Ralph Lin
PhD

Ralph brings more than 20 years of biopharma dealmaking, having led or co-led transactions representing over $20 billion in total value across M&A, platform licensing, and global alliances. Most recently he served as Vice President of Business Development at Avidity Biosciences, where he led the business development and alliance management team through Novartis's $12 billion acquisition of the company and secured a $2.2 billion multi-target cardiac collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb. Earlier, as VP of Corporate Development and New Product Planning at Arena Pharmaceuticals, he was part of the core deal team behind Pfizer's $6.7 billion acquisition of Arena and the $1.2 billion ralinepag license with United Therapeutics, and he originated and negotiated Arena's Greater China partnership with Everest Medicines. His earlier operating roles span Ignyta (acquired by Roche), HUYA Bioscience, SNBL, Biogen Idec, and ICOS (acquired by Eli Lilly), giving him deal experience from research-stage platforms through approved products.
 

Beyond biopharma transactions, Ralph has also run development teams directly — including leading a program from lead selection through IND and first-in-human studies at Ignyta and created and led a New Product Planning team at Arena Pharmaceuticals.  

Ralph also advises early-stage companies, includng Tipping Point Biosciences, a UCSF spin-off, and AimedBio, a Samsung Medical Center spin-off. Ralph holds a PhD in Biology from MIT and a BS in Biology with Honors from Caltech. 
 

He is also an active mentor in the San Diego community with San Diego Squared, mentoring high school seniors and college-level students in STEM fields.