Christopher O’Donnell, PhD is a Partner at Pfizer Ventures and Vice President, Worldwide Business Development. Chris is responsible for identifying, evaluating, making, and managing equity investments aligned with the future directions of Pfizer. He currently has responsibility for Pfizer’s investments in more than 20 innovative companies and organizations in the life science ecosystem.
Chris brings 20+ years of scientific leadership, a strong track record of delivering clinical candidates across multiple disease areas and modalities, and proven ability to build and lead highly engaged teams. He built and led the Applied Synthesis Technologies group within Pfizer R&D to help accelerate the delivery of Pfizer’s small molecule portfolio. Prior to that, Chris built and led Pfizer’s Antibody Drug Conjugate Oncology Medicinal Chemistry group which delivered new linker, payload and conjugation methods resulting in over 10 conjugates entering clinical development. Chris started his career in the Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry group where he invented and helped deliver numerous clinical candidates.
Chris received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign and his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined Pfizer after completing post-doctoral studies at the University of California – Irvine.