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John Cantello, Ph.D.
Vice President, Global New Deal Strategy and Development
John Cantello is Vice President, Global New Deal Strategy and Development and is a member of the ceedd leadership team. In this role, he is accountable for setting the ceedd new deal portfolio strategy and composition and working closely with GSK worldwide business development to establish new alliances. Previously, Dr. Cantello was Director of Transactions in GSK's Worldwide Business Development Group and was primarily responsible for transactional activities for the ceedd and other R&D units. Since the ceedd’s inception, he has contributed to the establishment of the ceedd new alliance portfolio (10 new alliances beginning in 2006) and has led the Prosensa Therapeutics, Chroma Therapeutics, Concert Pharmaceuticals, Targacept, Inc. and Praecis Pharmaceuticals transactions, the latter of which resulted in an acquisition by GSK in 2007. These transactional activities resulted in a pipeline comprising 21 discovery and development programs across several different therapeutic areas. The stage of development of the assets in the pipeline ranged from discovery phase to Phase III-ready. In addition, and through his role in Worldwide Business Development, Dr. Cantello spent several years scouting and securing access to platform technologies that could enable the early stages of GSK drug discovery and development across all major therapeutic areas. Prior to joining GSK, Dr. Cantello was employed by other large pharmas (Bristol-Myers Squibb), mid-size biopharmaceutical (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals) and venture-backed start-up biotechnology companies (Morphochem AG; formerly Small Molecule Therapeutics, Inc.) where he held various roles of increasing responsibility that spanned drug discovery, project management and business development. Dr. Cantello received his Ph.D. in molecular virology from the University of Delaware and post-doctoral training in gene therapy at the California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA.
