About Us
Kinevant Sciences (kine-a-vant) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to treating rare inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with significant unmet need. Our lead candidate namilumab targets GM-CSF, a key pro-inflammatory cytokine involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disorders.
Kine
(from the Ancient Greek: kīnéō, “to move” or “set in motion”)
Diseases shouldn’t define us. We are dedicated to improving patients’ quality of life, so they spend less time on the sidelines and more time on the move.
Management Team
Our team is supported by an accomplished board of directors and expert panel of scientific advisors.
Cynthia Scott has more than 15 years of regulatory experience working on biologics and small molecules, in the areas of diabetes, oncology, infectious diseases, and rare diseases. Prior to joining Kinevant, Cynthia served as a regulatory consultant for over 10 years where she led cross-functional teams toward global product development goals, providing regulatory strategy and team leadership, ranging from early to late phase development.
Cynthia earned a BS from Eastern Nazarene College and an MS in Drug Regulatory Affairs and Health Policy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
Hajira has more than 15 years of experience across clinical development, medical affairs, scientific communications and publishing. Prior to joining Kinevant, Hajira was Senior Director Clinical Scientist at BioXcel Therapeutics. Before this, she served as Clinical Director at Praxis Precision Medicines and Takeda supporting early and late phase programs in psychiatry (agitation in Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia), neurology (essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease) and rare diseases (alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and ANCA-associated vasculitis).
Hajira earned a PhD in Neurosciences from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences and a BSc in Biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Laura Hathaway has close to 20 years of experience in the accounting field. After starting her career in public accounting at Deloitte for 5 years, Laura held roles of increasing responsibility in the retail and biotech industries. Laura is a licensed CPA and earned a BS in Business Administration from UC Berkeley.
Board of Directors
Frank Torti serves as Vant Chair at Roivant Sciences and is responsible for the operating companies in the Roivant Pharma family. He previously served as Vant Investment Chair, where he oversaw a group of companies responsible for the development of thirty-five investigational drugs in eleven therapeutic areas and over fifty clinical trials, including four successful Phase 3 trials. Dr. Torti joined Roivant in 2018 from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a leading venture capital firm where he served as partner. Prior to joining NEA in 2007, Dr. Torti was a researcher at the Duke University Center for Clinical & Genetic Economics.
Dr. Torti received his M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Bill Gerhart has more than 20 years of experience building high-performance execution teams to develop new therapeutics for serious diseases. Prior to joining Kinevant in 2021, he was the CEO of Respivant/Patara Pharma, Elevation Pharma, and Mpex Pharma which focused on developing new medicines for pulmonary fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cystic fibrosis, respectively. In addition to his biotech activities, Bill serves as the Chair of Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute’s Board of Trustees, a non-profit medical research institute focused on basic and translational research in cancer, neurodegeneration, infectious, and inflammatory diseases.
Bill earned a BA from Baylor University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Eric Venker serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Roivant Sciences. Dr. Venker first joined Roivant in 2014 and has since served in various roles of increasing responsibility, including Chief of Staff to the CEO. Prior to joining Roivant, Dr. Venker was a physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, where he trained in internal medicine. Earlier in his career, Eric was a Clinical Pharmacist at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Dr. Venker received his Pharm.D. from St. Louis College of Pharmacy and his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine.