Mark Pruzanski, MD

Mark Pruzanski is a physician and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in the life sciences.

Most recently he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Versanis Bio where he spearheaded the development of novel therapies for obesity and other cardiometabolic diseases until the company’s acquisition in 2023 by Eli Lilly and Company.

Prior to joining Versanis, he founded and was the longstanding Chief Executive Officer of Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT). At Intercept, he pioneered a novel regulatory and development strategy in chronic nonviral liver diseases that resulted in the successful global commercialization of the first-in-class FXR agonist obeticholic acid for the treatment of Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC), marketed in more than 40 countries under the brand name OCALIVA™.

Mark is currently a member of the Board of Directors of several biotechnology companies, the Emerging Company Section of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Mark received his M.D. from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, a M.A. degree in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C., and a B.A. degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.