“Our world-class oncology team is relentlessly focused on the discovery and development of treatments that will lead to cures for patients throughout the world.”
Peter Lebowitz, M.D., Ph.D.
Global Therapeutic Area Head, Oncology
Oncology
As Global Oncology Therapeutic Area Head for the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Peter F. Lebowitz, M.D., Ph.D. is responsible for the discovery, development and life cycle advancement of the company’s robust oncology pipeline and portfolio. He leads a global team of scientists that bring together expertise in small molecules, advanced biologics, cell therapies, vaccine platforms, translational research, diagnostics, and immuno-oncology. Under Peter’s leadership, Janssen Oncology has achieved many noteworthy milestones, including major product approvals for several first-in-class therapies; multiple U.S. Food and Drug Administration Breakthrough Therapy Designations; and tremendous, rapid growth within the group’s early development portfolio.
With a strategy focused on driving towards transformational therapies, Peter also successfully established an external innovation strategy to advance science and novel therapeutics in core disease areas, including hematologic malignancies, prostate cancer, immuno-oncology, and lung cancer. The combination of these efforts has led to more than 80 strategic oncology partnerships across the life sciences ecosystem and continues to distinguish Janssen as an industry leader and global oncology innovator.
Prior to his appointment as Global Oncology Therapeutic Area Head, Peter served as the Hematologic Malignancies Disease Area Leader within Janssen Research & Development. In this role, he had responsibility for creating and executing the scientific strategy to advance internal and externally sourced discovery and development programs. Together with his team, Peter is recognized for building an industry-leading hematologic malignancies portfolio that has been foundational for scientific innovation and has progressed important therapeutics that have transformed patient care.
Before joining Janssen R&D, Peter held Vice President positions in Discovery and Early/Late-stage Clinical Development for another pharmaceutical company where he successfully filed 10 Investigational New Drug Applications and played a significant role in the global registration of three oncology medicines. During his tenure, he also directly led major programs from preclinical discovery through pivotal Phase 3 registration trials.
Prior to transitioning to the pharmaceutical industry, Peter served as Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center. There he established an independently funded translational and clinical research program and led numerous clinical research programs as a principal investigator. He also had the privilege of caring for many oncology patients during this time. Peter graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, holds a master’s degree in Health Care Policy from Oxford University, and earned his medical degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed clinical training in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medicinal Center and his Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.
Ricardo Attar, Ph.D. is Vice President, Oncology Translational Research, for the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. In this position, he leads the Translational Research (TR) group, including the Hematologic Malignancies, Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer and Immuno-Oncology Therapy TR teams. The Oncology TR group is responsible for all clinical biomarker and translational medicine strategies for compounds in developing within the Oncology Therapeutic Area pipeline. The team also works to advance prevention and disease interception strategies across oncology.
Prior to his current appointment, Ricardo led the Hematologic Malignancies Discovery strategy and team. Under his leadership, the team delivered 10 new molecular entities, including T-cell redirecting bi-specific antibodies for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), as well as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies for MM and small molecule inhibitors for DLBCL and AML.
Ricardo joined Janssen in 2008 after spending 15 years in the Oncology Discovery department at Bristol Myers Squibb. During this time, he led several programs to their nomination as clinical candidates.
Ricardo received his doctorate in Molecular Biology from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and his postdoctoral training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.
Christopher Cutie, M.D., is Vice President, Disease Area Stronghold (DAS) Leader, Bladder Cancer, in the Oncology Therapeutic Area at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. He is responsible for shaping the scientific strategy required to deliver a broad portfolio of bladder cancer therapies, while building a robust pipeline of next-generation compounds.
Chris is a surgeon-scientist whose research and clinical activities have focused on understanding the biology of organ-confined bladder cancer. He has worked to translate these findings into cutting-edge clinical trials in the study of patients with both non-muscle invasive and muscle invasive disease. Chris joined Janssen through the TARIS Biomedical acquisition in 2019 as Global Medical Head for the TARIS programs. In this role, he leads the late-stage development of an intravesical drug delivery system, in combination with Janssen internally developed assets.
