Dan Adams
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, NextWaveBio
He was Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of NextWaveBio, a company founded in 2018 to develop the next generation of safer, more affordable medicines. Prior thereto he was CEO and then Executive Chairman and Global Head of Business Development of Protein Sciences Corporation, a leader in developing and manufacturing vaccines using its proprietary baculovirus expression vector system (BEST), an ideal platform for quickly, safely and accurately manufacturing vaccines. Dan became CEO in 1996 of the then failed company. He recruited a top management team that progressed two vaccines through late-stage clinical trials and secured US FDA licensure of its lead vaccine, Flublok®, the first recombinant influenza vaccine, that also became licensed in Mexico and Brazil. Dan developed partners for Flublok in Central and South America, Japan and the Middle East that significantly broadened the market for Flublok. The Company also utilized its BEST technology to develop early candidate vaccines for coronaviruses SARS and MERS, EBOLA and H1N1 influenza. The Company had a value of less than $2 million when Dan took it over, and in 2017 it was acquired by Sanofi Pasteur for $750 million.
Dan is one of the founders of the biotechnology industry. He founded and was CEO of several biotechnology companies that achieved a combined value of in excess of $70 billion including Biogen, co-founded in 1977, Advanced Genetic Sciences in 1982, the first agriculture biotechnology company (Biogen and AGS were taken public in the 1980s), Plant Genetic Systems in 1983, the first European agricultural biotechnology company - managing director and chairman of the management committee (PGS was acquired by Agrivo for $750 million) and Allerx Inc. in 1989 - now a boutique company.
In 1975, Dan founded and served as CEO of a venture capital fund. He made the first outside equity investment in Genentech and helped build the company in its initial stages and the founding investment in Biogen. Under his management, the fund grew at a compound annual rate of over 200% per year. From 1965 to 1971, he was with the New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. He also was a company commander with the U.S. Army serving in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era.
During the 1970s, Dan was an owner of Capital International Airways, a passenger/charter airline that flew from the United States to international destinations. He introduced innovative pricing for standby passengers that was widely adopted in the industry.
During the 1970s, he also was an advisor to the Swedish government. Dan recommended that development efforts focus on biotechnology and robotics because of their "fit" with the culture. Sweden subsequently became a leader in both fields.
Dan earned a BA in Chemistry from Cornell University and a JD degree magna cum laude from New York University School of Law where he was an Executive Editor of the Law Review. He also studied at the University of Concepcion, Chile and has taught seminars on entrepreneurship at the Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth business schools.
He is a Commissioner of Tweed New Haven Airport; Chairman and a director of EpiVax Therapeutics; a director of Moterun Technologies; a director and former member of the Executive Committee and Chairman, Medical University of South Carolina, FRD. He is a former director of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDVN) (acqired by Pfizer for $14 billion), Chairman, Immune Targeting Systems Ltd. (London, U.K), a member of the Dean’s Council, Yale University School of Medicine; Connecticut United for Research Excellence; and of Young Presidents' Organization Healthcare Forum; Co-Chairman, Parents' Association and Major Gifts, Swarthmore College; Co-Chairman, Yale University Parents Fund; Co-Chairman, Major Gifts, Phillips Academy, Andover; Co-Chairman, Parents Fund, Phillips Academy, Exeter; Chairman of the Education Commission, Brunswick School; Trustee and Chair of the Planning Committee, Greenwich Hospital; Presidents' Forum Chairman and Director, Young Presidents' Organization; President (mayor), Rock Ridge Association (Greenwich, CT); President, Mountain Reach Association; and for sixteen years head coach of a youth soccer team.
Dan lives in East Haven, Connecticut and has three children who are young adults.