic, 5 into IND-enabling studies and authored over 60 publications and patents. Prior to starting his independent consultancy, he worked at Millennium/Takeda for 16 years, where he held various leadership roles with focus on small molecule and antibody-drug conjugates drug discovery. Stepan received his PhD from Charles University in Prague and completed post-doctoral training at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, where he focused on natural product synthesis.

Is an expert in Public Relations and Public Affairs. He has over twenty years of experience in media and PR, both from the private sector, state administration or international corporate business. His domain is a strategic and crisis communication. Martin is also a sought after lecturer in many aspects of communication. He completed his Ph.D. studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague with specialization in communication and psychology.

opatrny@prclinic.eu