John McDonald is an Operating Partner, Business Development and M&A, based in the Boston office, where he supports both the Ventures and Growth Groups.
John brings over two decades of experience leading business development and M&A across some of the industry's most prominent biopharmaceutical organizations.
Most recently, John served as Corporate Vice President, Global Business Development at Novo Nordisk. Prior to that, he was Vice President, Business Development at Biogen, where he led or participated in a number of landmark transactions, including Biogen's $1 billion upfront drug discovery collaboration with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, partnerships with Mitsubishi Tanabe, Sangamo BioSciences, and Portola Pharmaceuticals, a product partnering agreement with UCB in China, and the acquisition of Stromedix.
Earlier in his career, John was a Managing Director at MPM Capital, one of the world's leading science-dedicated venture capital firms, focusing on company formation and portfolio company business development. As Vice President of Business Development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, he structured key transactions including the ex-U.S. collaboration with Ortho Biotech/Johnson & Johnson for VELCADE and the sale of Millennium's interest in its CAMPATH joint venture. John began his biopharma career at Genentech and Genzyme, where he participated in transactions including alliances for RITUXAN, RAPTIVA, and ALDURAZYME. John is also a co-founder of Solasia Pharma KK, a publicly traded oncology-focused company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
John holds a J.D. from UC Hastings College of Law, and an M.B.A. and B.S. from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
