Marcelo Bigal

CEO,
Ventus Therapeutics

Ventus Therapeutics is a U.S.-based company with a subsidiary in Montreal, CA (www.ventustx.com). Bigal joined Ventus prior to the seeding stage. The company has raised 290 million dollars to date, pioneering a unique approach to structure-based drug discovery to address biologically validated, but difficult-to-drug targets.

Before Ventus Bigal was chief medical officer (CMO) in three organizations, and CSO and head of R&D at Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to industry, Bigal was a faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Neurology, as well as the director of research at New England Center for Headache, Stamford, Connecticut and director of research at Montefiore Headache Center, Bronx, New York.

Bigal published over 330 peer-reviewed articles in indexed journals, edited six books and authored/co-authored 35 book chapters in the field of neurology. Bigal has 32 publications in the Journal “Neurology”.

Bigal held numerous distinguished positions in the American Headache Society and American Academy of Neurology, including scientific chairman of the American Headache Society and of the International Headache Society annual meetings. He was also the chairman of the Acute Pain Treatment Guidelines of the American Academy of Neurology. More recently, Bigal was the chairman of the Department of Defense call for action in research focusing on the consequences of trauma, including pain and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Bigal holds a medical doctorate degree from the College of Medicine at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he also obtained a master's degree in science and a Ph.D. in neurosciences. He completed his post-doctoral research at the New England Center for Headache in Stamford, CT.