
About this Event
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended all our lives in profound ways. We have all had to make adjustments in our personal and professional lives in order to maintain healthy connections, productivity and our collective sanity amongst other things. The biopharmaceutical industry has also undergone significant changes to meet this challenge, including virtualizing just about every aspect of our businesses. Deal-making is no exception.
When Ravneesh joined Acceleron Pharma the world was in the middle of the pandemic. He has unfortunately only met a handful of his colleagues and generally no one at the other side of the deal-making table in person. Nevertheless, through the power of human adaptation, he and his colleagues were able to build a robust business development strategy, team and process that led to profound value creation for Acceleron, including the execution of buy-side deals and eventually the sale of the company to Merck.
About the speaker – Ravneesh Sachdev
Ravneesh Sachdev is Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development at Acceleron Pharma, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck, based in Cambridge, MA.
Acceleron is dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative therapeutics arising from the company’s leadership in TGF-beta superfamily biology and protein engineering that engage the body’s ability to regulate cellular growth and repair to treat serious and rare hematologic and pulmonary diseases. Under a global collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, Acceleron’s first commercial product, REBLOZYL® (luspatercept-aamt), became the first and only erythroid maturation agent approved in the United States, Europe, and Canada for the treatment of anemia in certain blood disorders.
Sachdev leads a team to evaluate and transact on partnerships in order to inorganically grow Acceleron’s business. Over the past 15+ years of his business development career, he has contributed to, as well as led, the execution of more than 25 partnerships during his tenure at several other companies, namely Pfizer, Onyx Pharmaceuticals (now part of Amgen), UCB Pharma, Acorda Therapeutics, Bioverativ (now part of Sanofi), and Sage Therapeutics.
Sachdev earned his bachelor’s degree in Molecular Neuroscience from Claremont McKenna College, his Master of Business and Science degree from Keck Graduate Institute, and his MBA in Healthcare Leadership from Yale University School of Management.