Antonella Favit-Van Pelt

A rare disease expert and a pioneer in the field of applied theranostic for the development of disease-modifying treatments. Board-certified Neurologist, she holds a PhD in Pharmacology and presents with more than 20 years of drug development expertise in the pharmaceutical industry and academia. She started her clinical practice activity in 1994 with specialist clinics in Europe where continues her involvement as a specialist consultant managing patients with movement disorders and rare neuromuscular disorders.

Currently serving as Chief Medical Officer at Helius Medical Technologies, she performed, until March 2021, as Head US Medical Strategy for Neurology at Lundbeck and, previously in 2017, as Head of Medical Affairs at Luitpold. In 2013, she founded Synaerion Therapeutics and its affiliate Thera Neuropharma, Inc. (2016), two privately-held biotechnology companies developing a small molecule regenerative therapy and RNAi-based integrated technology platform for ALS and traumatic brain injury (“TBI”), where she oversaw all aspects of the companies’ management and strategy as Chief Executive Officer, President & Chairwoman of the Board from 2014 to 2017 and continues to serve as President & Chairwoman.

In 2009, she founded StratMedica, LLC, a privately-held company designed to provide corporate clients with contract senior management support and directed, as Principal from 2009 to 2016, clinical development and medical programs for several healthcare companies, including Johnson & Johnson and Teva.

She started her pharmaceutical career in 2001 as Global Clinical Development Lead at GE Healthcare (formerly Amersham Health), then as Director of Medical Strategy at Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2005 and, in 2007, as Senior Director and Global Medical Lead at Shire Pharmaceuticals.