John McDonald

Corporate VP, Head of Business Development and M&A at Novo Nordisk

Speaker

John McDonald joined Novo Nordisk in October 2018. Prior to Novo John held various roles at Biogen Inc., MPM Capital, Genzyme Corporation, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Genentech.

At Novo Nordisk, John has led teams of transaction, search & evaluation and contracting professionals. John has led the acquisitions of Forma Therapuetics, Holdings Inc., Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, and Corvidia Therapeutics, and the licensing agreement between Novo and Dicerna Pharmaceuticals.

Previously, John has led or participated in the evaluating, structuring and negotiating of numerous other mergers and acquisitions, licenses and strategic alliances, including Biogen’s collaborations with Sangamo BioSciences, AGTC, Mitsubishi Tanabe, UCB, and Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Biogen’s acquisition of Stromedix, Inc., Millennium's Ex-U.S. collaboration with Ortho Biotech/Johnson & Johnson for VELCADE, the restructuring of Millennium's relationship with Schering-Plough Corp. for INTEGRILIN, and the sale of Millennium's interest in its CAMPATH joint venture, Genzyme’s alliance with BioMarin for ALDURAZYME, and Genentech’s alliances with Xoma Corporation (RAPTIVA), and IDEC Pharmaceuticals (RITUXAN).

John holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and an M.B.A., Beta Gamma Sigma, and a B.S., Phi Beta Kappa, from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.