Thomas Pietzonka, MBA;PhD

Thomas Pietzonka, Ph.D. MBA serves as Global Head, Biotherapeutics at the Biologics Center for the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. In this role, he is responsible for maintaining state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical drug discovery capabilities as well as pipeline flow in Novartis’ early biologics including the cell and gene therapies portfolio as well as RNA therapeutics, overseeing 380+ scientists responsible for delivering biotherapeutic medicines for Novartis’ drug development. Thomas started his career at Novartis in 1995 as a Laboratory Head in medicinal chemistry at Sandoz, and has since held various positions of increasing responsibility, giving him a strong scientific expertise encompassing biologics, cell- and gene therapy, medicinal chemistry and research methodologies. His 25 years of pharmaceutical research experience has led him to build up Novartis’ internal biologics discovery organization within NIBR, which supports currently more than 100 biopharmaceutical discovery programs in multiple therapeutic areas and more than a dozen which are undergoing clinical testing. Thomas holds a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland and an MBA from the University of Zurich.