BOSTON– Expansion Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing transformative oral medicines for severe RNA-mediated diseases, today announced the appointment of Sudhir Rao, M.S., M.B.A., to the position of Senior Vice President of Business Development.
“We are delighted to welcome Sudhir to Expansion and look forward to benefiting from his extensive business development experience and strong R&D background as we advance our portfolio of small molecule medicines to treat severe RNA-mediated diseases,” said Renato Skerlj, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and President of Expansion Therapeutics. “We expect 2022 to be a transformational year for Expansion and Sudhir’s background will be tremendously valuable to our company.”
In his role at Expansion, Mr. Rao will be responsible for all business development functions, including potential partnerships, deal structures, valuation models, and subsequent transaction execution and alliance management. He will also work with the Expansion board and management team to set the research and development strategy.
Mr. Rao has extensive experience in pharma and biotech licensing, collaborations, and strategy. He has held leadership roles in both small biotech companies and large multi-national corporations and has closed numerous deals with a portfolio that spans across several therapeutic areas, including Central Nervous System (CNS), gastrointestinal (GI), oncology, and immunology/inflammation.
Mr. Rao formerly served as Vice President of Business Development for Genocea Biosciences where he led business development efforts on both the buy side and sell side, transaction execution, and alliance management. Previously, Mr. Rao served as Director of R&D Transactions at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in the Center for External Innovation, where he was responsible for leading R&D transactions supporting the GI and CNS therapeutic areas. Prior to Takeda, he served as Director of In-Licensing and External R&D at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. His scientific experience includes positions at Merck & Co. in its Oncology division as a Research Program Leader and Senior Research Biologist and at Cytomed Inc. (acquired by UCB Pharma) in its Department of Target Discovery & Bioinformatics. Mr. Rao began his career as a Research Associate at the University of Massachusetts Cancer Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Mr. Rao holds an M.B.A. from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University and an M.S. in Epidemiology from the University of Virginia where he also earned his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry.
