David Parkinson, MD
Dr. Parkinson has recently joined EMI as Principal, Drug Discovery.
He has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ESSA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: EPIX) since January 2016, and as a Director of the company since June 2015. With completion of the sale of ESSA in the fall of 2025, he will complete this role.
Prior to joining ESSA, he had been a Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates, Inc (NEA). From 2007 until 2012, Dr. Parkinson served as President and CEO of Nodality, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the biological characterization of signaling pathways in patients with malignancy at the single cell level. Until October 2007, he was SVP, Oncology Research and Development at Biogen Idec, where he oversaw all oncology discovery research efforts and the development of the oncology pipeline. Previously, he had served as VP, Oncology Development, at Amgen and VP, Global Clinical Oncology Development, at Novartis. In those roles, he oversaw the successful clinical development of a series of cancer therapeutics, including Gleevec, Zometa, Femara, and Vectibix.
Dr. Parkinson worked at the National Cancer Institute from 1990 to 1997, serving as Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch and then as Acting Associate Director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP). He is a past Chairman of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Biologics Advisory Committee, a past member of the FDA Science Board, and is a recipient of the FDA’s Cody Medal. He has held academic positions both at Tufts and at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications. He is a past editor of the Journal of Immunotherapy and past president of the Society of Biological Therapy (now the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer, SITC). He has served on the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine, and is a past co-chair of the Cancer Steering Committee of the NIH Foundation Biomarkers Consortium.
A past Board Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), he currently serves as a Board Director for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, chairs their Translational Research Committee, and serves as a member of the Myeloma Investment Fund. He served as Chairperson of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Finance and Audit Committee for 15 years, is a previous elected Board Director of AACR, and currently chairs the Project GENIE Oversight Committee for AACR as well as serving on AACR’s Investment Committee. Dr. Parkinson was a Director of Facet Biotech, Inc. until its acquisition by Abbott Pharmaceuticals, and was a Director of Ambit Biosciences until its acquisition by Daiichi Sankyo. He has also previously served as a Director at Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Cerulean Pharmaceuticals (now DARE, Inc), Tocagen, Inc (now Forte, Inc), and 3SBio Inc (1530.HK). In addition to serving as a director on the ESSA Board he served until recently as Director on the Board of CTI Biopharma, Inc (NASDAQ:CTIC) until its acquisition by Sobi. He also serves on the Board of the private company Angiocrine Biosciences and has been a scientific advisor to several biopharma companies.