Rob Hopfner

Rob Hopfner, RPh, PhD, MBA joined Pivotal in 2017, and brings a long track record of working successfully with entrepreneurs to get novel, important medicines through development and onto the market. Rob is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Inozyme Pharma, Oculis SA, Rallybio LLC, and Vaxcyte (NASDAQ: PCVX). Rob brings a broad range of venture investing experience, from early / seed stage company building work through later stage investing. Current and past investments include Aciex Therapeutics (sold to Nicox S.A.), Arcutis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARQT), Civitas Therapeutics (sold to Acorda Therapeutics), Cydan, Dermira (sold to Lilly), Hyperion Therapeutics (sold to Horizon Pharma), Imara Therapeutics (NASDAQ: IMRA), Iterum Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ITRM), Kezar Life Sciences (NASDAQ: KZR), Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MDGL), Merus BV (NASDAQ: MRUS), NextWave Pharmaceuticals (sold to Pfizer), Protez Pharmaceuticals (sold to Novartis), Vtesse (sold to Sucampo Pharmaceuticals) and Xeris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XERS).

Rob was previously a Managing Director at Bay City Capital and prior to that worked in business development and investment roles at DuPont Pharmaceuticals and at Ag-West Biotech, respectively. Rob holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He completed his post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School. Rob won numerous awards during his research career, including the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal Award in 2000, and he published several articles in top medical journals based on his work.