Natalia Novac

CEO & Chairwoman at Phialogics

Speaker

Natalia Novac is an experienced healthcare professional currently being a CEO of Phialogics, company developing next generation therapies for autoimmune diseases using their proprietary native protein platform. Before Phialogics, she was a Partner at Delin Ventures, where she was known for her impactful contributions in the strategy of several Delin portfolio companies as Investment Director and Business Developer. building boards, closing the first fundings, building successful partnerships with the big pharma. Natalia is also consulting several Biotech and AI Drug Discovery companies outside being Startup Trainer and Coach in VentureLab and Jury Member in Venture Kick in Switzerland. With her career in academic research and healthcare industry spanning over 25 years, she has built strong expertise in therapeutic development and an extensive network of pharma and biotech investment professionals which is of tremendous help for value generation.

Prior to joining Delin in 2022, Natalia had Senior Director Venture Science role at Global Business Development of Eli Lilly & Company, where she was responsible for search and evaluation of partnering and investment opportunities across all five indications of Eli Lilly including oncology, immunology, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and pain working from London office and overseeing Europe. On top of direct investments, Natalia has built strong relationships with European Venture Funds which led to over $1.6B investment into Europe, broadening investment footprint for the US Pharma giant and enabling biotech innovation growth in Europe. Before Eli Lilly, Natalia had worked for 13 years at Merck, starting as a Research Lead in Early Discovery Technologies, building the first high content screening facilities for Merck and moving through various pivotal roles in Drug Development and Organisational Excellence all the way to commercialisation. In her late years at Merck, she was leading the launch of the Avelumab therapy in the UK and Ireland in collaboration with Pfizer being a Head of Strategy for the UK and Ireland.

Natalia pursued her education at the University of Warwick, where she has earned her MSc degreein Microbiology and the Institute of Genetics in the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where she has gained her PhD.

Natalia’s influence extends beyond her professional achievements; she is also a sought-after speaker, frequently sharing insights at partnership conferences, panels, or workshops at BioEurope, LSX as well as scientific conferences such as European RNA Summit or US Drug Repositioning Conference. Her expertise and vision continue to inspire young professionals whom she is mentoring through Healthcare Business Association and BIA mentoring programs.