Ji Li

Principal at JL Biopharma Consulting

Speaker

Dr. Ji Li is a seasoned executive and a veteran deal maker with more than 25 years of industry experience in BD, R&D and VC investment. Currently, he is an independent strategic and BD consultant with focus in cross border partnership with China and globally. 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 partnering efforts to build up its robust pipeline. Prior to AffaMed, Ji served as Venture Partner at Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV), a leading healthcare VC firm from China where he acted as BD advisor to LAV portfolio companies, creating newcos, 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 oncology transaction with Celgene that has transformed BeiGene into a fully integrated biopharma.

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 SOC for various bone loss indications with annual global sales of more than $5 billion. 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.