Mark P. De Souza

Biography

Mark P. de Souza, PhD is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and biotechnology consultant based in the San Francisco Bay area. He is passionate about developing first-in-class therapies for rare and neglected diseases with a high unmet medical need. He is a co-founder and member of the board of directors of NFlection Therapeutics , Myotherix, and ChromaDerm. He is a board member of Excelimmune. Mark was formerly President and CEO of Lotus Tissue Repair and a member of its board of directors. Mark co-founded Lotus Tissue Repair in 2010 to develop recombinant collagen VII as protein replacement therapy for a devastating orphan genetic disease, dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. Lotus Tissue Repair secured a $26 million Series A commitment from Third Rock Ventures in 2011. The company was acquired by Shire in early 2013. Prior to founding Lotus, Mark was Vice President of Business Development at Dyax Corp, a biopharmaceutical company which discovered, developed and commercializes KALBITOR®, its lead product in hereditary angioedema, an orphan genetic disease. Since 2003, he led the business development team, which was responsible for licensing Dyax's phage display technology and products, including KALBITOR®, generating greater than $200 million in license fees and other forms of financing from 50+ antibody, protein, and peptide technology and product licensing transactions. Prior to joining Dyax, Mark conducted academic research at the University of California, Berkeley.

Research Interest

Pharma