Boston, Massachusetts, United States, August 2026 — Ira Male has joined Beren Therapeutics as Senior Director, Portfolio Strategy & Business Development, bringing experience across biotechnology strategy, business development, life sciences investing, portfolio evaluation, and developmental neuroscience.
In the new role, Ira will contribute to portfolio strategy and business development as Beren Therapeutics advances its clinical-stage pipeline of derivatized cyclodextrin-based therapeutics for diseases associated with impaired intracellular cholesterol trafficking, including Niemann-Pick disease type C and other neurodegenerative conditions.
Alongside the new position, Ira serves as an Advisory Board Member at Ventures Accelerated Life Science, contributing to the organisation’s life sciences ecosystem in Stockholm, Sweden.
Before joining Beren Therapeutics, Ira spent approximately four years in Business Development & Strategy at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The role involved sourcing and evaluating external business development opportunities through scientific assessment, commercial analysis, due diligence, market evaluation, financial modelling, and valuation.
At Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Ira also developed enterprise- and programme-level analyses to identify and prioritise portfolio innovation gaps. These findings were regularly presented to the company’s Business Development Steering Committee, comprising senior executive, scientific, research, finance, transaction, and alliance-management leaders.
Ira contributed to the evaluation of several significant transactions, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ acquisition of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, its acquisition of Alpine Immune Sciences, and an asset-purchase transaction involving Septerna. Ira also received a Recognition Award for exceptional contributions to Vertex’s success, an honour awarded to fewer than one per cent of employees.
Prior to Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Ira worked as an Associate at RA Capital Management, contributing to more than $100 million in investment decisions spanning company creation, seed financing, Series A investments, crossover and initial public offering opportunities, and public markets. This work covered the end-to-end investment process across emerging and established life sciences companies.
Ira earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Developmental Neuroscience and Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The doctoral dissertation examined how Hedgehog signalling regulates neurogenesis in the larval and adult zebrafish hypothalamus.
During the doctoral programme, Ira was selected as an Embryology Research Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory, joining a cohort of 24 participants chosen from a global applicant pool. The fellowship included training in advanced embryology and microscopy techniques and the design and execution of independent research experiments.
About Beren Therapeutics
Beren Therapeutics P.B.C. is a fully integrated, clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on diseases characterised by impaired intracellular cholesterol trafficking.
The company develops derivatized cyclodextrin-based therapeutics for conditions including Niemann-Pick disease type C and other neurodegenerative diseases. Its work integrates research, clinical development, manufacturing, access, and commercial expertise to pursue treatments addressing the underlying causes of disease while collaborating with patients and partners across the healthcare ecosystem.
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