Ming Wang, PhD, MBA

Dr. Ming Wang is Founder, President and CEO of Phanes Therapeutics, Inc. based in San Diego. The company focuses on drug discovery and development to treat cancer and metabolic complications. Ming was formerly Vice President and Disease Area Leader of Diabetes/Metabolism in Janssen, the pharmaceutical sector of Johnson & Johnson, with global responsibility for the diabetes portfolio (from discovery stage to phase 2). In this role, he was responsible for setting strategies for internal innovation and external partnerships, making investment decisions and building a portfolio of assets for disease treatment and prevention. Under his leadership, J&J built a strong pipeline of metabolic assets ranging from discovery stage programs to clinical assets. During his tenure at J&J, Ming’s team built many external partnerships with biotech companies and academic institutions. Ming was also the champion in formulating a strategy for NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis) and other metabolic disease areas for the group. Previously, Ming was Executive Director and Head of Diabetes Research at Amgen where he headed a group of ~50 scientists located in Amgen’s headquarter (Thousand Oaks) and San Francisco, working on developing novel therapies for metabolic diseases. Before joining Amgen, Ming championed drug discovery programs in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and managed corporate partnerships in Parke-Davis, Pfizer and Pharmacia.

Ming served on multiple advisory boards, including the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of Amgen Ventures. He is a frequent organizer and speaker of biotech and pharma conferences and has 59 publications and a book entitled “Metabolic Syndrome: underlying mechanisms and drug therapies” (publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). He is an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry and a MBA in General Management.