Prior to joining Janssen, Chris served as Chief Medical Officer at TARIS, where he led early clinical development. He was formerly an Instructor in Surgery and member of the Urology Faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he specialized in the surgical treatment and management of patients with complex genitourinary malignancies.
Chris received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania followed by his medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine and MBA from Harvard Business School. He completed his surgical and urology residency training at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School and went on to complete a post-graduate fellowship in urologic oncology at MGH as well. He is board-certified in urology.
Charles (Chuck) Drake, M.D., Ph.D. is Vice President, Immuno-oncology (I-O) at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. In this position, he is responsible for leading the I-O team in their efforts to develop next-generation approaches to immunotherapy - including antibody-based drugs, cell therapies, and novel cancer vaccines.
Chuck is a physician-scientist whose research and clinical activities have focused on understanding the biology of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment and translating those findings into cutting-edge clinical trials for patients with prostate, kidney, and bladder cancer.
Prior to joining Janssen Research & Development, he led the genitourinary oncology program and a productive basic science laboratory at the Herbert Irving Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center. He was also named the Milstein Family Professor of Medicine and Urology and served as the Associate Director for Clinical Research at the cancer center.
Further, he founded Columbia’s Human Immune Monitoring Core, which provides state-of-the-art analytic technologies for the study of human cancer. At Columbia University, he and his colleagues built a strong portfolio of more than 30 clinical trials, including a number of first-in-human studies in patients with prostate kidney and bladder cancer, many based on his laboratory research. Prior to Columbia, he served as the Co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Dr. Drake received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. He earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado Medical Science Training Program and received his doctorate in Immunology from the National Jewish Research Center. Chuck completed his residency through the Osler Medical Residency Training Program at Johns Hopkins and finished his fellowship in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins as well. He is board-certified in medical oncology and has cared for hundreds of cancer patients over the years.
Yusri Elsayed, M.D., M.H.Sc., Ph.D. is Vice President, Hematologic Malignancies Disease Area Stronghold (DAS) Leader in the Oncology Therapeutic Area at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. In this role, Yusri leads the Hematologic Malignancies group’s scientific and business strategies for the discovery and development of breakthrough medicines that solidify Johnson and Johnson’s growing leadership position in the field.
Yusri joined Janssen in 2005 as Medical Director. Since then, he has held positions of increasing responsibility in the Oncology Therapeutic Area, including Medical Leader for YONDELIS® (trabectedin), VELCADE® (bortezomib) and several early clinical development programs. Yusri played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Hematologic Malignancies DAS and the licensing and development of Janssen’s current hematologic therapies, including IMBRUVICA® (ibrutinib), DARZALEX® (daratumumab); B cell maturation antigen chimeric antigen receptor-T cell (BCMA CAR-T) therapy and cusatuzumab. Yusri also led the Discovery teams that have successfully delivered several high-profile clinical candidates for the treatment of hematologic diseases.
Prior to joining Janssen, Yusri led early development studies of oncology drugs, including small molecules and monoclonal antibodies, at Bristol Myers Squibb. Prior to that, he was Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where he was a Principal Investigator in numerous clinical trials and authored several publications.
Yusri completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and trained in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute and in Hematology at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, both of which are part of the National Institutes of Health. He is board-certified in Medical Oncology and Hematology. Yusri also earned a master’s degree in Clinical Research from Duke University and a doctorate from Kyushu University in Japan.
Joseph Erhardt, Ph.D. is Vice President, Oncology Scientific Partnership Strategy at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. In this role, he is responsible for strategic oversight and implementation of scientific partnership strategies for the Disease Area Strongholds in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation centers in the United States and Europe.
Joseph joined Janssen in 2012, serving as the Compound Development Team Leader for one of Janssen’s investigational compounds prior to his current position. Before joining Janssen, Joseph was the Head of Portfolio Strategy and Operations for Drug Discovery and Early Development at GlaxoSmithKline. In that role, he led the creation and implementation of strategic business planning for the unit.
