University at Buffalo School of Management

Spring 2026 Buffalo Business 9 B ased in Palo Alto, California, a team led by biotech industry veterans is in the final stages of clinical testing for important therapeutics focused on preventing vision loss for millions of people globally — and John Borgeson, BS '83, is leading the financial and operational strategy behind it. Borgeson is chief financial officer of Kodiak Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company committed to prevent- ing and treating the leading causes of blindness. The company is developing medicines for retinal diseases that are designed to work quickly to stop the progression of underlying disease, while at the same time requiring fewer injections for patients. If successful, the next step aer the company's late-stage clinical trials will be filing for regulatory approval. "Innovation is created at the intersection of business and science," says Borgeson. "You can have a lot of great ideas, but you need a business focus to put the ideas into the right vehicle, find proper funding and connect with the right partners who are in it for the long haul." Leading with laser focus At Ernexa Therapeutics, CEO Sanjeev Luther, MBA '85, and his team are focusing on developing innovative, affordable, off-the-shelf cell therapies for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer and the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis. "What brought me to biotech was one thing — hope," Luther says. "Today, a platinum-resistant patient has to go every week to get an infusion. Our novel technology, in preclinical trials, can offer new options for patients, ultimately creat- ing hope by providing better quality of life and longer life." Luther is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with more than 30 years of experience in public and private biotechnology and global pharmaceutical companies. He attributes his success at Ernexa to the analytical training he received at the School of Management. Borgeson knows the long, complex journey of turning scientific discovery into treatment. Over the course of his career, he has been a financial leader for several clinical- stage biotech companies and spent more than two decades at Pfizer, most recently as vice president of finance. Bringing new medicine to patients generally takes a decade or more and includes early-stage research, deep scientific analysis, scale-up manufacturing, designing and running clinical trials, regulatory approvals and then commercialization of the medicine globally. And the average cost of bringing a medicine to the market is approximately $2 billion. Yet for Borgeson, and a growing group of School of Management alumni, turning science into medicine is an exciting challenge, fueled by the promise of improving lives. At the same time, our School of Management faculty and students are advancing research in analytics, finance, operations and more to ensure breakthroughs reach people who will benefit the most. DELIVERED W H E N B U S I N E S S M E E T S B I O T E C H John Borgeson, BS '83, outside Kodiak Sciences R&D Building in Palo Alto, California� By Alexandra Richter Luther

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