About
Phil joined Calico in 2025 as Head of Drug Discovery, a newly created role in which he oversees the direction, scientific execution, and operational management of the company’s drug discovery programs, from target identification through candidate selection.
Prior to joining Calico, Phil served as Vice President of Global Medicinal Chemistry at AbbVie. His expertise spans a broad range of therapeutic areas, including antiviral, oncology, immunology, neuroscience, anti-aging, pain, and metabolic diseases, resulting in the discovery of more than 25 clinical development candidates. Phil has a proven track record of advancing first-in-class therapies to patients, most notably leading the discovery of ABBV-951 (Vyalev ®; Produodopa ®), which led to the first continuous subcutaneous infusion therapy for advanced Parkinson’s Disease patients. His work has led to 65 US patents and over 100 peer-reviewed publications and presentations.
He is an active member of the scientific community, having served on the American Chemical Society MEDI Long Range Planning and MEDI Awards committees, the organizing committee for the National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, and was Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Natural Products and Bioactive Compounds.
Phil earned a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Goshen College, a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and completed an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin.