Yongchun Shen

SCIENTIST and ENTREPRENEUR ♦ Natural Product Drug Discovery ♦ Medicinal Chemistry ♦ Global collaboration ♦ Startup - Accomplished medicinal chemist with over 20 years of industrial drug discovery experience and more than 30 publications. Developed multiple oncology, CNS, and anti-inflammation programs from early discovery stage to clinical trials and market. Constantly working with global collaborators to advance promising natural product leads towards drug discovery milestone stages. - Entrepreneur with strong vision to radically change established practice and create revolutionary therapies that restore function and improve the lives of people with neurological disorders and cancer. Passionate and committed to fighting opioid crisis and delivering safe medicines for chronic pain treatment. Expertise in business planning and building interdisciplinary teams. CORE BUSINESS SKILLS & STRENGTHS - Scientific expertise: Vast knowledge and experience in end-to-end drug discovery. - Global experience: Thrives in cross-cultural environments. - Openness: Surrounded with diverse and talented people. - Risk-taking spirit: Takes calculated risks and makes tough decisions. - Innovative mindset: Embraces new perspectives and adapts to changes. - Patient focused: Creative insights to identify and meet needs of patients and families. - Enthusiasm: Passion-driven leader who drives and motivates teams. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS - Founded Young BioPharma, LLC: Founder of Young BioPharma, a biopharmaceutical company based on a powerful natural product discovery platform and a unique high throughput screening technology. The company is committed to fighting the opioid crisis and delivering safe medicines for millions of chronic pain patients. - Developed anticancer drug Halaven: Winner of “Outstanding Contributions and Accomplishments Award” for developing marine natural product, Halichondrin B. The resulting anticancer drug, Halaven, hailed by The Wall Street Journal as a “triumph of chemistry and tenacious research”, has benefitted patients across the globe with breast cancer and sarcoma since 2010. - Developed clinical candidate E6201: Winner of “Eisai Principal Award for the Highest Scientific Achievement” for developing the fungal natural product, F152. Proposed and synthesized natural product F152 analogs with improved stability, DMPK properties and in vivo activity. E6201 entered Phase II clinical trial for psoriasis and Phase I clinical trial for cancer treatment. - Established global natural product collaboration network: Established natural product drug discovery collaboration with scientists all over the world. Led the procurement and screening of a library of 50,000 extracts and 18,000 pure natural products.