Arthur H. Bertelsen, Ph.D. Biotech and Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery and Early Clinical Development

Arthur Bertelsen began his career in the early 80’s as part of the founding team of scientists at UniGene Laboratories where he headed Molecular Biology and Recombinant Protein Expression and established expertise in post-translational processing mechanisms. Subsequently he established the biology research functions and served as Sr. Vice President of Research at PharmaGenics (PGI), Inc, a biotech company focused on Tumor Suppressors, Transcription technology and Oligonucleotide Therapeutics. When PGI was acquired by Genzyme (now Sanofi), Dr. Bertelsen joined Schering-Plough Research Institute where he established and headed up External Discovery Research Alliances with responsibilities across all therapy areas at the Institute including Canji, Inc. for Gene Therapy collaborations and DNAX Research Institute for Immunoscience Biologics. More recently Dr. Bertelsen was the worldwide head of External Research Alliances for Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) where he managed a portfolio of collaborations and alliances that generated about one-third of the early-stage portfolio for BMS. At BMS he was also the managing director of Allied Bristol Life Sciences (ABLS) a unique partnership of BMS and Allied Minds, that focused on creating and funding subsidiaries to advance early-stage academic research that could later be acquired by BMS. Dr. Bertelsen left BMS at the start of the pandemic and has most recently been consulting for a number of early-stage biotech companies. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Optikira, Allinaire and VasGene Therapeutics. During his career in the laboratory, Dr. Bertelsen published extensively and is a named inventor on numerous patents. He holds an AB in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University and an MS and PhD. from the program for Cellular and Molecular Biology at New York University Medical Center.