Robert Wild, Ph.D. (President and Founder of RC Wild BioPharma Consulting, LLC)

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Dr. Wild is a visionary and strategic R&D executive with more than two decades of broad leadership experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech & venture capital industry including 13 years experience at the C-level across large pharma, mid-size public biotech and private entrepreneurial settings. He has deep knowledge of the oncology drug discovery & development process spanning both small molecules and biologics. Throughout his career, Dr. Wild contributed to the discovery and translational research of more than 20 highly innovative oncology clinical development candidates including 5 FDA approved agents (sunitinib, cetuximab, dasatinib, erlotinib and entrectinib). He has extensive track record in technology/asset identification & assessment, discovery and translational research, project & portfolio management as well as corporate strategy including fund raising and supporting M&A activities for both private and public companies. As an EIR in the venture capital field for the past 7 years, Dr. Wild has consulted on identifying investment opportunities, conducting due diligence of target companies, helping to manage portfolio companies, and performing a variety of other duties.

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Previously, Dr. Wild was the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Dracen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a private biotechnology company developing novel oncology drugs in the field of immuno-metabolism. As one of the founding executives of the company, Dr. Wild played an instrumental role in getting the company established including the drafting of the initial business plan, securing the lead asset and associated licenses, successfully raising a Series A and follow-on private equity financing ($57M+) and building an integrated drug discovery and development organization with internal hires, external consultants and CROs. As Chief Scientific Officer, his responsibilities included setting and executing the overarching R&D strategy and managing all drug discovery (biology and chemistry), preclinical development, CMC and translational research (patient selection and PD biomarker strategy) activities leading to the identification/selection and development of Dracen’s first clinical drug candidate (sirpiglenastat). Sirpiglenastat successfully completed phase 1 clinical development and received fast track designation (FTD) by the FDA. Before Dracen, Dr. Wild was employed at Ignyta, Inc. (NASDAQ: RXDX, acquired by Roche) where he functioned as the Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research. At Ignyta, he was responsible for setting overarching research strategy and leading all drug discovery as well as translational research activities within the company. Dr. Wild played a crucial role in building Ignyta’s research organization and capabilities. In addition, he helped transform Ignyta from a single asset company to a diversified company with multiple clinical stage programs via strategic asset identification and successful acquisition of 5 differentiated NMEs from pharma partners. During his tenure, the companies' lead asset (entrectinib) successfully advanced from phase 1 into a registration enabling phase 2 clinical trial leading to eventual FDA approval. Before Ignyta, Dr. Wild worked at Eli Lilly & Company (NASDAQ: LLY) as the Chief Scientific Officer, Oncology Research. In this role, he broadly oversaw oncology drug discovery activities from target discovery to clinical candidate selection for both small molecule and biotherapeutic approaches at the Lilly Corporate Center in Indianapolis. Under his leadership, his teams successfully advanced 5 IND candidates (3 small molecules, 2 biologics), >15 programs progressed to full discovery, and >40 programs advanced to early discovery. His teams also effectively supported >10 programs during various stages of clinical development (phase 1-­3) with biomarker and translational research expertise. Dr. Wild also directed Lilly’s Oncology Research initiatives in Asia. Prior to Lilly, Dr. Wild held positions of increasing responsibility at OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIP, acquired by Astellas Pharma), including Senior Director, Oncology Research. At OSI, Dr. Wild contributed to the delivery of 4 oncology IND candidates to clinical development, with continued responsibility for guiding translational research teams for these clinical development programs, including erlotinib. Before his tenure at OSI, Dr. Wild spent close to five years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he contributed to multiple oncology project teams, including those discovering dasatinib and the translational research team supporting cetuximab clinical development. Dr. Wild started his pharma/biotech career at SUGEN, Inc. (acquired by Pfizer, Inc.) where he was a member of the sunitinib discovery and translational research team.

 

Dr. Wild is a dual citizen of the US and Germany and currently resides with his family in Southern California. He holds both a Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology and a B.S. degree in biochemistry, magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.