In addition to roles in portfolio strategy, Joseph has led global oncology development teams in both early and late phases, including projects that he championed through rapid development paths into early pivotal studies, resulting in several approvals. Earlier in his career, he led a small molecule drug discovery laboratory and multiple oncology programs from late lead optimization through Investigational New Drug (IND) submission and early development.
Joseph received his doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania and conducted his post-doctoral research at SmithKline Beecham in the Department of Pharmacology.
Marco Gottardis, Ph.D. is Vice President, Oncology and Innovation Leader at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. In this role, he is collaborating with the Data Sciences Group to explore new uses of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence platforms in drug discovery and competitive technology landscape analyses.
Marco is recognized as an industry and scientific leader in prostate cancer research and oncology. Prior to his current position, Marco was Prostate Cancer Disease Area Stronghold (DAS) Leader. Under his leadership, the Prostate DAS developed a significant research and development portfolio for Janssen.
Before joining Janssen, Marco was Executive Director of Oncology and Immuno-Oncology Research and Co-leader of the Oncology Discovery Group at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), where he was an established leader in Oncology Discovery Research for 14 years with efforts spanning exploratory research to Investigational New Drug (IND) application candidates. He led multiple scientific teams at BMS covering diverse target areas, such as signal transduction, hormonal, immuno-oncology, apoptosis and angiogenesis in both small molecules and biologics. He was a member of the Disease Sciences and Biologics Senior Leadership Team and sat on Oncology Early Development and Commercial Strategic Teams for Prostate and Melanoma. Marco has placed multiple discovery candidates into development and has successfully led Early Development Teams that were responsible for progressing development candidates from IND to Phase 2 proof-of-concept.
Marco has 25 years of experience as a cancer research investigator in both biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies and more than 29 years of experience overall in translational cancer research. He has had a role in the development of multiple drug approvals in his career. These include the first approval of ERLEADA® (apalutamide) for non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, the seminal pre-clinical studies leading to the development of tamoxifen as a chemo-preventive therapy for breast cancer and the approval of selective estrogen receptor modulators, retinoid and retinoid x receptor (RXR) drugs for cancer while he was a Senior Investigator at LIGAND Pharmaceuticals in San Diego.
Marco obtained his Bachelor of Science from Columbia College, Columbia University and his doctorate at the Wisconsin Clinical Cancer Center, University of Wisconsin. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Vincent T Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University. He has co-authored more than 100 publications and is co-inventor on multiple patents.
Joel Greshock is Vice President, Data Sciences, Oncology at Janssen Research & Development. In this position, he is responsible for creating unique and actionable medical insights using large and increasingly available datasets.
Prior to joining Janssen R&D, Joel served as Vice President of Bioinformatics at Neon Therapeutics, Inc., where he built and managed the Data Sciences organization. At Neon, he was responsible for the design and deployment of personalized immune therapies for the treatment of cancer. Before joining Neon, Joel served as Head of Oncology Translational Informatics for Novartis, where he led computational efforts focused on the correlation of patient outcomes with molecular biomarkers, identification of mechanisms of clinical resistance and associated research for assets approaching or being evaluated in early phases of clinical development.
Before joining Novartis, Joel assumed numerous roles for GlaxoSmithKline Oncology, which included Head of Bioinformatics and as Compound Development Leader for a PI3K inhibitor in early phase clinical studies. Earlier in his career, Joel was a Data Analyst at Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, where he built early generation microarray platforms and developed widely adopted predictive models for cancer predisposition mutations.
Joel holds a Bachelor of Science in Comprehensive Science and a Master of Science in Biology/Biostatistics, both from Villanova University. He also completed studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University in Statistics and Computer Science.
Jeffrey Infante, M.D., is Global Head, Oncology, Early Clinical and Translational Research. He joined Janssen Research & Development in 2017 as Vice President, Oncology Early Development.
