Synopsis:
Nimbus Therapeutics CEO Abbas Kazimi walks Alok Tayi through the company’s evolving pipeline and playbook for choosing the right risks in a noisy biotech environment. From Werner helicase for MSI-high cancers to a highly selective SIK2 program and GLP-1–adjacent strategies focused on body composition, Abbas details how Nimbus balances rigor, speed, and capital efficiency.
He shares candid lessons from pausing and later resurrecting AMPK beta in partnership with Eli Lilly, the decision to remain modality-agnostic but small-molecule-centric, and the importance of knowing when not to chase the latest fad. Throughout, Abbas returns to a consistent theme: success at Nimbus comes from disciplined target selection, deep collaboration, and a culture that empowers teams to make hard calls in service of patients rather than headlines.
Biography:
Abbas Kazimi is the Chief Executive Officer of Nimbus Therapeutics. Previously, he served as Chief Business Officer, leading the company’s strategic and corporate development efforts while overseeing business operations. Since joining Nimbus in 2014, he has helped raise over $630 million in equity financing and led transactions totaling more than $8 billion.
Notably, Mr. Kazimi spearheaded the $6 billion sale of Nimbus’s TYK2 program to Takeda, the $1.2 billion sale of its NASH (ACC) program to Gilead, and multiple licensing deals exceeding $1.5 billion with partners such as Genentech, Celgene/Roche, and Eli Lilly. Under his leadership, Nimbus has advanced four programs into the clinic, returned over $4 billion to investors, and continues to expand its computational drug discovery and clinical development capabilities.
In 2025, Mr. Kazimi joined the board of Unnatural Products (UNP), a biotech company pioneering orally delivered macrocyclic peptides to tackle previously undruggable targets. He also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for In Vivo magazine, a leading publication offering strategic insights and analysis of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medtech, and consumer health industries. Along with his family, he established the Kazimi Family Endowment for Data Science in Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. This endowment reflects their personal commitment to philanthropy and their vision for revolutionizing cancer treatment through data-driven innovation.
At the core of Mr. Kazimi’s leadership is a deep sense of purpose—one that seeks to change the trajectory of medical diagnoses where options are limited. The ability to give patients, prescribers, and families a new outlook on life is a powerful responsibility—and one he knows the biopharmaceutical sector has the ability to fulfill.
Before Nimbus, he was at Extera Partners, LLC (formerly PureTech Development, LLC), where he provided strategic advisory, supported fundraising, and executed numerous business development transactions. Earlier in his career, he was with JSB-Partners, LP, a specialized investment banking and advisory firm serving biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
Mr. Kazimi holds a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. from Harvard University.
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Synopsis:
Nimbus Therapeutics CEO Abbas Kazimi walks Alok Tayi through the company’s evolving pipeline and playbook for choosing the right risks in a noisy biotech environment. From Werner helicase for MSI-high cancers to a highly selective SIK2 program and GLP-1–adjacent strategies focused on body composition, Abbas details how Nimbus balances rigor, speed, and capital efficiency.
He shares candid lessons from pausing and later resurrecting AMPK beta in partnership with Eli Lilly, the decision to remain modality-agnostic but small-molecule-centric, and the importance of knowing when not to chase the latest fad. Throughout, Abbas returns to a consistent theme: success at Nimbus comes from disciplined target selection, deep collaboration, and a culture that empowers teams to make hard calls in service of patients rather than headlines.
Biography:
Abbas Kazimi is the Chief Executive Officer of Nimbus Therapeutics. Previously, he served as Chief Business Officer, leading the company’s strategic and corporate development efforts while overseeing business operations. Since joining Nimbus in 2014, he has helped raise over $630 million in equity financing and led transactions totaling more than $8 billion.
Notably, Mr. Kazimi spearheaded the $6 billion sale of Nimbus’s TYK2 program to Takeda, the $1.2 billion sale of its NASH (ACC) program to Gilead, and multiple licensing deals exceeding $1.5 billion with partners such as Genentech, Celgene/Roche, and Eli Lilly. Under his leadership, Nimbus has advanced four programs into the clinic, returned over $4 billion to investors, and continues to expand its computational drug discovery and clinical development capabilities.
In 2025, Mr. Kazimi joined the board of Unnatural Products (UNP), a biotech company pioneering orally delivered macrocyclic peptides to tackle previously undruggable targets. He also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for In Vivo magazine, a leading publication offering strategic insights and analysis of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medtech, and consumer health industries. Along with his family, he established the Kazimi Family Endowment for Data Science in Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. This endowment reflects their personal commitment to philanthropy and their vision for revolutionizing cancer treatment through data-driven innovation.
At the core of Mr. Kazimi’s leadership is a deep sense of purpose—one that seeks to change the trajectory of medical diagnoses where options are limited. The ability to give patients, prescribers, and families a new outlook on life is a powerful responsibility—and one he knows the biopharmaceutical sector has the ability to fulfill.
Before Nimbus, he was at Extera Partners, LLC (formerly PureTech Development, LLC), where he provided strategic advisory, supported fundraising, and executed numerous business development transactions. Earlier in his career, he was with JSB-Partners, LP, a specialized investment banking and advisory firm serving biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
Mr. Kazimi holds a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. from Harvard University.
