Massachusetts is a hub for biotech: According to the 2024 MassBio industry snapshot , biopharma accounted for more than 15% of job growth in the entire state last year. This month, we’re hearing from women leaders in biotech on the challenges they face and their vision for the future.
Dominique Verhelle, CEO of the Brighton-based company NextRNA Therapeutics, which uses long non-coding RNA to develop new medications, shared her thoughts with GBH News.
“I spent many years developing drug in a small company in Big Pharma, and I launched this company approximately four years ago to be able to develop new medicines. We are developing a new therapeutic drug long non-coding RNA. It’s a subclass, which is kind of like the broader of the macro RNA.
”Many, many of the women that I know in this field, they are founders of companies. They did it because they believe in the science, not just because they wanted to have the title. I think female leadership has different ways to lead companies. We have a sense of taking more risk.
“There are more men in the world of CEOs right now. And so we have this group of female CEO-scientists really motivated to make a difference. If you have a name behind you, it’s easier to get some investment. But I think we are trying to overcome that. And by being visible, being in meetings, and even sometimes forcing it, it happened to me sometime when I go to a conference and I see a panel, and there are like five men. And I’m like, Why? Why? There is no one woman? And I am going to go back to the conference organizer and say, I’m happy to participate in the panel next time. I have something to say as well.”
