Rockstar Breakfast

About the Rockstars

Dr. Sarah Gheuens joined Agios in December 2019, became chief medical officer in September 2021 and took on the additional role of head of R&D in August 2022. She previously served as Agios’ head of clinical development for the genetically defined disease programs, as well as the interim head of regulatory affairs. She has been instrumental in completing the pivotal Phase 3 program for pyruvate kinase deficiency and leading simultaneous regulatory submissions to the FDA and EMA in this indication, as well as designing the pivotal programs for thalassemia, sickle cell disease and the pediatric indications. Prior to joining Agios, Dr. Gheuens worked at Biogen, where she held roles of increasing responsibility in safety, medical affairs and clinical development. Her work was critical for the approval of SPINRAZA®. Before joining Biogen, Dr. Gheuens worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), taking care of patients with HIV and neurological complications and doing research on progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. She serves on the Board of Directors for Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Gheuens received her medical degree from the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Belgium, and completed her neurology residency at the University Hospital of the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, followed by an HIV/neurology fellowship at BIDMC, Boston, Mass., USA. She also holds a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and a Master’s in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School.

Punit Marathe is currently working as a Vice President, Research, DMPK, Pharmacology and Toxicology at Agios Pharmaceuticals. She joined University of Washington, Department of Pharmaceutics as an affiliate professor in 2020. Punit spent a year as an Executive Director in Syngene International, responsible for building integrated drug discovery capabilities in the US and India. A large part of her career, she was at Bristol-Myers Squibb, most recently as the head of Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics Department. Dr. Marathe has extensive experience in multiple areas of drug discovery, lead optimization, preclinical and clinical studies leading to product registration and life-cycle management. Punit’s span of responsibilities has included characterizing ADME profile of lead candidates, establishing PK-PD relationships in animal disease models; projecting human pharmacokinetic profile and efficacious doses, guiding selection of doses for FIH studies, characterizing human ADME profile and understanding drug-drug interactions liabilities. Dr. Marathe has published over 100 publications and has presented at multiple national and international conferences.