Corvidia competitors

Michael Cola joined Medgenics as President and CEO in September 2013. Prior to joining Medgenics, Mr. Cola served as President of Specialty Pharmaceuticals at Shire plc, a global specialty pharmaceutical company, from 2007 until April 2012. He joined Shire in 2005 as EVP of Global Therapeutic Business Units and Portfolio Management. Prior to joining Shire, he was with Safeguard Scientifics, Inc., a growth capital provider to life sciences and technology companies, where he served as President of the Life Sciences Group. While at Safeguard, Mr. Cola served as Chairman and CEO of Clarient, Inc., a cancer diagnostics company subsequently acquired by GE Healthcare, and as Chairman of Laureate Pharma, Inc., a full-service contract manufacturing organization serving research-based biologics companies. Prior to Safeguard Scientifics, Mr. Cola held senior positions in product development and commercialization at AstraMerck, a top 20 U.S. pharmaceutical company, and at AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Cola received a B.A. in biology and physics from Ursinus College and an M.S. in biomedical science from Drexel University. He serves on the Board of Directors of Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., Sage Therapeutics, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Pennsylvania BIO, the statewide association representing the bioscience community. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia.

James Fairbairn has 20+ years in senior finance roles with emerging companies. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant, having obtained his CPA designation in 1987 and is an Institute-certified Director. Jim holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario. He is a director of several junior listed companies.

Bastiano Sanna, Ph.D., joined Vertex in 2019 and is the company’s Executive Vice President, Chief of Cell and Genetic Therapies. In this role, Dr. Sanna is responsible for advancing research, development and manufacturing for all of Vertex’s cell and genetic therapy programs, including hemoglobinopathies, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy type 1 and type 1 diabetes. He will also oversee the future Vertex Cell and Genetic Therapies research site, which is expected to open in 2021 at Innovation Square in Boston’s Seaport District. Dr. Sanna was previously the CEO of Semma Therapeutics, which was acquired by Vertex in 2019. Under his leadership, Semma’s pioneering work to develop cell therapy treatments for those living with type 1 diabetes significantly advanced. Prior to Semma, Dr. Sanna was Chief Operating Officer at Magenta Therapeutics, where he was responsible for operations, finance, clinical development and program management. Prior to Magenta, Dr. Sanna served on the leadership team of Novartis’ Cell and Gene Therapy Unit as the Global Program Head of Stem Cell Transplant and early programs, where he oversaw clinical, regulatory, CMC and commercial aspects of programs in bone marrow transplant and CAR-T cell therapies. He also served as Global Head of Strategic Planning and Portfolio Management at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he was responsible for the global portfolio management of all Novartis’ research programs, from discovery through Phase II across all disease areas. Dr. Sanna received a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the University of Sassari.