Steve Bender

Steve Bender, Ph.D., joined Boxer Capital, LLC in 2021. Dr. Steven Bender has over 25 years of drug discovery experience primarily focused in Oncology and, more recently, in Immuno-Oncology that spans both small molecule and biotherapeutic approaches.

From 2011 to 2019, Dr. Bender led a group of approximately 60 cancer biologists and immunologists as the Executive Director of Cancer Therapeutics at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). During that period, GNF teams progressed four candidates to the clinic, and two more achieved FIH in 2020. Prior to GNF, Dr. Bender was at Agouron/Pfizer from 1993 until 2011, where he was involved in numerous drug discovery programs initially as a medicinal chemist and project leader, and then as the Oncology Therapeutic Area Leader for the Pfizer La Jolla site. FDA-approved products from the Pfizer La Jolla Oncology research program during this period include axitinib, crizotinib, and glasdegib.

Dr. Bender received both his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and postdoctoral training in mechanistic enzymology at Harvard University.