Foresite Capital’s Jim Tananbaum on Biotech Cycles, AI Breakthroughs & Long-Term Value
Biotech 2050 Podcast
23 minutes 17 seconds
3 weeks ago
Foresite Capital’s Jim Tananbaum on Biotech Cycles, AI Breakthroughs & Long-Term Value
Synopsis:
Jim Tananbaum, Founder & CEO of Foresite Capital, joins Rahul Chaturvedi to dissect the patterns driving biotech innovation, the role of macroeconomic cycles in venture performance, and how disciplined science fuels enduring investment success.
Drawing from three decades across entrepreneurship and venture leadership, Jim reflects on his path from co-founding drug discovery startups with Harvard collaborators to building one of the most respected investment firms in life sciences. He unpacks how interest rate environments shape fund vintages, why AI is emerging as the next transformative platform, and how investors can identify enduring opportunities amid volatility.
Their discussion spans valuation compression, AI-driven discovery, CNS and Alzheimer’s innovation, and the geopolitical forces influencing biotech globally. Jim’s perspective offers a masterclass in balancing scientific rigor with strategic foresight — and in positioning capital where breakthrough innovation meets sustainable impact.
“Lean into areas where there’s likely to be immense change,” Jim advises — a principle as relevant to biotech investing as it is to shaping the future of healthcare itself.
Biography:
Jim is the founder and CEO of Foresite Capital, a healthcare investment firm founded in 2011 that has approximately $3.5B in assets under management. Jim assembles the people, ideas, and money needed to launch products that save lives and improve healthcare.
During the last three decades, Jim has been a thought partner for some of the fastest-growing companies of their generation, including 10x Genomics (Nasdaq: TXG), Amerigroup (Nasdaq: ANTM), and Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JAZZ).
Jim’s entrepreneurial experience began at Harvard Business School when he co-founded GelTex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:GENZ). With less than $80M in funding, GelTex brought two drugs to market, and the company was acquired in 1999 for $1.4B. Jim was also the founding chief executive of Theravance, Inc. Under his tenure, he raised over $350M. Theravance has since split into two parts, one of which is now part of GSK’s respiratory franchise through a joint venture, Innoviva (Nasdaq: INVA), and the other was spun out into Theravance Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: TBPH). Together, they achieved a market capitalization that exceeded $4B.
Jim’s investment experience includes co-founding Prospect Ventures and, earlier in his career, being a partner of Sierra Ventures, where he established its healthcare services investment practice.
Jim graduated from Yale with a BS and BSEE in Applied Math and Electrical Engineering/Computer Science. He then earned an MD from Harvard, graduating from the Harvard/MIT HST Program. He also earned an MBA from Harvard while playing rugby.
Biotech 2050 Podcast
Synopsis:
Nimbus Therapeutics CEO Abbas Kazimi walks Alok Tayi through the company’s evolving pipeline and playbook for choosing the right risks in a noisy biotech environment. From Werner helicase for MSI-high cancers to a highly selective SIK2 program and GLP-1–adjacent strategies focused on body composition, Abbas details how Nimbus balances rigor, speed, and capital efficiency.
He shares candid lessons from pausing and later resurrecting AMPK beta in partnership with Eli Lilly, the decision to remain modality-agnostic but small-molecule-centric, and the importance of knowing when not to chase the latest fad. Throughout, Abbas returns to a consistent theme: success at Nimbus comes from disciplined target selection, deep collaboration, and a culture that empowers teams to make hard calls in service of patients rather than headlines.
Biography:
Abbas Kazimi is the Chief Executive Officer of Nimbus Therapeutics. Previously, he served as Chief Business Officer, leading the company’s strategic and corporate development efforts while overseeing business operations. Since joining Nimbus in 2014, he has helped raise over $630 million in equity financing and led transactions totaling more than $8 billion.
Notably, Mr. Kazimi spearheaded the $6 billion sale of Nimbus’s TYK2 program to Takeda, the $1.2 billion sale of its NASH (ACC) program to Gilead, and multiple licensing deals exceeding $1.5 billion with partners such as Genentech, Celgene/Roche, and Eli Lilly. Under his leadership, Nimbus has advanced four programs into the clinic, returned over $4 billion to investors, and continues to expand its computational drug discovery and clinical development capabilities.
In 2025, Mr. Kazimi joined the board of Unnatural Products (UNP), a biotech company pioneering orally delivered macrocyclic peptides to tackle previously undruggable targets. He also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for In Vivo magazine, a leading publication offering strategic insights and analysis of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medtech, and consumer health industries. Along with his family, he established the Kazimi Family Endowment for Data Science in Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. This endowment reflects their personal commitment to philanthropy and their vision for revolutionizing cancer treatment through data-driven innovation.
At the core of Mr. Kazimi’s leadership is a deep sense of purpose—one that seeks to change the trajectory of medical diagnoses where options are limited. The ability to give patients, prescribers, and families a new outlook on life is a powerful responsibility—and one he knows the biopharmaceutical sector has the ability to fulfill.
Before Nimbus, he was at Extera Partners, LLC (formerly PureTech Development, LLC), where he provided strategic advisory, supported fundraising, and executed numerous business development transactions. Earlier in his career, he was with JSB-Partners, LP, a specialized investment banking and advisory firm serving biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
Mr. Kazimi holds a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. from Harvard University.
