Intarcia Therapeutics CEO and leadership

Kurt Graves is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intarcia. Prior to joining Intarcia, Mr. Graves was EVP, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Corporate and Strategic Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his tenure at Vertex, he spent nearly 10 years at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, most recently as Global Head of the General Medicines Business & Chief Marketing Officer for the Pharmaceuticals division. Mr. Graves also previously held several commercial and general management positions at Merck and Astra Merck/Astra Pharmaceuticals, where he spent most of his time leading the GI Business Unit responsible for Prilosec and Nexium. Mr. Graves earned his B.S. in biology from Hillsdale College and has attended executive leadership programs at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Management and University of Michigan.

Andrew Young, a 30-year pioneer in biopharmaceuticals, is currently Chief Scientific Officer at Intarcia Therapeutics Inc. Other biopharmaceutic roles include head of Enteroendocrine Biology at GlaxoSmithKline, NC, and founding physiologist at Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc in San Diego (VP, Research and Sr Research Fellow) where he led physiologic characterization of the new hormone, amylin. An analog, pramlintide (SYMLIN), was a first-in-class treatment for insulin-requiring diabetes. He led acquisition and initial development of exenatide (BYETTA and BYDUREON) the first GLP1 agonist for treatment of type 2 diabetes. He co-discovered the use of PYY for metabolic diseases. He has contributed to 6 New Drug Applications.

He has co-founded 2 biotech companies. Satiogen Pharmaceuticals Inc (San Diego) based upon bile acid based signaling via drugs and devices (part divested as Lumena, sold to Shire). Phoundry Pharmaceuticals Inc, spun out of GlaxoSmithKline, discovered highly potency peptides suitable for convenient delivery systems. He was CSO until Phoundry’s acquisition by Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc.

Andrew Young received his M.B., Ch.B. (M.D.) and Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Following various clinical postings he joined the faculty in the Department of Physiology at the University of Auckland.

Research interests have included thermoregulatory control (M.Sc. and Antarctic Division of New Zealand DSIR), sensory neurophysiology (Ph.D. and Humboldt Fellowship at the Max-Planck-Institut für Physiologische und Klinische Forschung in Bad Nauheim, Germany), and metabolic diseases (Fogarty Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Phoenix, Arizona). He has had advisory, inventorship and leadership roles in several device companies (GI Dynamics SAB, Leptos Biomedical as CTO/CMO, Intarcia as CSO).

He is an inventor on 70 issued and pending US Patents, has authored over 100 papers, 40 book chapters, and 250 short communications.

Kurt Graves is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intarcia. Prior to joining Intarcia, Mr. Graves was EVP, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Corporate and Strategic Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his tenure at Vertex, he spent nearly 10 years at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, most recently as Global Head of the General Medicines Business & Chief Marketing Officer for the Pharmaceuticals division. Mr. Graves also previously held several commercial and general management positions at Merck and Astra Merck/Astra Pharmaceuticals, where he spent most of his time leading the GI Business Unit responsible for Prilosec and Nexium. Mr. Graves earned his B.S. in biology from Hillsdale College and has attended executive leadership programs at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Management and University of Michigan.