Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Dan Doctoroff, Visionary New York-Based Leader and Former Deputy Mayor, Recognized for Impactful Approach to Targeting ALS NEW YORK, March 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Harvard Kennedy School will premiere the newly published case study Dan Doctoroff and the Power of Collaboration – Target ALS Accelerates the Race Against a Deadly Disease. This case study, developed for graduate and executive education at both the Kennedy and Business Schools at Harvard, examines how strategic leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and innovative funding models can drive transformative progress in medical research. Professor Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Sector Management at Harvard Kennedy School, will lead an interactive discussion on leadership in cross-boundary collaborations. The discussion will feature insights from Dan Doctoroff, Founder of Target ALS, and Manish Raisinghani, CEO of Target ALS, as they explore the organization's groundbreaking approach to accelerating ALS research. The case study is written by Pamela Varley, Senior Case Writer, in collaboration with Linda J. Bilmes, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a former Harvard classmate of Dan Doctoroff. At the heart of the case study is Dan Doctoroff's visionary leadership, which has reshaped ALS research by fostering radical collaboration between academia and industry, ensuring open access to critical resources, and accelerating breakthroughs. "After losing my father and uncle to ALS, I saw firsthand the devastating impact of the disease—and the urgent need for a new approach to research," said Dan Doctoroff, who was diagnosed with ALS himself in 2021. "Over the past 12 years, we have fundamentally changed how ALS research is conducted, accelerating breakthroughs and uniting academia and industry in ways never seen before. The Harvard Kennedy School case study captures the urgency, collaboration, and strategic thinking that have driven Target ALS. This is a blueprint not just for ALS, but for solving any seemingly intractable problem." Since its founding, Target ALS has revolutionized the ALS research landscape, pioneering the Innovation Ecosystem—a first-of-its-kind model that dismantles traditional barriers, ensures open access to critical research tools, and brings together scientists, drug developers, and investors in an unprecedented way. "Dan's visionary leadership has not only transformed the fight against ALS but has also redefined how ALS research is funded, enabled, and conducted," said Manish Raisinghani. "From day one, Target ALS has been built to break down silos and accelerate progress through collaboration. The Harvard Kennedy School case study highlights not only Dan's impact but also the urgent, deliberate, and radical thinking that define Target ALS. His leadership has set a new standard for philanthropists tackling complex issues." Professor Bilmes commented, "Since my days as his classmate, I have long admired Dan's ability to tackle complex challenges with bold, strategic thinking. His leadership at Target ALS exemplifies how vision, collaboration, and urgency can drive real change. This case study not only tells the story of Target ALS, but offers a model for anyone looking to break down barriers and accelerate progress in healthcare and beyond." The case study is now available via the Harvard Kennedy School case programs and will serve as a resource for students, executives, and leaders across multiple industries seeking to drive innovation through collaboration. For more details, visit . About Target ALS Target ALS is a medical research foundation breaking down barriers to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research to find effective treatments. Since 2013, Target ALS has revolutionized ALS research through its Innovation Ecosystem. By democratizing research through an unbiased review process, providing access to cutting-edge research tools, facilitating cross-disciplinary collaboration, and galvanizing industry involvement, Target ALS accelerates the most promising ideas in scientific research into drug development programs. Driven by impatient optimism, deliberate disruption, and radical collaboration, Target ALS aims to transform ALS into a manageable disease, building a world where Everyone Lives. For media inquiries, please contact: Stephanie Ishoo Manager, Research Communications and Marketing, Target ALS [email protected] SOURCE Target ALS WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

New Board Members Add Operational and Product Development Expertise as KeifeRx Advances Pipeline of Novel Kinase Inhibitors for Multiple Disease Indications WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- KeifeRx, an emerging clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the discovery and development of new treatment options for neurodegenerative and immune diseases, announces the appointments of Dan Feehan and Alison Finger to its Board of Directors. Mr. Feehan and Ms. Finger’s diverse expertise and experience enhance KeifeRx’s ability to develop its expanding pipeline of novel kinase inhibitors for the treatment of neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory, and mast cell-associated diseases. KeifeRx is currently conducting optimizing and IND-enabling studies involving four separate formulations – KFRX03, KFRX04, KFRX05, and KFRX06 – with patent life through 2037. Early-stage clinical trials conducted at Georgetown University, along with compelling preclinical research conducted at the university led by KeifeRx’s co-founder, Charbel Moussa, MBBS, Ph.D., and colleagues, demonstrated the ability of kinase inhibitors to penetrate the brain, induce autophagy, and enable the bulk disposal of disease-causing toxic proteins to treat neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the ability to target mast cells and simultaneously modulate peripheral and central immunity, providing therapeutic potential for an array of immune diseases. “On behalf of KeifeRx, I welcome Dan and Alison to our board of directors and look forward to their contributions as we advance our pipeline of new chemical entity kinase inhibitors across a range of significantly unmet and underserved indications, including Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body Dementia, ALS, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and urticaria,” said Chris Hoyt, Chief Executive Officer of KeifeRx. “With our recently expanded licensing agreement with Georgetown University, we are optimally positioned to advance a portfolio of high-value, patent-protected drug