California Biotech Insights

Craig Parker is currently President & CEO of Surrozen (SRZN) , a biotechnology company pioneering the discovery and development of novel tissue specific antibodies that modulate the Wnt signaling pathway.  Since 2018, he has led the company’s growth from Series A to a public company with multiple first-in class clinical development candidates, a robust research pipeline, proprietary antibody technologies and a corporate partnership.   In establishing its industry leadership in the discovery of Wnt signaling therapeutics, Surrozen has filed more than 30 patent applications and published more than a dozen manuscripts in high impact journals related to its novel Wnt signaling mimetics.

Camilla Simpson is CEO and Board Member at Zehna Therapeutics. Camilla has over 25 years of US and International business and Research and Development strategy experience across a diverse group of organizations: from seed investments to public multi-national companies. Camilla has a proven track record in delivering novel products for multiple disease indications to global markets in areas of high unmet medical need. Her key accomplishments include the registration of Brineura® for CLN2 Batten’s Disease, Xagrid® for Essential Thrombocythemia, Fosrenol® for Hyperphosphatemia in CKD and Solaraze® for Actinic Keratosis. Prior to Zehna, Camilla founded Rare Strategic LLC where she provided strategic advice to early-stage venture-backed companies. Camilla has held numerous executive leadership positions, including SVP, Head of Product Portfolio Development at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., Global Head of Regulatory Affairs at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., and VP Global Regulatory Strategy- Early Development and Business Development at Shire Pharmaceuticals. At Shire she was part of the acquisition team for Movetis, Sarcode BioSciences, Ferrokin BioSciences and Advanced BioHealing. Camilla serves on the boards of Dyve Biosciences, GRI Biosciences and Spruce Biosciences. Camilla received a BSc from National University of Ireland, Galway, a BSc Hons, from Kingston University, UK, and an MSc with distinction from Birkbeck College, University of London.

Derrell Porter, M.D. is the CEO of cTRL Therapeutics, a company transforming the cell therapy space by developing autologous cell therapies for patients with solid tumors. Derrell also currently sits on the boards of Passage Bio, Acumen Pharma and Portal Innovations. He has over 20 years of experience in the biopharma space, bringing deep interdisciplinary expertise in the development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics in immuno-oncology, rare disease and cell and gene therapies. He has previously served as founder and CEO of Cellevolve Bio, working with partners to bring cell therapies through late-stage development and commercialization with a focus on neglected diseases. Prior to that, he has held various leadership roles at Atara Bio, Gilead Sciences, AbbVie, and McKinsey & Company, among others. Derrell earned his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, his M.B.A. from The Wharton School, and B.S. in Neuroscience from UCLA.