Dr. Ray McKee focuses on issues confronting stakeholders at the interface of commercial, academic, and institutional research and development. With 30 years of experience as an executive and business development strategist in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries, he concentrates on identifying and optimizing pathways to advance meaningful projects and product candidates in bioscience and medicine toward commercialization.
In both large and small companies, Dr. McKee has held executive positions with various functional responsibilities including R&D, business and corporate development, and investor relations. In these roles he has shepherded both regulated and non-regulated products from research through market introduction and has led financing, investment and corporate development initiatives throughout his career. Capitalizing on his early exposure to the business of science as a research scientist and project manager at Abbott Laboratories, he has applied those early lessons to fostering better collaboration between scientific and business oriented groups. At Ventrex Laboratories he led the creation of one of the first health care sector R&D limited partnerships, and at Allied Instrumentation Laboratories he undertook building strategy, infrastructure and staff for a new diagnostics R&D organization. At Lifecodes Corporation, he led the creation of a product-based business in a heretofore research oriented enterprise by building a new operational unit that developed, manufactured and marketed the first DNA identity test kit, a key step in moving the disruptive technology into the mainstream of law enforcement.
For more than a decade, Ray oversaw strategic planning, business development and investor relations activities for Israeli biotherapeutics companies with an American presence or a desire to establish an American presence. Biologics ranging from engineered antibody fragments to armed, targeted fusion proteins were employed to target cell signaling pathways in cancer and immunological pathologies. One apoptosis-inducing fusion protein has demonstrated potential efficacy for treating various adenocarcinomas. A second candidate that ablates specific T cell subpopulations offers an immunomodulatory agent with potential applications to hematological cancers such as CTCL and to autoimmune dysfunctions involved in a range of indications, including graft vs. host disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and type 1 diabetes.
Dr. McKee completed a post-doctoral assignment at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Purdue University, and a B.A. in Chemistry from Susquehanna University.