Partner, Pfizer Ventures
Executive Director, External Science & Innovation Worldwide R&D, Pfizer, Inc.

Michael Baran, MBA, PHD, is a Partner at Pfizer Ventures. Mike is responsible for identifying, evaluating, making and managing equity investments aligned with the future directions of Pfizer. He currently has responsibility for Pfizer’s investments in ImCheck Therapeutics,
Magnolia Neurosciences, ImmunOs Therapeutics, Accelerator Life Science Partners and Biodesy.

Prior to his current role, Mike served as Executive Director, Emerging Science & Innovation, Oncology and as Senior Director of Portfolio Strategy and was responsible for critically assessing the R&D portfolio from a volume, value, quality, risk and productivity perspective with the ultimate objective of maximizing R&D productivity and value generation.  Prior to that, Mike was Senior Director, Scientific Affairs for the R&D President’s Office where he was responsible for enabling and communicating the R&D strategic agenda as well as leading colleague development capabilities. Mike joined Pfizer in 2008 in the market access space providing strategic and analytical support around marketing and managed care contracting with commercial and government payers.  

Prior to 2008, Mike worked within the NIH Protein Structure Initiative’s Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium coordinating protein structure production efforts, including bioinformatics, protein expression/purification and 3D structure determination.  Mike is also a co-founder of Nexomics Biosciences, a NJ based biotechnology company focused on providing gene-2-structure services as well as early stage drug target validation.  He is actively involved in the local biotechnology community participating in eLabNYC, BioIdea, and Rutgers Tech Advance – all organizations aiming to connect entrepreneurs from the NY/NJ area with local scientific and business leaders.

Mike earned his Ph.D. from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School / Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in biochemistry where his research focused on structural biology and scientific software development. He holds a M.B.A. from Rutgers Business School with a focus in pharmaceutical management and received his B.S. in Biochemistry / Information Technology from Syracuse University.