Jay Parrish

Jay Parrish, Ph.D. is a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners, Chairman of Pretzel Therapeutics, and co-founder and board member of Rome Therapeutics. Previously, he was co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Vir Biotechnology, a company focused on infectious disease. As Vir’s first employee, he helped lead the company through its IPO and first drug approval.

Dr. Parrish is an accomplished scientist who began his career at Gilead Sciences, Inc. in the Medicinal Chemistry group where his research focused on the discovery of small molecule anti-virals for the treatment of HIV, hepatitis C, and respiratory syncytial viruses. In this role, he was involved with several successful discovery campaigns, including being a co-inventor of ledipasvir (Harvoni®), approved as a cure for hepatitis C genotypes 1, 4–6, and remdesivir (Veklury®), approved for COVID-19. Dr. Parrish has authored over 25 peer-reviewed scientific publications and holds over 30 issued patents.

Dr. Parrish holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Emory University and a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of South Florida. He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute and received an M.B.A. from U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.