Formation Bio has appointed Michael D. Ehlers, MD, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research and Development. Ehlers will provide scientific leadership across Formation Bio’s portfolio, from translational research through clinical development. He will also guide the scientific direction of the company’s proprietary AI platform. He joins Formation Bio from MPM BioImpact, where he served as an Entrepreneur Partner.
Ehlers previously worked as a partner and Chief Scientific Officer at Apple Tree Partners, where he founded four companies. Three of those businesses have advanced programs into clinical development, including Ascidian Therapeutics, which he initially led as CEO.
He also served as Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Biogen and Group Senior Vice President of BioTherapeutics Research at Pfizer. At Pfizer, he additionally served as Chief Scientific Officer for Neuroscience.
Programs developed under Ehlers’ leadership have produced six approved medicines spanning five indications and four drug modalities. More than 40 programs have advanced into clinical trials.
Before entering the biotechnology industry, Ehlers was the George Barth Geller Professor of Neurobiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Duke University Medical Center.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and medical and doctoral degrees from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Formation Bio acquires, partners on or licenses clinical-stage drug candidates and uses technology to advance them through development.
The company’s model is designed to combine experienced scientific leadership with AI systems that can improve clinical trial execution and other components of drug development.
Formation Bio said it has multiple assets in active development. Ehlers will help select programs, define development strategies and determine how the company’s technology can support faster and more effective execution.
KEY QUOTES:
“We built Formation Bio around the idea that the best scientists and the best technology should work together.”
“Mike has operated at this intersection his entire career, and he’s going to be central to how we pick, design, and progress programs that we believe can have an enormous impact on patients worldwide.”
Benjamine Liu, Co-Founder and CEO of Formation Bio
“Formation Bio is the most serious effort that I have encountered to reimagine what is achievable for drug development.”
“I am eager to do things differently and lead a fundamentally new way of bringing more new drugs to patients, faster.”
Michael Ehlers, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research and Development at Formation Bio
