Ji Li

Principal at JL Biopharma Consulting

Dr. Ji Li is currently an independent strategic and business development consultant with focus in cross border partnership. Ji has more than 25 years of extensive industry experience in BD, R&D and VC investment in the biopharmaceutical sector. Most recently, Ji served as President of AffaMed Therapeutics, a leading venture-backed CNS and ophthalmology biotech in China where he led the strategy and BD efforts in completing 7 BD transactions within 2 years to build up its pipeline. Prior to AffaMed, Ji served as Venture Partner at Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV), one of the leading healthcare VC firms from China where he acted as BD advisor to LAV portfolio companies, creating newco, and sourcing and evaluating new investment opportunities. Prior to LAV, Ji was Executive VP and Global Head of BD at BeiGene where he was responsible for the company’s partnering activities worldwide, including leading the landmark strategic transaction with Celgene that has transformed BeiGene into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company. Prior to BeiGene, Ji served as VP of BD&L at Merck (MSD), where he led the group that was responsible for BD activities of all late stage inbound and outbound partnering opportunities globally. During this period, Ji has also served on behalf of Merck, as Board member for BeiGene up until its successful NASDAQ IPO. Prior to Merck, Ji was Executive Licensing Director, External R&D at Amgen where he led the company’s product search and evaluation BD team. Earlier in his career, Dr. Li was key member of the Amgen research team discovered and validated the RANKL signaling pathway that has led to the successful development and commercialization of Denosumab, the current standard of care therapy for various bone loss indications with annual sales of more than $5 billion globally. Ji obtained his B.S. in Pharmacology from Shanghai Medical University and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.