Lars Ekman is an experienced global R&D executive and drug developer with over 30 years of experience in senior executive, scientific, and clinical functions, he focuses on lending his extensive Life Science experience to the investment team in driving new companies toward their goal of being successful. Lars is currently the Chairman of Prothena (PRTA). He previously served as Chairman of Amarin (AMRN) and Afyx Therapeutics and as a Board Member for Sophiris (SPHS) and Director of Spark (ONCE) prior to its acquisition by Roche for $4.3B.
Prior to joining Sofinnova in 2008, Lars held the position of President of Research and Development at Elan. He joined Elan in January 2001, and he is credited with advancing Elan’s drug discovery pipeline and under his leadership, Elan received approval for four U.S. New Drug Applications, three European Marketing Approval Applications, and five Investigational New Drug Applications. These efforts resulted in advancing Elan’s immunotherapeutic approach into Phase III and bringing to market three innovative neuroscience based products, including Tysabri for MS. Prior to joining Elan, he was Executive Vice President, Research and Development at Schwarz Pharma AG beginning in 1997. From 1984 to 1997, Dr. Ekman was employed in a variety of senior scientific and clinical functions at Pharmacia, now Pfizer.
Lars obtained his PhD and MD from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board-certified surgeon with a PhD in Experimental Biology and has held several clinical and academic positions in both the United States and Europe.
