Roland Kolbeck, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Spirovant, is an experienced scientific entrepreneur with over 20 years of executive R&D leadership in small and large biopharmaceutical companies with a proven track record of successful drug development. Dr. Kolbeck has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in renowned scientific journals such as Nature, Immunity and New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Kolbeck is co-owner of Spirovant, subsequent to a management buy-out of the company from Sumitomo Pharma, realizing his vision to develop gene therapies for cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases. Committed to providing strategic leadership to advance therapeutics, he most recently served as chair of the American Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ASGCT) Respiratory & GI Tract Gene & Cell Therapy Committee.
Previously, Dr. Kolbeck was Vice President, Head of Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmune Research (RIA) at MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s global biologics organization, where he provided strategic direction as Chair of the RIA Research Committee and as a member of the Research Leadership Team and Early-Stage Portfolio Committee. Six monoclonal antibodies originating from the RIA portfolio have since been approved by the FDA.
Dr. Kolbeck contributed to a successful partnership with AMGEN for the co-development of five monoclonal antibodies, a $250 million series A spinout of preclinical RIA autoimmune assets into VIELA BIO, later acquired by HORIZON for $3 billion, and a partnership with ETHRIS GmbH for the development of mRNA-based therapies.
In recognition of his contributions Dr. Kolbeck received the AZ President’s Award for Building and Developing Organizations and Capabilities, AZ Global Excellence Award for Inspirational Leadership, AZ Global Excellence Award for Scientific Publication of the Year and AZ Global Excellence Award for Scientific Breakthrough of the Year.
Before joining Medimmune, Dr. Kolbeck served as Director of Autoimmune Therapies at Peptimmune, and in various scientific leadership roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Takeda for $8.8 billion.
With a strong interest in fostering education and international relationships, Dr. Kolbeck served as Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, from 2014-2022, and is a co-founder of the German International School in Boston where he served as president and chair of the Board for the first 2 years of operations. The school was inaugurated in 2001 by the then acting German President, Dr. Johannes Rau.
Dr. Kolbeck earned his PhD at the University of Regensburg and Max-Planck-Institute for Neurobiology, Munich, Germany.