Robert Sikorski, M.D., Ph.D., is a biotechnology executive and drug developer with broad experience across oncology, rare diseases, and inflammatory disorders, and particular expertise in biomarker-driven clinical development from first-in-human studies through registration. He is Managing Director of Woodside Way Ventures, where he works with companies and investors on clinical diligence, portfolio strategy, drug development, and financing. Over the course of his consulting career, he has advised dozens of biotechnology companies. He also serves as fractional Chief Medical Officer for select emerging companies, taking hands-on responsibility for clinical strategy, development planning, regulatory interactions, and trial execution. He has founded several companies, including Attovia Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ATTO), which focuses on inflammatory diseases.
Previously, he served as Chief Medical Officer of FivePrime Therapeutics, where he led the company’s biologics portfolio from preclinical discovery and translational work through proof of concept and pivotal registration trials. He directed the clinical program for bemarituzumab, a first-in-class anti-FGFR2b antibody for FGFR2b-selected gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers, from Phase 1 through late-stage trials, including a circulating tumor DNA-based diagnostic strategy. Bemarituzumab became a key driver of Amgen’s approximately $1.9 billion acquisition of the company. During his tenure, FivePrime grew from a market capitalization of approximately $150 million to that acquisition.
Before FivePrime, Dr. Sikorski led early-stage clinical development at MedImmune and AstraZeneca, where his group advanced six novel molecules into clinical trials and he worked across a portfolio spanning oncology, immunology, and rare disease. Among the medicines he contributed to were durvalumab, inebilizumab, tremelimumab, and moxetumomab pasudotox, each of which subsequently received regulatory approval. His responsibilities included first-in-human studies, translational medicine, and proof-of-concept trials. He also played a central role in building MedImmune’s oncology pipeline through partnering, licensing, and acquisitions, evaluating external science and helping turn promising candidates into clinical plans.
Earlier, at Amgen, he held leadership roles across late-stage clinical development and post-marketing programs for both investigational and commercial therapeutics, including Aranesp and Vectibix. His work on Vectibix contributed to its global regulatory development and approval and to one of oncology’s earliest genotype-based companion diagnostics, using tumor KRAS mutation status to identify patients most likely to benefit from treatment.
Dr. Sikorski began his career as a Howard Hughes Research Fellow and Visiting Scientist at the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine through the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and his fellowship in medical oncology at The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. He is a former contributing editor of Science and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Sikorski lives in Woodside, California, with his wife and four children.
