Domain Associates, LLC

Founded in 1985, Domain was one of the first venture capital firms to exclusively invest in the life sciences sector. Domain has been involved in the formation of more than 260 companies. Today, with more than $2.8 billion in capital raised, Domain is a proven healthcare venture capital leader with solid investment returns from companies built to advance human health.

Domain’s Philosophy of Trust & Respect

Domain is dedicated to creating trust, credibility, and value in our business relationships and to establishing long-term partnerships with our entrepreneurs, investors, and industry collaborators. We have a history of retaining investors across multiple funds and attracting successful entrepreneurs to build companies with Domain. We approach healthcare venture capital from a service standpoint, demonstrating reliability and performance that earns and justifies trust.

Investment Strategy

Domain’s primary investment areas are pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and medical devices. We also evaluate and opportunistically invest in evolving sectors of the life sciences industry and technologies addressing specific healthcare issues.

Domain’s History

From our first investments nearly three decades ago, Domain has consistently led the industry by developing new investment models and bringing state-of-the-art technologies and products to market.

Team

Domain is comprised exclusively of healthcare specialists who have operated in a variety of roles spanning the breadth of the healthcare industry. From basic research to clinical practice, running small companies to large multinational businesses, the diverse experience of the Domain team brings a comprehensive perspective to every issue we solve.

Jim Blair, Ph.D., Partner

Jim has been a partner of Domain since its inception in 1985. Jim has more than 45 years of experience with venture and emerging growth companies.

In the course of his experience, he has been involved in the creation and successful development at the board level of more than 40 life sciences ventures, including Amgen, Aurora Biosciences, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Applied Biosystems, Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Dura Pharmaceuticals, NuVasive, Pharmion and Volcano. Present board memberships include InflammX Therapeutics and Ocunexus Therapeutics.

Prior to Domain, Jim was a former managing director of Rothschild Inc., where he was directly involved at a senior level with Rothschild/New Court venture capital activities. Previous to that, he was associated with F.S. Smithers and Co. and White, Weld and Co., two investment banking firms actively involved with new ventures and emerging growth companies. Jim was an engineering manager with RCA Corporation, during which time he received the David Sarnoff Fellowship. He received his BSE from Princeton University and his MSE and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jim currently serves as Board Chairman of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. He previously served on the advisory boards of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation and the Caltech Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

Brian Halak, Ph.D., Partner

Brian Halak, Ph.D. has been creating, investing into, and guiding early stage life science companies for 20 years.

As a part of Domain Associates since 2001, and a Partner since 2006, Brian has invested in over a dozen companies, several of which he helped create. He and partner Eckard Weber, licensed assets from a Japanese pharmaceutical company to create Tobira Therapeutics, which was eventually acquired by Allergan in 2016, for up to $1.7 billion. Brian also established and directed Domain’s prior initiatives in China including its collaboration with Beijing Elite to create new medical device companies in China based on technology licensed from US and European markets. One such company, Elite Neurovascular, was successfully sold to Terumo Corporation in 2017. Additionally, Brian joined with two scientific founders at Johns Hopkins University to create WindMIL Therapeutics, which was developing a novel cell therapy to treat a variety of cancers. Brian served as President and CEO of WindMIL from 2015 to early 2019, during which time he raised $43.5MM in two rounds of financing. Most recently, Brian formed Nobias Therapeutics alongside co-founders from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to develop drugs to treat rare pediatric disease. Other investments where Brian has served on the Board of Directors include: Esprit Pharma (acquired by Allergan), Dicerna Therapeutics (Nasdaq: DRNA), Alimera Sciences (Nasdaq: ALIM), and Vanda Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VNDA).

Prior to Domain, Brian was an associate with Advanced Technology Ventures where he participated in the firm’s investments in Plexxikon, Percardia and Emphasys. Previous to that, he was a consultant at the Wilkerson Group, where he developed strategy for pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Brian received his B.S.E. in bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in immunology from Thomas Jefferson University.

Brian is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the Department of Bioengineering of the University of Pennsylvania, and a director on the board of Life Sciences Pennsylvania. He also serves as an advisor to Elm Street Ventures, an early stage venture fund with close ties to Yale University, and Canyon Ventures, an early stage venture fund preparing to launch and affiliated with the University of Utah.

Kim Kamdar, Ph.D., Partner

Kim joined Domain in 2005 and became a partner in 2011. With a background in small molecule drug discovery, Kim has been involved in cutting-edge therapeutic start-ups and has been a major part of identifying companies with promising molecular and companion diagnostics to support personalized medicine.

Kim is co-founder and currently Chair of Seraphina Therapeutics and Truvian Sciences. Kim also serves on the boards of Evofem Biosciences, Sera Prognostics and Singular Genomics. She also helped to create and was formerly a board member of Adastra Pharmaceuticals and Syndax Pharmaceuticals. Kim was involved with Ariosa Diagnostics until the company was sold to Roche in January 2015, Corthera until the company was sold to Novartis in February 2010 and BiPar Sciences until that company was sold to Sanofi in April 2009.

Prior to Domain, Kim was a Kauffman Fellow and a research director at Novartis, where she built and led a research team that focused on the biology, genetics and genomics of model organisms to uncover small molecules that modulated signaling pathway networks. Kim is the author of ten papers as well as the inventor on seven patents. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in biochemistry and genetics from Emory University.

Kim serves as an advisory board member of Eric Topol’s NIH-supported Clinical and Translational Science Award for Scripps Medicine. She is also a board member of San Diego's CONNECT Foundation.

Dennis Podlesak, Advisory Partner

Dennis joined Domain as a partner in 2007 and became an advisory partner in January 2020. Since joining the Domain team has served as an active investor, a company founder and as the chief executive officer or executive chairman for a number of portfolio investments, resulting in multiple successful exits, initial public offerings, and new drug approvals to address unmet medical needs.

Most recently, Dennis led the growth and sale of Tobira Therapeutics to Allergan in November 2016. He previously served on the board of Avanir Pharmaceuticals through its acquisition by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals in January 2015, and was a founding board member of RightCare Solutions through its acquisition by Cardinal Health in December 2015.

Currently, Dennis is the chairman of the board at Syndax Pharmaceuticals and a board member of Exalys Therapeutics.

Earlier in his tenure with Domain, Dennis served as the chief executive officer of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals and, after building the company, led its sale to Johnson & Johnson. In his next role, Dennis was a founder and the chief executive officer of Cerexa and led its sale to Forest Laboratories. Dennis was also a founder and the chief executive officer of Calixa Therapeutics and successfully led the growth and subsequent sale of Calixa to Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Dennis also served as executive chairman of Corthera and after repositioning the company into the cardiovascular space, led the sale of Corthera to Novartis AG.

Prior to Domain, Dennis served as head of the North American Business Unit for Novartis AG and as a member of Novartis' Pharmaceutical Executive Committee and Global Leadership Team. Earlier in his career, Dennis served as vice president and head of the CEC division of Allergan, and as member of Allergan's Global and North American Management Teams. Dennis spent the first ten years of his career with SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). Dennis received a B.A. from Western Illinois University and an MBA from Pepperdine University, and has completed post-graduate studies at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Address: 103 Carnegie Ctr Ste 300 Princeton, NJ, 08540-6235 United States