Dr. Zhi Hong

Zhi Hong, Ph.D: Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Zhi Hong, Ph.D., is Co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to starting Brii Bio, Dr. Hong was Senior Vice President and Head of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) Infectious Diseases Therapy Area Unit. He was widely credited as the key architect of GSK's comeback and success in HIV & Infectious Diseases medicine discovery and development. Under his leadership, ViiV Healthcare’s (a joint venture between GSK, Pfizer, and Shionogi) HIV business was revitalized with the approval of Tivicay & Triumeq. Dr. Hong was the champion of GSK's effort in long-acting HIV treatment & prevention therapies. He also built GSK's efforts to cure HBV and HIV infections. GSK now has one of the most innovative pipelines against infectious diseases.
Dr. Hong is a public health advocate who has helped establish multiple public-private partnerships with the U.S./E.U. governments (DTRA, BARDA, NIH & IMI) and philanthropic organizations (Gates Foundation & Wellcome Trust). In the last two years, he helped to create GSK's Institute for Infectious Diseases and Public Health in Beijing, China. Dr. Hong started Ardea Biosciences (later acquired by AstraZeneca). He also held leadership positions at Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough Research Institute (now Merck). Dr. Hong has more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development and has brought more than 30 compounds into development, including many that have been approved and launched. He has served as a board member of Anacor Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer) and ViiV Healthcare, and also chaired the board of Qura Therapeutics.