Luke Evnin, PhD

Luke Evnin, Ph.D. has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare investing, and is co-founder and Managing Director of MPM Capital. Mr. Evnin co-founded MPM in 1997 with Ansbert Gadicke, M.D., and opened the San Francisco office in 1999. Mr. Evnin’s passion for discovering and advancing groundbreaking drug discovery companies inspires his work and that of the MPM team, which has been the driving force behind building companies such as BioMarin Pharmaceutical, CoStim Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Novartis), Epizyme, Idenix Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Merck), Idun Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer), Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Pharmasset (acquired by Gilead), Potenza Therapeutics (acquired by Astellas Pharma) and Radius Health. Mr. Evnin was the lead investor and has served on the boards of several of MPM’s most successful investments including CoStim, Idun and Pacira. Over his career he has served on over 30 boards including nine public companies. Over the past seven years, as one key aspect of his MPM activities, Mr. Evnin has been a co-founder of seven MPM portfolio companies including Amphivena Therapeutics, Blade Therapeutics, Harpoon Therapeutics, Potenza Therapeutics, Maverick Therapeutics, Tizona Therapeutics and Werewolf Therapeutics. He has contributed as an inventor to several of these companies as well as MPM portfolio company Oncorus where he also serves on the Board of Directors.

In recognition of MPM’s novel work to finance and build companies which may have a significant impact on cancer care and cures globally, Mr. Evnin is a co-recipient of the 2017 Global Oncology Visionary Award. He has also devoted significant effort to working with the Scleroderma Research Foundation, serving as its Chairman since 2002. Prior to co-founding MPM, he honed his skills as a venture capitalist at Accel Partners where he focused on emerging healthcare companies. Mr. Evnin advanced his technical training and launched his interest in curing disease in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco where he received his Ph.D., and his passion for drug discovery began at Princeton University where he received his A.B. in Molecular Biology.