Stephen Pitt

R&D, Head of Search & Evaluation at CSL Behring

Speaker

Stephen is Vice President and Global Head of Search & Evaluation (External Innovation Lead) at CSL, a global biotech company. In this newly created role, he is expanding the CSL pipeline through external asset deals across several business units, including CSL Behring (rare and serious health conditions) and CSL Vifor (iron deficiency and nephrology). He is charged with uncovering strategic new opportunities across immunoglobulins, cardiovascular & renal, transplant & immunology, and hematology.

Before CSL, he served as Johnson & Johnson’s Global Head of External Innovation/Alliance Management for Interventional Oncology. In this role, Stephen delivered more than 15 deals focused on localized, intratumoral therapies for lung and head & neck cancers (including a Phase 3 global licensing agreement). Earlier in his time at J&J, Stephen served as the Head of JLABS US Northeast, where he incubated over 100+ healthcare startups and led 5 sites across New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. He built a portfolio that resulted in over 13 deals with J&J and developed strong partnerships across a network of corporate, academic, government and industry organizations and investment firms.

Stephen’s career spans over two decades of growing responsibility as an external innovation leader in drug discovery and development at Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Bayer, and biotechs.  He has a strong track record of identifying external partnerships to deliver strategically aligned assets that secure executive-level funding and expand overall business strategies to rapidly commercialize scientific breakthroughs.  

Stephen earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from Cornell Medical School and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he pioneered computational and AI-based molecular dynamics drug discovery approaches. He also holds several patents and has published in top scientific journals.