Vincerx Pharma: Finding Strength In Symbiosis

By Ben Comer, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader

Biotech is not a business for the faint of heart, the easily discouraged, or the overly sensitive, facts to which Vincerx CEO and Board Chairman Ahmed Hamdy, MD, and COO and President Raquel Izumi, Ph.D., can readily attest. “Steel sharpens steel,” as Izumi says, and the professional relationship forged between Hamdy and Izumi is the product of working together in high-pressure environments. Vincerx Pharma, founded in 2019 by Hamdy, Izumi, and Scientific Advisory Board Member John Byrd, MD, is the fifth company where Hamdy and Izumi have both worked, and the third they’ve cofounded together. “We’re stronger together than we are alone,” says Hamdy.