Overview

Gender

female

Catherine Angell Sohn, Pharm.D., is a pharmacist, adjunct professor, global biopharmaceutical and consumer healthcare executive, and serves on the Boards of public and private life science companies. She is non-executive Chairman of BioEclipse Therapeutics, Inc, an early, clinical stage biotechnology company (private), and is an independent Director on the Board of Directors of Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: JAZZ), Landec Corp (NASDAQ: LNDC), and Rubius Therapeutics (private). She holds the position of Adjunct Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Pharmacy, and serves on the board of directors of the not-for-profit World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and is a member of the Investment Committee of Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

Dr. Sohn has deep biopharmaceutical industry knowledge with thirty years of U.S. and global experience, and a reputation as a strategic thinker with the ability to drive a strong interface between research & development and marketing. She has a passion for the development and introduction of new medicines for patients and diseases with significant unmet needs. Her areas of expertise include strategic product development, business development and introduction of new vaccines, pharmaceutical products and consumer healthcare brands. As an entrepreneur within SmithKline Beecham plc (now GlaxoSmithKline), she started the US Vaccine Business and led the launch of SB’s first vaccine in the US. Subsequently, as a member of the global CNS Strategy Team, Sohn helped shape the CNS Life Cycle Pipeline strategy, and then led the U.S. launch of the company’s $1 billion CNS product. Sohn was vice president for worldwide strategic product development from 1994 – 1998, for the cardiovascular, pulmonary and metabolic therapeutic areas at SB plc where she was responsible for product strategy, valuation and strategic commercial leadership of assets from Phase 1 through global life cycle management. Until retiring from GlaxoSmithKline plc, she was senior vice president for business development and a member of the global executive team in the GSK’s Consumer Healthcare division, responsible for global, US, Japanese and European licensing agreements and acquisitions (1998 – 2010). Sohn served on the Board of Trustees of the Licensing Executive Society (LES), USA and Canada, from 2008 – 2011, and on the LES Life Science Sector Executive Committee for many years.

Sohn earned a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree from the University of California San Francisco in 1977 and completed a pharmacy practice residency at UCSF in 1978, before moving the east coast and the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, as Assistant Professor (1978 – 1982). She began her biopharmaceutical career in Medical Affairs at SmithKline & French in 1982.

She received the ‘Distinguished Alumnus’ award from the University of California San Francisco in 2000, was named ‘Woman of the Year’ by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association in 2003, received the Licensing Executive Society’s ‘Frank Barnes Mentoring Award’ (2009) and the HBA Euro-Excellence Award (2012). In 2016, she was named one of the PharmaVoice 100 Most Inspiring People in the life-sciences industry, Sohn has authored text book chapters in Applied Therapeutics: The Clinical Use of Drugs and the Handbook of Applied Therapeutics and The Handbook of Non-Prescription Drugs.

Sohn holds a Certificate of Professional Development from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, is a Board Leadership Fellow of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), a licensed pharmacist (California) and a Certified Licensing Professional (C.L.P.).