Prior to Janssen, Jeff was with the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked as a clinical investigator and board-certified medical oncologist. During his tenure there, he served in many roles, including Director of the Drug Development Program. In this role, Jeff provided physician leadership to the Drug Development Unit in Nashville, which is one of the largest early phase clinical trial units for patients with advanced cancer in the country. He also provided physician oversight for other Sarah Cannon Phase 1 Drug Development Units in Florida, Oklahoma and Denver. He has helped design and conduct many clinical trials, ranging from first-in-human dosing through Phase 3 registration trials. He has expertise in the development of multiple novel treatments, including molecularly targeted therapies, antibody drug conjugates and immuno-oncology treatments.
Jeff received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Florida and finished his Internal Medicine residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He completed his fellowship in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Concurrent with his fellowship, he undertook formal training in patient-oriented research and received a Master of Health Science degree in Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Additionally, for the past 10 years, he has been a practicing associate with Tennessee Oncology, PLLC.
Sylvie Laquerre, Ph.D., is Vice President, Solid Tumor Targeted Therapies Disease Area Stronghold Leader in the Oncology Therapeutic Area at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. In this role, Sylvie is responsible for the strategic direction and execution of the Solid Tumor Disease Area portfolio, from early drug discovery efforts through clinical development.
Upon joining Janssen in 2013, Sylvie contributed to the approval of a novel treatment for patients with metastatic urothelial cancer; and identified, validated and advanced multiple small and large molecule candidates from discovery to the clinic. Additionally, Sylvie built a strong pre-clinical portfolio of targeted solid tumor driver pathway and immunotherapy agents. In her most recent role, Sylvie led the global discovery Solid Tumor Drug Discovery Cancer Disease Area Stronghold, Oncology Therapeutic Area where she was responsible for the strategic direction and execution of the discovery portfolio for the solid tumor disease area from target validation to clinical proof-of-concept.
Prior to joining Janssen, Sylvie led multiple programs at GSK in obesity, IBS and fibrosis and brought multiple oncology assets to the clinic and on to FDA approval (dabrafenib and trametinib). Prior to joining GSK, Sylvie led a team at ViroPharma Inc. where she developed anti-viral agents, one of which was stock-piled by the USA National Defense Department in response to potential bioterrorism warfare. Early in her career as a Senior Scientist with Onyx Pharmaceutical, Sylvie led the HSV oncolytic virus effort and armed replication competent adenovirus with replication dependent cancer suicide genes.
Sylvie received her Ph.D. from Laval University, Canada, in Molecular and Cellular Biology studying calmodulin involvement in the cell cycle. She conducted her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, PA on HSV targeted therapy where she continued as a Senior Staff Fellow. Sylvie has published extensively in oncology, gene therapy and has experience in multiple drug modalities with successful drug discovery research leading to FDA approval.
Biljana Naumovic is the Worldwide Vice President, Global Commercial Strategy, Oncology for the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Working in collaboration with Janssen Research & Development, she is responsible for the development of breakthrough commercial strategies to deliver a sustainable and differentiated oncology pipeline. In this role, she oversees multiple functions that support the Global Oncology business such as Strategic Marketing, Market Access, Medical Affairs, Portfolio, and Strategic Analytics.
Prior to this appointment, Biljana held the position of Managing Director, Janssen Australia & New Zealand (Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd.) where she oversaw a cultural transformation and reorganization of the business, culminating in double digit growth in 2021. Biljana first joined Janssen in 2019 as Vice President, Oncology for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), where she was responsible for creating and delivering the commercial strategy across the solid tumor portfolio and pipeline spanning prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and lung cancer, as well as multiple novel tumor pathways.
Before joining Janssen, Biljana held a number of senior positions at AstraZeneca, most recently Vice President of Commercial for Europe where she was, responsible for strategy across oncology, respiratory and cardio metabolic therapy throughout Europe, including commercial effectiveness and digital platforms.
Biljana is a physician by training and graduated in 2001 from the Belgrade University Medical School. She worked as a practicing physician for several years before transitioning to industry. Biljana also holds an executive education degree from the London Business School.
