Neel K. Anand

Neel K. Anand, DPhil

SVP, Research and Drug Discovery

Neel K. Anand brings over 20 years of research experience and has served as our SVP Research and Drug Discovery since April 2023, where he leads teams responsible for translational science, clinical pharmacology and non-clinical safety activities supporting development of Kezar’s clinical assets.

He joined the team at Kezar in January 2022 as VP Medicinal Chemistry and Head of Drug Discovery and led discovery activities resulting in the Development Candidate nomination of the first oral selective Sec61 inhibitor, a PD-1 down-regulator, KZR-540.

Prior to joining Kezar, Dr Anand served at Nektar Therapeutics for over 10 years in positions of increasing responsibility up to Executive Director, Head of Discovery Chemistry, where his team discovered NKTR-262, a PEG-conjugated TLR7/8 agonist. From 2001 to 2010, Dr Anand served at Exelixis, Inc in positions of increasing responsibility up to Senior Scientist II, where he contributed to the discovery of six investigational new drugs (INDs) and is a co-inventor of cobimetinib (COTELLICTM).

He has authored multiple scientific publications and is a co-inventor on over 20 issued U.S. patents. He received his B.Sc. (Honors, First Class) in Chemistry from the University of Bristol, U.K. and his D. Phil. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, U.K.