John McKearn

John McKearn joined RiverVest® in April 2008 as a venture partner and became a managing director in April 2011. He has almost 30 years experience as a successful “drug hunter and developer” in both large and small biopharma, including a decade in small-cap and venture-backed companies.

John serves on the board of Allakos, Inc., Tioma Therapeutics, Inc., Viba Therapeutics, Inc. and OncoResponse, Inc., all RiverVest portfolio companies. He is a former director at Otonomy, Inc., which completed an initial public offering, chairman of Lumena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by Shire plc in June 2014, and a former director of ZS Pharma, Inc., which also completed an initial public offering and was subsequently acquired by Astra Zeneca. Prior to joining RiverVest, he was president and CEO of Kalypsys, Inc., and has served on the boards of IDM Pharma, Inc. (acquired by Takeda), Epimmune and Keel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. John holds more than 50 patents and numerous patent applications, primarily in the areas of cancer treatment and inflammatory disease.

John worked as a scientist with Searle / Pharmacia, from 1987-2003, including head of discovery research from 1997-2003. Through his efforts, John helped establish the groundwork for new studies that led to the commercialization of several major products, including DayPro, Arthrotec, and most notably, Celebrex, one of the leading pharmaceuticals to treat arthritis.

Prior to 1987, John was a senior scientist at E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company; a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland; and a research associate in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Additionally, he has co-authored more than 70 published, peer-reviewed scientific papers. John completed his PhD in immunology from the University of Chicago and his BS in biology from Northern Illinois University.