Events

External Innovation & Partnering events

Advancing research through collaboration and innovation.

Lundbeck is pleased to invite you to join leaders from the innovation ecosystem, including biotech, biopharma, academia, and venture capital, for an afternoon of discussion and networking focused on advancing innovation in brain health. The program will feature presentations and a panel discussion exploring today's neuroscience innovation landscape, followed by a networking reception designed to foster new connections and collaborations across the life sciences community.

Upcoming Events

San Diego | Biocom & Lundbeck External Innovation and Partnering Event

 

Date: 14 October 2026

Location: The Alexandria Torrey Pines, 10996 Torreyana Road, San Diego, CA 92121

2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Arrivals, Registration and Pre-Event Networking

 

2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. | Presentations, Keynote Speech and Audience Q&A

 

4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. | Networking Reception

 

Keynote Speaker: Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D., Professor and Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research

Keynote Speech: Human biology-driven drug discovery in a “beyond orthostery” world.

Meet the Lundbeck team

Thomas Gibbs

Executive Vice President, Head of Lundbeck U.S.

Tom joined Lundbeck in February 2023 as an accomplished executive with more than 25 years of diverse corporate, general management and commercial leadership experience, including roles in Executive Management, Marketing, Sales, Commercial Operations, Customer Insights and Analytics and Finance at smal, mid-size and large pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Lundbeck, Tom served as Chief Executive Officer and Global Business Leader of Vectura Inc. Prior to his role at Vectura Inc., Tom held several Chief Commercial Officer roles, developing Commercial strategy and overseeing execution for U.S., Canadian and European markets at pharmaceutical companies with strong central nervous system (CNS) franchises, including a role as Chief Commercial Officer at Sunovion. He has also served as Head of General Medicines in the U.S. for Takeda. Tom holds a B.S. in Economics with a dual concentration in finance and marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Jake Wiener, Ph.D.

Vice President, Site Head of Lundbeck La Jolla Research Center

Jake Wiener is Vice President and Site Head of Lundbeck La Jola Research Center, a multidisciplinary research organization leveraging world-class chemical biology capabilities to discover novel therapeutics for brain diseases. Trained as an organic chemist, Jake began his industry career in medicinal chemistry at Johnson & Johnson before joining Abide Therapeutics, which was acquired by Lundbeck in 2019. He holds degrees from Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Caltech, where he earned his Ph.D. with Professor David MacMilan. Jake is an author and inventor on numerous publications and patents.

Jackie Blankman, Ph.D.

Senior Director of Biology & Deputy Site Head of Lundbeck La Jolla Research Center. External Research & Innovation Partner for U.S. West Coast Opportunities

Jackie Blankman, Ph.D., is the Senior Director of Biology and Deputy Site Head at the Lundbeck La Jola Research Center (LLJRC). Jackie joined Lundbeck in 2019 as part of the acquisition of Abide Therapeutics. At LLJRC, Jackie leads a team of neuroscientists and pharmacologists to deliver drug candidates intended to treat serious neurological, neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders. She also partners with Lundbeck’s External Research and Innovation team to identify and evaluate external partnership opportunities across the US West Coast. Jackie received her Ph.D. in chemical biology from Scripps Research and has been working in the San Diego bioscience sector for over 20 years.

Lily Ting, Ph.D.

Senior Director, External Research & Innovation, U.S. Boston

Lily leads Lundbeck's efforts in the Boston innovation ecosystem. She brings over 15 years of experience in external innovation spanning drug discovery, venture creation, strategic partnerships, and portfolio development across academia, biotech, and global pharma. Prior to joining Lundbeck, Lily held leadership roles at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, PureTech Health, and Commense, where she built and managed strategic colaborations, evaluated emerging technologies and therapeutic platforms, and worked closely with researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and executives to translate scientific innovation into impactful medicines.

Agne Valentin, M.Sc.

Director of Strategy & Operations, External Research & Innovation, Global Headquarters

Agne Valentin, M.Sc., Director of Strategy and Operations at Lundbeck, has more than 20 years of experience across strategy, business development, commercial execution and project leadership - with over a decade in Pharma. She currently leads strategy and execution initiatives within the External Research & Innovation team and is one of the key drivers in fostering early-stage strategic partnerships across the global neuroscience ecosystem. Agne’s previous experience at Lundbeck includes leading enterprise-level initiatives in the CEO Office, where she worked closely with the Executive Leadership Team and the Board of Directors. Prior to joining Lundbeck in 2021, she held global roles spanning business development, strategy, commercial execution and M&A projects.

Past Events

Meet the Lundbeck team

Tarek Samad

Executive Vice President, Head of R&D

Tarek Samad, Ph.D., is Executive Vice President and Head of Research & Development at Lundbeck, where he is responsible for the global R&D strategy and execution across the full innovation continuum, from drug discovery through late-stage development. A seasoned biopharmaceutical executive, he brings more than 20 years of experience leading organizations across biotech, and global pharmaceutical companies.Before becoming Head of R&D, Dr. Samad led Lundbeck's Global Research organization and Corporate Patents function. Previously, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Immunitas Therapeutics and held senior leadership roles at Sanofi and Pfizer. Throughout his career, he has overseen multidisciplinary teams advancing innovative therapies in multiple therapeutic areas.Tarek holds a PhD degree in molecular and cellular biology, from Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France and two master’s degrees in molecular & cellular biology and biotechnology & genetic engineering.