Craig Tendler, M.D. is Vice President, Oncology Clinical Development and Global Medical Affairs at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. In this position, he is responsible for creating robust development plans and data generation activities for all therapies in the oncology portfolio, from late development through registration and lifecycle management. He works closely with teams in the disease areas of focus to implement a seamless end-to-end oncology clinical research strategy that incorporates compelling science and addresses areas of high unmet medical need.
Prior to this role, Craig was Vice President of Medical Affairs for Tibotec Therapeutics and then Ortho-Biotech, where he led approximately 50 medical affairs professionals in lifecycle management and data generation for the Oncology and Virology franchises. He played a key role in addressing with United States and European Union health authorities the safe and appropriate use of a product for the treatment of anemia caused by chemotherapy, helping to shape public policy by conducting extensive research, education and risk minimization efforts.
Craig has overseen and coordinated more than 30 major drug approvals by national regulatory agencies, including at least 10 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He and his team have worked in collaboration with the FDA and the European Medicines Agency to secure the expeditious worldwide approvals of Janssen’s treatments in prostate cancer, hematologic malignancies and bladder cancer. Further, together with his team, Craig has been instrumental in achieving multiple FDA breakthrough designations for investigational drugs in development for various indications and in collaboration with our co-development partners.
Prior to joining Janssen Research & Development, Craig served as the Vice President of Oncology Clinical Research and Chair of the Oncology Licensing Committee at the Schering-Plough Research Institute. In addition to his pharmaceutical industry experience, he has served as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and was a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
Craig earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and graduated from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, with high honors. He is board-certified in pediatrics with a subspecialty in hematology-oncology.
Johan Verbeeck, DVM is Vice President, Janssen Business Development, Oncology where he leads business development planning in support of the Oncology Therapeutic Area. His responsibilities include overseeing transactions and acquisitions, as well as scientific licensing and alliance management with strategic partners.
Johan joined Johnson & Johnson in 1996, through Janssen Pharmaceutica in Belgium, in the Department of Animal Health and subsequently worked in Toxicology, where he served as Study Director for several small molecule development projects. In 2005, Johan joined Tibotec, as Lead Toxicologist for the development of darunavir and etravirine, the company’s first two approved anti-HIV drugs. At the same time, he was Preclinical Development Leader for bedaquiline, the first new drug in development for tuberculosis in over 40 years. In 2007, after the approval of etravirine, Johan became Head of Toxicology Sciences for Janssen Research & Development, LLC. He also served as Alliance Manager in the External Alliances and Business Models group.
Most recently, Johan served as Vice President, Janssen Business Development, Immunology, leading transactions, acquisitions, scientific licensing, and alliance management. His team completed multiple transactions, including the acquisition of Momenta Pharmaceuticals in 2020. Prior to joining the Janssen Business Development team, Johan supported the London Innovation Center and played an active role in helping to establish the center, building its European network, and securing several transactions.
Johan holds a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Gent, Belgium. He also graduated Cum Laude with a Master of Science in Applied Toxicology from the University of Surrey, United Kingdom.
Margaret K. Yu, M.D. is Vice President, Prostate Cancer Disease Area Stronghold (DAS) Leader at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. Her role is to oversee all the responsibilities for both matrix and direct line management of the Prostate Cancer DAS.
Margaret joined Janssen as a Medical Director, was quickly promoted to Clinical Leader and, subsequently, to Vice President, Oncology Clinical Development, Global Head Prostate Cancer Portfolio. In these roles, she effectively led the team to build a broad development strategy, which was flawlessly executed, resulting in acceleration of key development milestones and delivery of high-quality data to inform decision making. She successfully built and managed several drug development programs during the past five years and has led the team to the first regulatory submission and U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of a treatment for patients with non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Prior to Janssen, Margaret was Director of Clinical Research at Myriad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Myrexis, Inc.), where she provided clinical leadership and medical monitoring oversight for all clinical trials in oncology. She led the development of treatments for two solid tumor malignancies. Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, she worked as Assistant Professor, Hematology Division, Internal Medicine Department at the University of Utah.
Margaret completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Medical Oncology and Hematology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology and has authored numerous publications.
