ATP Names Raj Chopra, FRCP, FRCPath, FRSB, Ph.D., as Head of Oncology

NEW YORK and LONDON, Oct. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ATP, a leader in life sciences venture capital, announced today the appointment of Raj Chopra, FRCP, FRCPath, FRSB, Ph.D., as Head of Oncology. In this role, Dr. Chopra is responsible for identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in oncology, horizon scanning for emerging scientific and business trends, facilitating synergies across ATP's oncology portfolio, and building and maintaining relationships across global cancer research and clinical communities on behalf of ATP and its portfolio companies. Dr. Chopra also continues as a venture partner at ATP based in the firm's London office.

"Within our current fund, to date ATP has created 15 new companies, of which nine are either exclusively focused on new scientific ideas in oncology or are platform companies that include potentially groundbreaking oncology programs," said Seth Harrison, M.D., founder and Managing Partner of ATP. "We created the Head of Oncology role both to acknowledge the critical work Raj has been doing at ATP and to sharpen and amplify our oncology strategy.

"ATP has assembled a team with unmatched expertise in the areas that will produce the next generation of oncology therapeutics—novel immuno-oncology approaches, RNA metabolism and processing, and protein dynamics (formation, degradation, and interactions)—as well as engineering and manufacturing complex modalities, designing and running clinical trials, and bringing to market new classes of cancer medicines," Dr. Harrison continued. "Given Raj's experience, capabilities, and network, the vision is for him to direct and orchestrate our efforts to create synergies within the portfolio."

"ATP's oncology strategy is to create flagship oncology companies in two ways," Dr. Chopra said. "The first is making connections within the ATP portfolio between sciences and technologies that at first glance may look unexpected but in the end could enable major leaps forward in delivering better treatments for people with cancer. The second is attracting researchers who may have a brilliant scientific idea but lack the right platform or translational know-how to make it work. We want those scientists and entrepreneurs to think of ATP as their preferred partner."

Dr. Chopra joined ATP in 2019 as a venture partner from The Institute of Cancer Research in London, where as director of the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit, he led one of the largest academic drug discovery groups in the world and focused on targeted protein degradation and complex 3D cell culture models. Prior to that, he worked at Celgene from 2009 to 2016 as corporate vice president of Translational and Early Drug Development, leading an international team of more than 100 scientists. Before joining Celgene, he held leadership positions in AstraZeneca's Oncology Therapeutics group in the UK and US. Dr. Chopra started his academic career as the director of Hematological Oncology at Christie Hospital and was group leader at the Paterson Institute of Cancer Research, both located in Manchester, UK. He was a non-executive director of Artios Pharma, established to develop a next-generation DNA Damage Response target pipeline of cancer therapeutics, and co-founder of Monté Rosa Therapeutics, a biotech focused on targeted protein degradation.

Dr. Chopra earned his Ph.D. in medicine, cell and molecular biology at University College London. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal College of Pathologists, and the Royal Society of Biology.

About ATP
Founded in 1999, ATP is a leader in life sciences venture capital, with $2.65 billion in committed capital and offices in New York, London, San Francisco, and Cambridge, MA. ATP creates companies starting at various stages, from pre-IP ideas to asset spinouts, investing in them from seed stage through IPO and beyond. The core of ATP's strategy is providing flexible capital and access to a world-class team of venture partners and EIRs, to build sustainable, research-driven enterprises that deliver therapeutics to improve human lives. For more information, visit www.appletreepartners.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sally Jacob / 212-468-5800 / [email protected]

SOURCE ATP