Craig Kennedy

Senior Licensing Officer
(510)-643-3848

 

In 2016, Craig joined IPIRA as a Senior Licensing Officer specializing in biotechnology, diagnostics, and therapeutics. With a BS in biochemistry from Texas Christian University (1980) and a brief time as a Foreign Service Staff Officer, he joined the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NIAID) as a research microbiologist. There, he earned a Scientific Achievement Award for his work in mycology. While on leave from NIH, he acquired a combined MBA/MPH degree in technology management from the University of California, Berkeley. During graduate school, he was a consultant to the World Bank and the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine. This consultancy and his subsequent Berkeley thesis led to the formation of the United Nations AIDS/HIV Program. In 1989, he returned to NIAID and, under the mentorship of Dr. Anthony Fauci, he established one of the first technology transfer offices at NIH. While there, he licensed out emerging DNA/RNA recombinant technologies for gene therapy, antibodies, and vaccines to emerging biotech companies. In 1991, Craig joined the National Cancer Institute where he identified and licensed out the ovarian and breast cancer drug Taxol. In 1992, he joined private industry and, as a director or vice president, managed the intellectual property, business development, corporate development, and clinical functions at Ciba Geigy (Novartis), Life Technologies, Myriad Genetics, Cell Genesys, and BioMarin Pharmaceuticals. While at BioMarin, he helped acquire several FDA drug approvals for neglected or orphan diseases. In 2006, Craig joined academia as a deputy director to develop neurodegenerative disease therapies at the Harvard Medical School. While there, he was chosen for the Harvard Leadership Program and lectured at the Harvard Business School. From 2010-2016, he was a licensing officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Los Angeles. Now back at the University of California, Berkeley, he is involved in starting up companies like Iota Biosciences, Vedere Bio, InkSpace, Frontier Medicines, Spotlight Therapeutics, Optoceutics, Tempest Therapeutics, Versant, ML Bio, Lyterian, Magan Materials, and Myos. In addition to science and business, he is licensed to practice patent law. While living in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Columbia, Yugoslavia, and Switzerland, he developed his life-long passion and mission to alleviate human diseases worldwide.

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