Christopher O’Donnell

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 Arrakis Therapeutics, Circle Pharma, Enlaza Therapeutics, Incendia Therapeutics, Kestrel Therapeutics, MindImmune, Nimbus, Pyxis Oncology (PYXS), Storm Therapeutics, Strata Oncology and Triana Biomedicine. He is also responsible for managing our investment in the Avant Bio, Mission BioCapital and Phoenix Venture Partners funds. His prior investment responsibilities include Adapsyn Bioscience, Arkuda Therapeutics, BioAtla (BCAB), Kymera Therapeutics (KYMR), Mitokinin, Morphic Therapeutic (MORF) and Petra Pharma.
Chris brings 25+ 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.