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Windward Bio

Highly experienced management team launches Windward Bio with a
$200 million Series A financing from top-tier global investors

About Windward Bio


Pipeline


About WIN378

Meet our team

Investors


Luca Santarelli, MD
Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Luca Santarelli is the founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board of Windward Bio. He has more than 25 years of experience in academic and industrial R&D, having led drug programs in the areas of neuroscience, rare diseases, ophthalmology, metabolic and GI diseases, spanning the value chain from discovery research to commercialization. Dr. Santarelli is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of Alentis Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech company focused on cancer and fibrosis, and a member of the Board of Directors of Cimeio, an immunotherapy company.

Most recently, Dr. Santarelli served as Chief Executive Officer and cofounder of VectivBio AG, a global clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on transforming the lives of patients with rare conditions, until its acquisition by Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in 2023 for $1.2 billion. Prior to VectivBio, Dr. Santarelli was the Chief Executive Officer and cofounder of Therachon AG, focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics for rare pediatric conditions and was later acquired by Pfizer in 2019 for $810 million.

Prior to Therachon, Dr. Santarelli spent 12 years at Roche, most recently serving as the Senior Vice President and Head of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Rare Diseases, as well as Small Molecule Research. In this capacity, Dr. Santarelli advanced more than 20 NMEs to the clinic and various NMEs to registration studies including ocrelizumab for multiple sclerosis, gantenerumab for Alzheimer’s disease, balovaptan for autism, risdiplam for spinal muscular atrophy, and faricimab for diabetic macular edema and age-related macular degeneration. 

Dr. Santarelli completed his MD and psychiatry residency at the University of Turin, Italy, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and adult brain stem cells. Dr. Santarelli’s work has been published in high-impact journals, including Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Archives of Neurology, and JAMA Psychiatry.


Claudia
D’Augusta, PhD

Chief Financial Officer

Dr. Claudia D’Augusta has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of corporate finance, capital markets, and M&A. 

She was most recently Chief Financial Officer of VectivBio prior to its acquisition by Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and at Therachon prior to its acquisition by Pfizer in early July 2019. Previously she served as General Manager at TiGenix after its acquisition by Takeda. Prior to this appointment, Dr. D’Augusta was Chief Financial Officer of TiGenix, where she led the company’s IPO on Nasdaq in 2016, served as a member of the Executive Committee, and held responsibility for the finance, legal, and investor relations areas. She also served as the Chief Financial Officer of Cellerix and led its merger with TiGenix, a company listed on Euronext. Before joining Cellerix in 2004, Dr. D’Augusta was Finance Director of Aquanima (Santander Group). Other previous experiences include Deloitte & Touche in Milan and Apax Partners in Madrid. 

Dr. D’Augusta holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a PhD in business administration from Bocconi University, Italy. 


Omar Khwaja, MD, PhD
 
Chief Medical Officer 

Dr. Omar Khwaja possesses over 25 years of experience and notable accomplishments in drug development, medicine, and academia. 

Prior to joining Windward Bio, Dr. Khwaja served as Chief Medical Officer of VectivBio, and, previously, as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D at Voyager Therapeutics. Earlier, he held senior leadership positions at Roche, including Global Head of Rare Diseases and Global Head of Neuroscience Early Development, where he led pioneering initiatives in breakthrough therapies. Preceding Dr. Khwaja’s industry experience in drug development, he practiced medicine and clinical research including as Director of the Clinical Neurogenetics program at Boston Children’s Hospital and as a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School.  

Dr. Khwaja received his MD and a PhD in human molecular genetics from the University of Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and serves as a chair or member of a number of industry and foundation scientific or clinical advisory boards; he is also part of the Advisory Board for Pureos Bioventures.


Kevin Harris, MBA
 

Chief Operating Officer 

Kevin Harris has more than 25 years of leadership experience in global product strategy, as well as launch and product management in oncology, immunology, infectious and rare disease products. 

Prior to Windward Bio, Mr. Harris was the Chief Commercial Officer at VectivBio for more than 3 years; during that time he led program management and prelaunch and commercialization planning for apraglutide prior to the company’s sale to Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Before that, Mr. Harris was at Incyte for more than 10 years, most recently as Group Vice President of Global Product Strategy and Strategic Planning for oncology and immunology programs. He joined Incyte as Vice President of Commercial and built and led most of the US commercial functions for the launch of Jakafi®. Previously, Mr. Harris held roles of increasing responsibility at Pfizer, across the company’s HIV and oncology portfolios. Before that, he served in commercial development and marketing roles at Bristol Myers Squibb in HIV and oncology. Mr. Harris began his career in management consulting at PRTM and subsequently joined PAREXEL in a marketing and strategy role. 

Mr. Harris holds an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in biology from Cornell University.


Scott Applebaum
 

Chief Legal and Business Officer 

Scott Applebaum brings almost 30 years of legal, regulatory, and operational experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to Windward Bio.

Most recently Mr. Applebaum was the Chief Legal and Business Officer of VectivBio, leading the successful sale to Ironwood Pharmaceuticals for $1.2B. Previously he was the Chief Legal & Compliance Officer and Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Trevena, where he played a key role in gaining FDA approval for their first commercial product️. Before that he served as President of Context Therapeutics and was General Counsel at Vitae Pharmaceuticals, where he was instrumental in their sale to Allergan. Formerly, he was Chief Legal Officer for Medgenics, a rare genetic disease company. Prior to that, Mr. Applebaum spent 10 years at Shire in multiple leadership roles, including leading their global legal group, launching their flagship ADHD product outside the US, and heading their global regulatory, quality assurance, and compliance groups. Previously, he was Senior Counsel for medicines and medical imaging at Bristol Myers Squibb. 

Prior to his career in the biopharmaceutical industry, Mr. Applebaum was a lawyer at Dechert LLP. He received his JD from Stanford Law School and a BS in economics, finance and accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.