Arie Belldegrun, MD, is the Chairman of Bellco Capital and Bellco Health, and Founder and Senior Managing Director of Vida Ventures, a life science venture group with offices in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. He is also Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Allogene Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T™) products for cancer and autoimmune disease.
A visionary entrepreneur, Arie founded Kite Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies, where he served as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition of Kite by Gilead Sciences in October 2017. Arie has had a distinguished tenure in the life sciences, having been closely involved with the founding and advancement of several successful biopharmaceutical companies including Cougar Biotechnology, Agensys, and Urogen. Abiraterone (Zytiga), developed by Cougar and marketed by JNJ, is a mainstay of therapy for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Yescarta ( Axi-cel) and Tescartus, developed by Kite and marketed by Gilead, are leaders in the use of CAR T to treat patients with hematologic cancers (Lymphoma and Leukemia). Padcev (Enfortumab), developed by Agensys and marketed by Astellas and Pfizer, is a leader in the class of ADC (Antibody Drug Conjugate) and used for the therapy of patients with advanced bladder cancer. Jelmyto, by Urogen, is marketed for the therapy of patients with non-invasive urothelial cancers. Arie currently serves as Chairman of Two River and UroGen Pharma, as co-Chairman of Breakthrough Properties (developer of labs and life sciences campuses) and Symbiotic Capital (a healthcare credit company), as Director at ByHeart (an FDA-registered innovative infant formula manufacturer), and Co-founder and board member of the California Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy (CIII) in Los Angeles.
Arie is the Roy and Carol Doumani Chair in Urologic Oncology, a Research Professor, Chief of Urologic Oncology-Emeritus, and Founder and Director of the UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Prior to joining UCLA, Arie was at the National Cancer Institute/NIH as a research fellow in surgical oncology and immunotherapy under Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg. He completed his MD at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, his post-graduate studies in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and his residency in urologic surgery at Harvard Medical School. Arie has authored several books on oncology and more than 500 scientific and medical papers related to urological cancers, immunotherapy, gene therapy and cancer vaccines. He is certified by the American Board of Urology and is a member of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons (AAGUS).