Mary Christian

Dr. Christian is a pharmaceutical and biotech executive who delivers visionary, innovative solutions in complex landscapes. She has a diverse experience in drug development spanning from regulatory strategy to establishing external partnerships with key academic institutions in the US to drive common research and development goals. She has created high functioning, fit-for-purpose teams for emerging biotech, envisioned and built new capabilities in large pharma (e.g. Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology Strategic Collaborations, leading to success in >$50M in development partnerships), and led R&D efforts across a variety of therapeutic areas including but not limited to CNS, immunology, and immuno-oncology in all phases of development. She thrives where she is trusted, purpose-driven and ever-learning; strengths include collaborative problem solving, partnering for mutual success and diverse & inclusive leadership.

Dr. Christian is the Senior Vice President of Regulatory, Quality and Compliance at Lyndra Therapeutics, a rapidly growing clinical stage biotech whose mission is to reinvent medicine for a healthier world. Lyndra is developing a pipeline of long-acting oral therapies. The regulatory pathway to global approval is uncharted for products this unique; Dr. Christian is committed to leveraging 20+ years of regulatory and drug development experience, working with the stellar Lyndra team, to accelerate these important therapies to patients. She also serves as a scientific advisor to several emerging biotech companies and lectures at MIT on Regulatory Strategies for developing drugs and devices.

Prior to Lyndra, Dr. Christian was a founding team member of Cyclerion Therapeutics, a spinout of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals focused on serious and orphan diseases, where she led Regulatory, Quality and Pharmacovigilance. She was Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals where she transformed the Regulatory organization and successfully negotiated approval of a stalled marketing application for Linzess® in China, advanced rare disease assets into Phase 1 and 2 and built organization models that enabled the spinoff.

Prior to joining the world of biotech in Boston, Dr. Christian created and led successful and innovative teams at Bristol-Myers Squibb by identifying novel ways to accelerate research and the delivery of medicines to patients globally. Dr. Christian also held roles of increasing responsibility in Global Regulatory Affairs at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development (now Janssen Pharmaceutica) across several therapeutic areas.