Formation Bio Expands Leadership Team With Top Biotech and Pharma Executives to Accelerate AI-Driven Drug Development

Former Pfizer, BenevolentAI, Incyte, and AMAG executives join to strengthen clinical, technology, financial, and scientific leadership as company scales its AI-native pharma model

NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Formation Bio, the AI-native pharmaceutical company revolutionizing drug development, today announced the appointment of four world-class leaders to its senior team: Louis Brenner, MD, as Chief Medical Officer; Daniel Neil, PhD, as Chief Technology Officer; and seasoned industry veterans Frank D'Amelio and Dashyant Dhanak, PhD, as Senior Advisors and members of our Investment Advisory Committee, alongside Mikael Dolsten MD, PhD. All of these leaders join the core group of executives at Formation Bio responsible for decisions around which drugs to license and acquire.

Together, these additions represent decades of leadership at some of the most influential pharmaceutical and biotech companies — including Pfizer, BenevolentAI, Incyte, Janssen, GSK, and multiple innovative biotechs — and mark a major expansion of Formation Bio's leadership bench as it builds the pharmaceutical company of the future.

"We're honored to share the journey ahead with Danny, Lou, Dash, and Frank" said Benjamine Liu, Co-Founder and CEO of Formation Bio. "Each of these leaders bring unique experience across drug hunting, AI, deal-making, and scientific and clinical development that will meaningfully contribute to our mission to bring transformative drugs to patients. But more importantly, they are first principles thinkers who are excited to bring all their experiences to help us build this generation's AI native pharma company."

Welcoming Four New Executives to the Formation Bio Team

Louis Brenner, MD, joins as Chief Medical Officer, bringing more than 20 years of leadership across biotech and pharma. Dr. Brenner has advanced multiple first-in-class and best-in-class medicines through development, approval, and commercialization, improving outcomes for patients worldwide. He most recently served as President and CEO of Hopewell Therapeutics and previously led Allena Pharmaceuticals from early-stage private company to a late-stage public biotech, completing multiple financings and advancing a pipeline of Phase 2 and 3 assets. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at Idera, Radius (acquired for ~$890M), AMAG (acquired for $647M), and Genzyme, where he oversaw the approval and launch of Feraheme^®, led the global Phase 3 program for Tymlos^®, and contributed to the blockbuster Renagel^®/Renvela^® franchise (patent holder) while spearheading strategic acquisitions that expanded Genzyme's portfolio. Dr. Brenner also serves on clinical staff at Mass General Brigham and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and holds a B.S. in Biology from Yale College, an M.D. from Duke, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Dr. Brenner will oversee the advancement of Formation Bio's clinical-stage portfolio, guiding both its current programs and the future assets the company acquires.

Daniel Neil, PhD, joins as Chief Technology Officer, bringing a rare combination of deep machine learning and AI expertise, executive leadership, and biomedical industry experience. Most recently as Chief Data Officer at Tessera Therapeutics, he spearheaded the company's AI/ML strategy to advance gene writing technologies and led a 40-person data science organization. Previously, as Chief Technology Officer at BenevolentAI, he delivered the technology strategy for a 250-person biopharma, guiding the company through rapid growth, restructuring, and a public listing while scaling the technology team to more than 150 employees. Over his career, Neil has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and patents in machine learning, AI for drug discovery, and neuroscience, with over 5,000 citations, and has built secure, scalable systems that meet FDA and GxP standards. He holds a PhD and MSc in machine learning and neuroscience from ETH Zurich and a BS in biomedical computation from Stanford.  At Formation Bio, he will lead the continued evolution of the company's AI platform to accelerate drug development and clinical success.

Frank D'Amelio joins as a Strategic Advisor and Co-Chair of the Investment Advisory Committee, following nearly 15 years as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Business Operations and Global Supply at Pfizer Inc, and over 30 years of leadership experience. During his tenure at Pfizer, the company generated nearly $150 billion in market cap growth, and D'Amelio led multiple transformative acquisitions and partnerships valued at nearly $200 billion, including the Wyeth acquisition. He also pioneered the creation of the Pharma NewCo model, which is directly applicable to Formation Bio's business model, including the creation of Cerevel (acquired for $8.7B)  and Springworks (acquired for $3.4B). Under his leadership, he was also responsible for the Pfizer Venture Fund. He played a pivotal role in the manufacturing and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, overseeing the production of more than 3 billion doses in the first year. Consistently ranked among America's top CFOs by Institutional Investor magazine, D'Amelio's extensive capital markets experience and ability to scale global operations at speed will be invaluable as Formation Bio executes acquisitions, scales manufacturing capabilities, and navigates the financial complexities of bringing AI-driven drug candidates to market.

Dashyant Dhanak, PhD, joins as Strategic Advisor and Member of the Investment Advisory Committee, following his most recent role as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Deciphera Pharmaceuticals (acquired by ONO Pharma for $2.4B). With more than 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, Dr. Dhanak previously held the same role at Incyte Corporation and served as Vice President and Head of Discovery Sciences at Janssen Research and Development. Earlier in his career, he spent 25 years at GlaxoSmithKline in various positions, including Vice President and Head of the Cancer Epigenetics Discovery Performance Unit. With a PhD from the University of London and postdoctoral research experience at Northwestern University, Dash has been a driving force behind numerous innovative drug discovery programs across multiple therapeutic areas.

Building the Pharma Company of the Future

Formation Bio has built a fundamentally new model for drug development — one that embeds technology and AI into every stage of the process. Our company acquires and advances high-potential assets that other biotech and pharma companies cannot prioritize, then provides the capital, platform, and expertise to propel them forward. Our proprietary AI systems power this model end to end: helping to identify promising drug candidates, optimize program design, and streamline clinical trials. The goal is radically more efficient development that lowers costs, improves success rates, and ultimately delivers new medicines to patients faster.

Formation Bio's development pipeline continues to build strong momentum, highlighted by the addition of a new asset targeting autoimmune diseases and a recently announced out-licensing transaction valued at up to €545M in upfront, development, and commercial milestones in addition to royalties. With plans to expand to 10–15 assets over the next 3–5 years, the company is well-positioned for sustained growth.

"The traditional pharmaceutical model simply can't keep pace with today's rate of scientific discovery," said Frank D'Amelio. "Formation Bio's NewCo model enables a pathway for promising assets to accelerate through clinical value inflections that preserves the highest standards of safety and efficacy while dramatically accelerating what's possible for development timelines and outcomes for patients. It's a lift-all-boats model for the industry — unlocking the potential of promising drug candidates that need the right partner, capital, and capabilities to reach patients."

Contact/Media:
[email protected]

This press release contains forward-looking statements about Formation Bio's business prospects, pipeline development, and asset expansion plans. These statements are based on current expectations and beliefs but are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Formation Bio undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.

SOURCE Formation Bio