LianBio, a Shanghai-Princeton biotech, announced Yizhe Wang, PhD, will become the company's CEO and a member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Wang has worked for Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline, leading drug development and commercial launches in China and the US. In a telephone interview, Debra Yu, MD, LianBio President and Chief Business Officer, told ChinaBio Today, "As a company, we're thrilled about Yizhe joining us. It is rare to find somebody with solid executional leadership experience in development and commercialization in the US and China. He is strategic and passionate with a long track record of leading cross-border teams. He's very dynamic with an ability to talk to our partners and key opinion leaders. He will be a good fit for LianBio."

She continued, "LianBio now has five products in its portfolio, with three of them at Phase III stage and additional new products to be announced soon. Yizhe has launched over 20 drugs in China between his work at Lilly and GSK. We are excited about Yizhe joining the company."

During the past year, Dr. Wang has been in charge of bringing Lilly's COVID-19 antibody treatment, bamlanivimab, to Emergency Use Authorization.

LianBio brings novel drugs to China and major Asian markets. It was formed by Perceptive Advisors, a US investor in public and private life science companies with $9 billion in assets under management.

Dr. Yu said, "LianBio's growth and evolution has been very rapid. We have built our company to be a strong partner for unique assets, and we are really dedicated to our partners, some of whom have come from Perceptive's portfolio. Dr. Wang shares LianBio's enthusiasm for its the mission to bring these unique products to China."

Most recently, Dr. Wang has served Eli Lilly as Global Brand Development Leader, Lilly Oncology. During the last 12 months, he was Global Platform Lead for the COVID therapy, heading up a new operating model that integrated discovery, development and launch.

Previously, Dr. Wang was SVP, Head of BioMedicines and Oncology Businesses, Lilly China, where he was a member of the Global Oncology and Biomedicines Business Unit lead teams, and China Executive Committee. In this role, leading a 1,000-person organization, he increased sales and launched multiple new products, including Tyvyt, Elunate, Taltz and Olumiant.

“Yizhe is a strategic leader with decades of experience developing, launching and managing the product lifecycle of transformative drugs in China, the US and Europe,” said Konstantin Poukalov, Managing Director, Perceptive Advisors and Executive Chairman, LianBio. “With his proven leadership guiding late-stage assets to market in China, LianBio is well positioned for our next phase of growth as we continue to advance our pipeline and partner with leading global biopharmaceutical companies to expand their reach into China and other Asian markets.”

"I am honored to join LianBio to scale the company’s next-generation approach to sourcing, developing and commercializing innovative drugs in the region," said Dr. Wang. “As LianBio continues to advance a portfolio of world class programs across therapeutic areas, I look forward to partnering with the founding team to address the medical needs of patients in China and throughout Asia.”

Dr. Wang received a PhD in organic chemistry from Yale University. He also earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Ramapo College of New Jersey.

In October 2020, LianBio raised $320 million in an initial capital raise. The company now employs about 60 people including 45 in China and the rest in the US office, which is in charge of business development and administration.

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Disclosure: none.