Mark Pruzanski

Mark Pruzanski has served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and member of the Board of Directors since April 2022. Mark is a physician and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in the life sciences. Prior to joining Versanis, he founded and was the longstanding Chief Executive Officer of Intercept Pharmaceuticals. At Intercept, he pioneered a novel regulatory and development strategy in chronic nonviral liver disease that resulted in the successful global commercialization of the first-in-class FXR agonist obeticholic acid for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), approved in more than 40 countries under the brand name OCALIVA™. He also led the effort to establish the regulatory, development and commercial basis for the potential first drug approval in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which has become a leading reason for liver failure due to the global obesity epidemic.

Mark is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Versanis, Intercept, eGenesis, Equillium, the Emerging Company Section of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Mark received his M.D. from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, a M.A. degree in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C., and a B.A. degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.