Marcelo Bigal

Marcelo is a venture partner, with Versant Ventures, as well as CEO of Ventus, a Versant-backed company that is in stealth mode. He brings more than 13 years of pharmaceutical experience with a focus on neurology, spanning R&D, medical and scientific affairs. He has extensive experience in leading large and small scientific groups.

Marcelo held multiple leadership roles in industry, including Head of R&D and CSO at Teva, as well as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Teva and at Purdue. Before joining Teva, Marcelo was CMO at Labrys, where he led the team that developed fremanezumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) approved in the U.S., Canada and the European Union. He led the approval of multiple other products in neurology, psychiatry, pain and respiratory diseases. Prior to his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Marcelo was a faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Neurology, as well as the Director of Research at New England Center for Headache and Director of Research at Montefiore Headache Center. He has authored around 330 papers in peer-reviewed journals, edited six books in neurology, and is the recipient of multiple awards and recognitions in the field.

He holds a MD from the College of Medicine at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he also obtained a PhD and a MS in neurosciences. He completed his post-doctoral research at the New England Center for Headache.