Morten Grunnet

Vice President, Head of Neuroscience

Morten Grunnet, Ph.D., is Vice President and Head of Neuroscience at Lundbeck. He also serves as an Honorary Professor at the University of Copenhagen and Chief Scientific Officer at Acesion Pharma. During his studies and career, he has published > 150 peer review scientific papers and patents. Dr. Grunnet has held a full professorship at the University of Copenhagen for over a decade and has extensive experience in leading large-scale research collaborations. He has co-founded Poseidon Pharmaceuticals and Acesion Pharma and was in 2016 named Life Science Entrepreneur of the Year in Denmark. Throughout his career Morten has held numerous research and leadership roles, and since 2021 he has been Head of Neuroscience at Lundbeck. 

Miriam Frieden

Vice President, Global Head of Business Development

Miriam Frieden, Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Business Development at Lundbeck. She brings more than 20 years of leadership experience across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, spanning R&D, corporate strategy, external innovation, and business development. Before joining Lundbeck in 2025, she spent more than a decade at Novo Nordisk in senior business development and R&D leadership roles. As Vice President at Novo Nordisk of Global Search & Evaluation, she established and led the company's global external innovation function, shaping partnering strategy and leading the evaluation of licensing and acquisition opportunities that contributed to several major transactions. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and an Executive MBA.

Lily Ting

Senior Director, External Research & Innovation

Lily Ting, Ph.D., Senior Director of External Research & Innovation at Lundbeck. Lily leads Lundbeck's efforts in the Boston innovation ecosystem. She brings over 15 years of experience in external innovation spanning drug discovery, venture creation, strategic partnerships, and portfolio development across academia, biotech, and global pharma. Prior to joining Lundbeck, Lily held leadership roles at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, PureTech Health, and Commense, where she built and managed strategic collaborations, evaluated emerging technologies and therapeutic platforms, and worked closely with researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and executives to translate scientific innovation into impactful medicines. 

Ib Vestergaard Klewe

Senior Director, Head of area in Neuroscience and external partnering lead, External Research & Innovation

Senior Director, Head of Area in Lundbeck Neuroscience and External Partnering Lead for External Research and Innovation. With nearly 20 years in Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk and IBM focusing on drug discovery and development, his experience spans discovery and late-stage drug development, over a broad set of therapeutic areas within as well as areas outside CNS, rare diseases as well as diabetes and obesity. He has been the Research lead behind several of Lundbeck’s recent research partnerships, including collaborations with Iambic, Logica, DCAI and Contera Pharma, and was a key driver of Lundbeck’s first Research AI strategy. In addition, he has significant late-stage program experience from Lundbeck's largest marketed medicines, Rexulti® and Vyepti®.  He holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and an M.Sc. in Human Biology, complemented by a Graduate Diploma in Finance and a postgraduate Diploma of Advanced Studies in Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Gregor Macdonald

Vice President and Head of BD&L Search & Assessment

Since August 2021, Gregor has been VP and Head of BD & Licensing, Search and Assessment at Lundbeck. In this role, he and his team are responsible for the global search, scientific evaluation and business case support of assets, research programs and technologies from early research to late clinical development and commercial stages. Prior to this role, Gregor spent 5 years as Senior Director of Scientific Licensing (Neuroscience), within Janssen Business Development, the pharmaceutical companies of J&J, leading the identification and evaluation of clinical stage assets and companies for licensing and M&A. Before moving into Business Development, Gregor was Head of Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry EU at Janssen for 12 years, where he led discovery teams in Belgium and Spain towards the identification of clinical drug candidates in the areas of Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and depression. In addition, Gregor was also extensively involved in identifying external drug discovery opportunities and prosecuting research collaborations with a variety of academic, biotech and pharma partners. Gregor started his career within the Medicinal Chemistry depts. of SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoSmithKline, where he spent 7 years in the Neuroscience area. Gregor is a co-author and co-inventor on over 110 scientific publications and patents and has been an invited speaker and panelist at several international conferences. 

Agne Valentin

Director, Strategy & Operations

Agne Valentin, M.Sc., Director of Strategy and Operations at Lundbeck, has more than 20 years of experience across strategy, business development, commercial execution and project leadership – with over a decade in the pharma industry. She currently leads strategy and execution initiatives within the External Research & Innovation team and is one of the key drivers in fostering early-stage strategic partnerships across the global neuroscience ecosystem. Agne’s previous experience at Lundbeck includes leading enterprise-level initiatives in the CEO office, while prior to joining Lundbeck in 2021, she held roles spanning business development, strategy and commercial execution, including commercial leadership in acquisitions and divestments.

Meet the Panelists

Stacie Weninger

Venture Partner, F-Prime Capital

Stacie Weninger, Ph.D., is a Venture Partner with F-Prime. She is a neuroscientist, biotech leader, and investor with more than 20 years of experience building, advising, and backing innovative neuroscience companies. Her work focuses on advancing early-stage therapeutics through strategic collaboration, investment, and advisory roles, helping translate foundational scientific discoveries into novel medicines and enduring companies.

 

Dr. Weninger received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University and a B.S. in chemistry with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kasper Roet

Founder and CEO, QurAlis Corporation

Kasper Roet, PhD, is CEO and co-founder of QurAlis, and is also co-founder and serves on the board of EnClear Therapies. He founded QurAlis with Harvard professors Clifford Woolf and Kevin Eggan. Kasper is a passionate neuroscientist and therapy developer specializing in precision medicine solutions for ALS and other neurodegenerative and neurological diseases.


Kasper was awarded the Milton Safenowitz postdoctoral fellowship from the ALS Association. With QurAlis, Kasper won two Golden Tickets (Amgen 2017 and Pfizer 2018), became a JLabs member in 2018, won the Fierce15 Biotech award in 2020, and was awarded the 2022 Henri Termeer Transatlantic Connections Award.