Mahendra Shah, PhD

Mahendra Shah, is a highly successful pharmaceutical entrepreneur and executive who has been with Vivo Capital, LLC since March 2010. He currently serving as managing director. Dr. Shah is the founder and executive chairman of Semnur Pharmaceuticals. He previously served as chairman of the board of Essentialis, and currently serves as a board member of Soleno Therapeutics, Bolt Therapeutics, Impel Neuropharma, Homology Medicines, Fortis Inc., Verona Pharma and several other privately held companies in the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Dr. Shah is also a member of the board of trustees of St. John’s University. From September 2005 to December 2009, he was founder, chairman and CEO of NextWave Pharmaceuticals, a pediatric focused specialty pharmaceutical company, which was acquired by Pfizer. From 1993 to 2003, he was the chairman and CEO of First Horizon Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company before it was sold to Shionogi Pharmaceuticals. From 1991 to 1999, he was vice president of E. J. Financial Enterprises, Inc.,a healthcare fund management company. He previously served on the boards of Biotie Therapies, Unimed Pharmaceuticals (UMED), Introgen Therapeutics, Inpharmakon, Protomed, Structural Bioinformatics and Zarix. From 1987 to 1991 he was the senior director of new business development with Fujisawa USA (now part of Astellas Pharma US, Inc.). Prior to that he worked in various scientific and management positions with Schering-Plough and Bristol Myers-Squibb. Dr.Shah received his PhD in industrial pharmacy from St. John’s University and his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Pharmacy from L.M. College of Pharmacy in Gujarat, India.