products targeting disease classes, including neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory, where innovation is desperately needed, and market demand is robust.” Mr. Feehan, who is currently the Chief Operating Officer, Workforce Screening at Vault Health, served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in charge of Readiness for the Department of Defense. As a Captain in the U.S. Army, he served two combat deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom as an Engineer and a Scout/Sniper Platoon Leader. Feehan was also a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, worked as a middle school teacher through Teach for America, and was a White House Fellow under President Obama. Mr. Feehan earned his master’s in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School and his B.A. in Science of Foreign Policy from Georgetown University. Ms. Finger, the Principal at Auburn House Consulting, LLC, serves on the Board of ADMA Biologics, Inc. and is an Advisor at Quantile Health. She previously held Board positions at Decibel Therapeutics, Vascular Biogenics and served as Chief Commercial Officer at Bluebird Bio. Ms. Finger also spent over two decades at Bristol-Myers Squibb serving as Vice President of Global Commercialization for Virology, Hematology and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Neuroscience programs in addition to her role as Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand. Ms. Finger earned her MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a B.A. in English from St. Lawrence University. About KeifeRx KeifeRx is an emerging clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a portfolio of novel and optimized, low-dose, orally-delivered kinase inhibitors for the treatment of multiple, high-need neurodegenerative and immune diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Lewy Body Dementia. KeifeRx’s diverse pipeline of early- and late-stage products leverages mechanisms of action inherent to kinase inhibitors which thus far have been underexplored. This includes the ability to penetrate the brain, induce autophagy, and enable the bulk disposal of disease-causing toxic proteins to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Georgetown University owns several issued patents and pending patent applications on the underlying technology related to the use of kinase inhibitors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases with KeifeRx co-founder Charbel Moussa, MBBS, Ph.D., named as one of three inventors. KeifeRx has an exclusive license to intellectual property from Georgetown University. For more information on KeifeRx, please visit . View source version on businesswire.com: Contacts Chris Hoyt, CEO c.hoyt@keiferx.com Source: KeifeRx View this news release online at:

Pictured: Stacks of dollar bills/iStock, mirza kad mirza kadic/Getty Images/iStockphoto The Inflation Reduction Act’s Drug Price Negotiation Program will erode only a small portion of global biopharma revenues and is unlikely to cause significant cuts to research and development, find researchers. Pictured: Stacks of dollar bills/iStock, mirza kadic The Inflation Reduction Act’s Drug Price Negotiation Program does not pose a substantial threat to the industry’s top-selling assets, nor will it disincentivize funding for research and development, according to new research published Wednesday in the journal Nature Biotechnology . The paper—penned by researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School, Weill Cornell Medical College and Questrom School of Business at Boston University—makes the case that Medicare drug price negotiations will only have a “modest” effect on industry revenues, and that it “will not likely result in large-scale defunding of research and development.” To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers took a retrospective approach looking at 74 drugs across 31 companies and what their negotiated prices in 2022 would have been if the program had taken effect in 2012. Their analysis showed that negotiations overall would have affected $43.2 billion of 2022 revenues, representing 6% of the $742 billion cumulative global revenues of the 31 companies. Relative to the entire industry, sales affected by the negotiations comprised just 4% of the total global revenue. “The range of 2022 revenue reductions we calculated is of the same order of magnitude as annual sales at risk of being lost due to new patent expirations,” the researchers wrote. When it comes to the IRA’s potential impact on R&D investment, the authors argued that a dip in revenue does not necessarily and proportionally translate to lower support for research. “[M]arginal changes in revenue for individual companies are not necessarily proportional to marginal changes in R&D,” they noted, pointing out that biopharma’s windfall during COVID-19 was not entirely pumped back into R&D. Instead, the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program might warp companies’ pipelines, incentivizing the development of therapies that are unlikely to be eligible for negotiations. “Changes in the net present value of drug-development projects will be concentrated in medicines where Medicare is a notable purchaser and where the ratio between expected revenue and development costs was only marginally positive before the IRA,” according to the researchers, who advised that “policymakers considering narrowing or expanding the scope of Medicare negotiation should carefully consider the tradeoffs across medicines with diverse characteristics.” Still, the authors find little to worry about as many companies regularly skip or stop development projects due to “bandwidth concerns or other frictions.” In these cases, the IRA will not necessarily increase the number of shelved projects but instead could open resources for a candidate that would otherwise not have entered development. “The net effect of the IRA is the sum of the lost innovation and the gained innovation,” the authors concluded. Wednesday’s study comes as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is expected to submit by Feb. 1 its opening proposals for maximum fair prices for each of the 10 drugs selected for the first rounds of negotiations. Analysts expect CMS to seek steep discounts on these drugs, which their manufacturers are likely to push back on. Negotiations will run through the spring and summer of 2024, with the final prices to be published by Sept. 1. The new pricing will take effect in 2026. Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Reach out to him on LinkedIn or email him at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com .