25+ years in drug discovery and development, including 17+ years in oligonucleotide therapeutics
PRESIDENT · COO · CO-FOUNDER · DIRECTOR · CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER · VP PATENTS · VP REGULATORY AFFAIRS
Company build · Capital formation · IP · Clinical & regulatory · Advocacy
C-level biotech operating leadership from formation to clinical-stage.
Twenty-five years across biotech operations, intellectual property, regulatory affairs, clinical development and business development. More than two dozen closed transactions as IP lead, transaction lead or business development lead. Available to lean executive teams on a fractional, project or senior advisory basis.
WHY ONE SENIOR ADVISOR
A unique advantage
Most senior people in biotech go deep in one, maybe two, lanes — IP, regulatory, business development, clinical development, and corporate finance. The hard decisions in a small company are never confined to one of them. Many material terms in a partnership agreement are often a patent question and a regulatory question and a corporate finance question at the same time. Sea Range Bio exists to put all of that domain-specific judgment in the room with one senior advisor.
Where I help
Strategy
Advocacy
Every strategy eventually has to be sold
Forming a position is the easy part. Building stakeholder trust through rigor and integrity is an art.
In diligence.
Making the company legible to investors and partners — answering the hard questions before they become objections, and keeping a process moving toward a deal.
At the table.
Negotiating investment terms, licenses, and collaborations with counterparties who do this professionally and repeatedly.
In the boardroom.
Carrying management's position on strategic issues to a board that has to be persuaded, not merely briefed — and doing it without spending the board's trust.
Before patent offices and against third parties.
Developing and implementing patent strategy for key company assets that holds up during prosecution, opposition before the EPO and USPTO, and enforcement is critical to company success.
Before regulators.
FDA proceedings from pre-IND through end-of-Phase-2, and pre-NDA/MAA.
With policy makers.
Co-leading a two-and-a-half-year government relations initiative in Congress and with the administration against proposed legislation that would have narrowed patent protection for oligonucleotide therapeutics.
WHEN TO ENGAGE
Along the startup-to-exit continuum
When the founding team needs seasoned operational experience to get to the next value inflection point.
Companies heading into a partnering conversation with a large biotech or pharma counterparty.
Boards and investors who need a senior operator inside a portfolio company, not just a PowerPoint status update.
Selected engagements
Track record
Eli Lilly & Co. collaboration
BD and legal lead on the discovery collaboration and license agreement representing $13M in upfront economics inclusive of an equity investment, plus over $1B in downstream milestones.
Investments closed and board advised
Closed ~$20M in financing as COO and legal lead with inside and outside investors; advised the board on all legal matters including executive management transition.
Company build and capital formation
Built the team to eight full-time employees including CMO, VP Clinical Operations, and General Counsel; co-led more than $10M in financing including SOSV’s IndieBio program; managed full S-1 preparation for IPO and SPAC business combination.
SpinCo enabling license
Lead transaction attorney for license and services agreement that led to a $150M initial public offering for SpinCo.
Diagnostic subsidiary divestiture
Lead IP attorney for sale of the subsidiary to Abbott Molecular for $215M in total consideration, plus long-dated earn-outs on cumulative net sales.
Strategic lead on procurement and successful defense of platform technology
IP lead setting patent strategy and successful defense during European opposition for key platform technology.
Pre-IND programs across four indications and two modalities
Regulatory lead on pre-IND meetings for first instance of a human milk oligosaccharide therapeutic being considered in an IND context across multiple indications - oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, and COVID-19, and regulatory lead on pre-IND for partnered ASO development program collaboration with AstraZeneca.
N-of-1 investigator-sponsored IND
Regulatory lead on IND communications to enable the first intrathecal, allele-selective n-of-1 LNA therapeutic.
Background
About
Jason Ferrone spent a large portion of his early career, 14 years, at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. He led the patent group for nearly a decade — a top-ten biotech portfolio of more than 900 patent applications, with a team of five patent attorneys, four patent agents, and four staff — and served as lead IP or lead transaction attorney on more than $1B in upfront capital from partnerships, divestitures, and financings. He went on to lead regulatory affairs as VP, Regulatory Affairs & Corporate Development, running a pipeline of 40 clinical-stage assets with three in Phase 3.
He co-founded Intrinsic Medicine and served as President & COO before moving to a director and senior strategic advisor role. He later served as Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel at Creyon Bio, where he built operations across legal, IP, clinical development, project management, and corporate finance for a company of more than 50 people in the U.S. and India, acted as Chief Business Officer for the Eli Lilly collaboration, and closed roughly $20M in financing.
Jason lives in the desert outside of Palm Springs with his wife, Jess, and dachshund, Rango, where he loves to bird, hike, cook and DJ. Jess and Jason also love time with their 6 children (3 each from first marriages) when their busy schedules allow.
Education
Suffolk University Law School — J.D., cum laude, Intellectual Property Concentration with Distinction
San Diego State University — M.A., Chemistry
University of California, Riverside — B.S., Biochemistry
Admissions
Massachusetts State Bar — member in good standing since 2003
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — Registered Patent Attorney, Reg. No. 52,887
Selected publications and inventorship
“IONIS-PKKRx, a Novel Antisense Inhibitor of Prekallikrein and Bradykinin Production.” Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, February 2019.
“Antisense Inhibitors of Plasma Prekallikrein (PKK) Reduce Plasma PKK and Vascular Permeability in Pre-Clinical Rodent Models and Reduce Plasma PKK in a Dose-Dependent Manner in Healthy Human Volunteers.” Abstract and poster, 9th C1-INH Deficiency Workshop, Budapest, May 2015.
“AI-enabled ASO design can lead to rapid initiation of treatment for an ultra-rare disorder leading to allele-selective knockdown of a toxic protein and consequent clinical improvement.” Oral presentation, ASGCT 27th Annual Meeting, Baltimore, May 2024.
Named inventor on thirteen patent applications Across kallikrein-targeted antisense therapeutics and immunomodulatory oligosaccharides.
Get in touch
Let's talk about your next inflection point.
Based in Southern California, open to remote and hybrid work on a senior advisory, fractional or project basis.
Sea Range Bio
Strategy and advocacy — bench to boardroom