South San Francisco, Calif. — Soley Therapeutics said it has appointed Berthil Clasen, PhD, MBA, as Chief Business Officer as the company advances its lead oncology programs toward the clinic.
Soley, a tech-enabled drug discovery and development company using cellular sensing to discover first-in-class medicines, said Clasen will lead corporate strategy, business development and strategic partnerships.
Clasen brings more than 20 years of life sciences experience, including 10 years at Eli Lilly. He most recently served as Vice President of Business Development, Head of AI and Emerging Therapeutic Areas.
“Berthil brings the combination of strategic judgment, transaction experience, and scientific depth that Soley needs as we enter our next phase of growth,” said Yerem Yeghiazarians, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Soley Therapeutics. “Soley was built on a different starting point for drug discovery: observing how cells sense stress, respond to perturbation, and move along trajectories toward survival, recovery, or death. As our internally discovered programs advance toward the clinic and our platform continues to generate new opportunities across complex diseases, Berthil’s experience building partnerships around emerging science and high-value platforms will be important to expanding the impact of our work.”
The company said Clasen’s appointment comes as Soley continues to build a therapeutic pipeline across oncology, neurodegeneration, metabolic disorders and other complex diseases.
“Soley has built something genuinely rare: a platform that translates novel biological insights into a growing portfolio of first-in-class drug candidates across multiple disease areas, supercharged by cutting-edge AI and automation,” said Dr. Clasen. “Soley is poised to create transformative value for patients and partners alike with programs advancing toward the clinic, a differentiated drug discovery platform, and clear opportunities for partnership. I look forward to working with the talented Soley team and forging strategic relationships that will accelerate Soley’s mission.”
During his time at Lilly, Clasen held senior roles across business development and R&D/corporate strategy, contributing to portfolio and pipeline decisions at the executive and board levels.
He has structured, negotiated and closed more than 30 transactions across mergers and acquisitions, licensing, collaborations, asset acquisitions, divestitures and other strategic deals. Those transactions represented more than $7.5 billion in upfront payments and more than $20 billion in total deal value.
His experience spans oncology, cardiometabolic disease and weight management, neuroscience, immunology, infectious disease, aesthetics, AI and emerging therapeutic areas.
