Joel Barrish, Ph.D., is a Venture Partner at RA Capital focusing on new company creation in addition to his role at Avilar Therapeutics. Prior to his current roles, Joel was co-founder, President & CSO at Jnana Therapeutics and EVP & CSO at Achillion Pharmaceuticals, where he led research efforts on Factor D inhibitors leading to the discovery of vemircopan in hematology and nephrology. Most of Joel’s career was spent as a medicinal chemist in pharma, primarily at BMS where he was VP & Global Head of Discovery Chemistry. During his time there, Joel led teams responsible for advancing more than 50 compounds into clinical development including SPRYCEL® (dasatinib) in CML which he co-invented, as well as SOTYKTU® (deucravacitinib) for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Joel was also instrumental in developing the dual-acting endothelin angiotensin receptor antagonist (DARA) concept which resulted in FILSPARI® (sparsentan) for the treatment of IgA Nephropathy. He is a co-author on over 140 publications and co-inventor on 40 issued U.S. patents.
