John McKearn

Dr. McKearn has three decades of drug development and investing experience in life sciences. John joined RiverVest in 2008 focusing on early-stage biotechnology start-ups. Prior to this, Dr. McKearn was President and CEO of Kalypsys. Before Kalypsys, he held positions of increasing responsibility, which included Global Head of Research at Searle/Pharmacia (1987-2003). Prior to 1987, Dr. McKearn was a senior scientist at DuPont, a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology and a research associate at Washington University in St Louis. Currently, Dr. McKearn serves on the boards of Allakos (NASDAQ: ALLK), OncoResponse, Good Therapeutics, Arch Oncology, Adarza BioSystems and OxaluRx. He previously served on the boards of Lumena Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Shire), Otonomy (NASDAQ: OTIC) and ZS Pharma (NASDAQ: ZSPH; acquired by AstraZeneca).

Dr. McKearn holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Biology from the Northern Illinois University. He has co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and holds more than 50 patents and numerous patent applications, primarily in the areas of cancer treatment and inflammatory disease.