Synopsis:

Mike Cloonan is the President and CEO of Sionna Therapeutics, a life sciences company dedicated to developing therapies for people living with cystic fibrosis. They are developing first-in-class small molecules that are focused on a unique target with the potential to fully normalize CFTR function for the first time for the vast majority of people living with CF. Mike has over 20 years of experience in biotech and healthcare, 14 of which were spent working at Biogen where he was focused on the business and commercial side of the company. In this episode, he provides his perspective on the right time for a company to build out a commercial team and hire a commercial leader, his learnings stepping into a CEO role for the first time, and the current landscape of cystic fibrosis and what drew him to work on such an important patient population.

Biography:

Mike is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sionna. He is a respected biotech leader with over 20 years of biopharma experience across global organizations. Most recently he served as Chief Operating Officer at Sage Therapeutics leading all the business functions (commercial, medical affairs, government affairs, business development, technical operations, strategy and program management) and G&A functions. During his four years with Sage, he helped lead the growth of the organization through multiple capital raises, the launch of the company’s first product, and execution of a transformational, multi-billion dollar collaboration.

Prior to Sage, he had a 14-year tenure at Biogen in various business and commercial roles. His most recent role at Biogen was as Senior Vice President, U.S. Commercial, where he was the general manager of the multi-billion dollar MS, hemophilia, and SMA franchises. Prior to Biogen, Mike worked at Bain & Company as a consultant specializing in healthcare. Mike earned his MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and a B.A. from College of the Holy Cross.