Soley Therapeutics Appoints Berthil Clasen, PhD, MBA, as Chief Business Officer

Former Eli Lilly business development executive joins to lead partnerships and corporate strategy as Soley Therapeutics advances its lead oncology programs toward the clinic

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Soley Therapeutics (“Soley”), a science-first, tech-enabled drug discovery and development company using cellular sensing to discover first-in-class medicines, today announced the appointment of Berthil Clasen, PhD, MBA, as Chief Business Officer (CBO). Dr. Clasen brings more than 20 years of life sciences experience, including 10 years at Eli Lilly, where he most recently served as Vice President of Business Development, Head of AI and Emerging Therapeutic Areas. In the CBO role, he will lead corporate strategy, business development, and strategic partnerships as Soley advances its lead oncology programs toward clinical entry and continues to build a first-in-class therapeutic pipeline across oncology, neurodegeneration, metabolic disorders, and other complex diseases.

“Berthil brings the combination of strategic judgment, transaction experience, and scientific depth that Soley needs as we enter our next phase of growth,” said Yerem Yeghiazarians, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Soley Therapeutics. “Soley was built on a different starting point for drug discovery: observing how cells sense stress, respond to perturbation, and move along trajectories toward survival, recovery, or death. As our internally discovered programs advance toward the clinic and our platform continues to generate new opportunities across complex diseases, Berthil’s experience building partnerships around emerging science and high-value platforms will be important to expanding the impact of our work.”

“Soley has built something genuinely rare: a platform that translates novel biological insights into a growing portfolio of first-in-class drug candidates across multiple disease areas, supercharged by cutting-edge AI and automation,” said Dr. Clasen. “Soley is poised to create transformative value for patients and partners alike with programs advancing toward the clinic, a differentiated drug discovery platform, and clear opportunities for partnership. I look forward to working with the talented Soley team and forging strategic relationships that will accelerate Soley’s mission.”

During his tenure at Lilly, Dr. Clasen held senior roles across business development, and R&D/corporate strategy contributing to portfolio and pipeline decision-making at the executive and board levels. He has structured, negotiated, and closed more than 30 transactions across M&A, licensing, collaborations, asset acquisitions, divestitures, and other strategic deal types, representing more than $7.5 billion in upfront payments and more than $20 billion in total deal value. His experience spans oncology, cardiometabolic disease and weight management, neuroscience, immunology, infectious disease, aesthetics, AI, and emerging therapeutic areas.

About Soley Therapeutics

Soley Therapeutics is a science-first, tech-enabled drug discovery and development company using cells as the world’s most powerful sensors to uncover first-in-class medicines. Soley’s platform translates the cellular information of stress biology into mechanistic insight, revealing novel drug candidates that otherwise would be missed. Soley deploys full-stack AI via its collaboration with Oracle, including Oracle Cloud Infrastructure AI infrastructure and NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. By combining foundational biology, proprietary imaging, first-in-class automation, and integrated AI tools, Soley has rapidly built a pipeline that spans oncology, neurodegenerative disorders, metabolic diseases, and other areas. Soley is headquartered in South San Francisco. For more information, visit www.soleytherapeutics.com.