Wayne Klohs

Dr. Klohs is an R&D executive and scientist with thirty-five years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with increasing levels of responsibility held in positions across the drug development and discovery spectrum. He is currently a consultant for several companies including the SAB for Aeglea Therapeutics, SAB and DOB for MAIA Biotechnology, Chairman of the BOD for Xennials Therapeutics. He also serves as a consultant for Tieos Therapeutics, Kymeris Therapeutics, Petra Pharma, Third Coast Therapeutics, RJS Biologics, and Alacrita Consulting. Dr. Klohs retired from Astellas Pharma Inc. as a Senior Vice President and Therapeutic Area for Oncology for Astellas Pharmaceutical, Inc in June, 2013. In five years, he built Astellas Oncology from 5 people in oncology to ~ 500 and built the oncology pipeline at Astellas from zero compounds to a robust pipeline through internal discovery, in-licensing of key compounds, and the acquisition of OSI Pharmaceuticals. Headed the Global Oncology Strategy team that set the global direction and strategies for oncology at Astellas.

He successfully filed NDAs and MAAs for Xtandi (enzalutamide) and Tarceva. Previously, he served as acting head of Oncology Clinical Sciences at Takeda Global R&D and Executive Director of Drug Development at Pfizer, Inc. At Takeda, he lead both early and late-stage Development Teams in Oncology and was a member of Takeda’s Global Oncology Licensing Team. At Pfizer, he led development from mid-Discovery through POC with additional experience in NDA filings including pentostatin/Nipent and suramin/Metaret. During that time, he led development teams to more than 14 successful IND filings and Phase 1 starts including a pan-erbB irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor, two MEK inhibitors for both oncology and inflammation, a cell cycle inhibitor, several P38 inhibitors among others. Prior to heading up drug development for oncology and inflammation at Pfizer, he led discovery efforts at Warner-Lambert/Parke Davis Pharmaceutical Research in oncology in a number of areas including antiangiogenic agents, multiple drug resistance, histone deacetylase inhibitors, and antifolates.