Gideon E. Bollag PhD

Gideon Bollag, Ph.D. currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Plexxikon, a member of the Daiichi Sankyo group based in Berkeley, California. In this role, Dr. Bollag’s responsibilities include coordination of drug discovery and development efforts and management of internal and external resources necessary to build a pipeline of compounds for cancer and other diseases. Among other achievements, the Plexxikon team discovered the RAF inhibitor Zelboraf.

This drug was partnered with Roche resulting in an FDA-approved product that has significantly impacted not only the treatment of metastatic melanoma but also the understanding of basic RAF biology. More recently, the CSF1R inhibitor pexidartinib has advanced to phase 3 clinical evaluation, achieving Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA. He started his oncology career at Cetus Corporation in 1989, and then joined as one of the initial scientists at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, where he eventually became senior director of small molecule therapeutics.

Gideon Bollag led Onyx teams in collaborations to discover Nexavar and Ibrance, both now-approved cancer treatments. Since 2002, Gideon has been with Plexxikon where he has led the discovery and development of a growing pipeline of experimental cancer therapies. He has held management positions of increasing responsibility at Plexxikon, culminating in his current role as CEO. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Berkeley and his BS in chemistry from Penn State.