About

Dr. Romain Micol has been President, co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Combined Therapeutics since 2016. Previously, he held several positions across the Institut Mérieux group: ABL Inc (USA), Shantha Biotechnics (India), and Transgene (China and France). Dr. Micol helped to set up the first reference center for primary immunodeficiency in France in 2005. Dr. Micol is an entrepreneur with affiliations to six famous universities (Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT in the U.S., LSE in the UK, Paris VI, Paris V, Paris Dauphine in France and Global LBS in the UK). Dr. Micol obtained his Medical Degree (two specializations in Infectious Diseases and Public Health) from Pierre et Marie Curie University, his Ph.D. in Communicable Diseases from Paris Descartes University, his Master of Business Administration from Hult International Business School and his LLM (Corporate Law – Intellectual Property) from the London School and Economics, and his Advanced Management Program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Robert Langer is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor and an expert in biotechnology and engineering. He has over 1,440 issued and pending patents worldwide. He served as Chairman of the FDA’s SCIENCE BOARD from 1999-2002. In 2015, Dr. Langer received the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the world’s largest engineering prize. He has also received the Charles Stark Draper Prize. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and his Sc.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT.

Dr. Dan Anderson is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor and an expert in nano-based drugs and cancer immunology. His work has led to the first methods for rapid synthesis, formulation, analysis, and biological evaluation of large libraries of biomaterials for use in medical devices, cell therapy, and drug delivery. In particular, the advanced drug delivery systems he has developed provide new methods for nanoparticle drug delivery. Dr. Anderson received a BA in mathematics and biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the University of California at Davis.

Mr. Pierre Matussiere has more than twenty years of experience as an investment banker for Société Générale, Citigroup and BNP Paribas, primarily out of London. His focus was on the sales and marketing of structured products, mainly in the credit space. Since 2017, Mr. Matussiere has become an active Angel investor and fundraiser – through his FCA regulated company M Finance – focusing on sectors such as hospitality, leasing of transport equipment, Healthtech, residential and commercial properties and Biotech. He graduated in 1995 from HEC in Paris.

Mr. Kevin McLaughlin is a finance and management executive with more than 40 years of experience in the biopharma and high-tech industries.  He was most recently the senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer with Acceleron Pharma. During his 11-year tenure, he was a key member of management that helped to drive the company’s growth from a private research-focused business to a publicly traded commercial entity that Merck acquired for $11.5 billion. Mr. McLaughlin also serves as a director of Vericel Corporation and Decibel Therapeutics. He also serves on the boards of Vericel Corporation (VCEL) and Decibel Therapeutics, Inc. (DBTX). Mr. McLaughlin earned a B.S. in accounting and physical distribution management from Northeastern University and an MBA from Babson College.

Dr. Romain Micol has been President, co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Combined Therapeutics since 2016. Previously, he held several positions across the Institut Mérieux group: ABL Inc (USA), Shantha Biotechnics (India), and Transgene (China and France). Dr. Micol helped to set up the first reference center for primary immunodeficiency in France in 2005. Dr. Micol is an entrepreneur with affiliations to six famous universities (Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT in the U.S., LSE in the UK, Paris VI, Paris V, Paris Dauphine in France and Global LBS in the UK). Dr. Micol obtained his Medical Degree (two specializations in Infectious Diseases and Public Health) from Pierre et Marie Curie University, his Ph.D. in Communicable Diseases from Paris Descartes University, his Master of Business Administration from Hult International Business School and his LLM (Corporate Law – Intellectual Property) from the London School and Economics, and his Advanced Management Program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Robert Ruffolo is the former president of research & development at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and brings a wealth of experience in drug discovery and development. At Wyeth, he supervised an R&D organization of more than 7,000 scientists with an annual budget of more than $3 billion. Prior to this, he was senior vice president of biological sciences worldwide at SmithKline Beecham (now GSK). Dr. Ruffolo’s research groups have brought 37 new medicines to market. In addition, he has published more than 500 papers and edited 15 books. Dr. Ruffolo was awarded the prestigious Discoverer’s Award for the discovery of carvedilol (Coreg^®) for the treatment of congestive heart failure, which changed the paradigm for the treatment of this devastating disease. He received his B.S. in pharmacy from The Ohio State University and his Ph.D. in pharmacology from that same institution.

Dr. Paul Wotton is a serial entrepreneur and inventor with more than 30 years of experience in the biotech and pharma industries. He brings to Combined’s board a strong background in overall business leadership, product development and transformational business transactions. He currently serves on the boards of Vericel, Cynata Therapeutics and Kytopen, and is a co-founder and director of Avenge Bio. Recently, Dr. Wotton was the chief executive officer of Obsidian Therapeutics, where he led fundraising initiatives, built the management team and directed the advancement of an engineered TIL therapy candidate for the treatment of melanoma into its first clinical trial. Before this, he was president and chief executive officer of Ocata Therapeutics until its acquisition by Astellas Pharma. Dr. Wotton serves on the Boards of Directors of Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ: VCEL), Kytopen and Cynata Therapeutics (ASX: CYP) as its Chairman. Until recently, he was a board member at Veloxis Pharmaceuticals A/S (Copenhagen: VELO), which was recently acquired by Asahi. He received his B.Pharm from University College London and his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Nottingham.