After wrapping up his seven-month public service role as a top scientist at Operation Warp Speed – the effort by former President Donald Trump to rush coronavirus vaccines to market – Gladwyne’s Moncef M. Slaoui is back in the profitable end of the biotech business, writes Joseph N. DiStefano for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The former boss of vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline took over the position of new chief scientific officer of Centessa Pharmaceuticals, which recently raised $250 million from Slaoui’s former venture capital employer, among other investors.

The initial investment was used to acquire ten biotech start-ups in North America and Europe, including in the Philadelphia suburbs.

These ten startups have all had promising early test results and fight diverse diseases. They are run by teams with special knowledge and abilities.

“This high-quality portfolio aims to deliver enhanced diversification, reduced risk, and asymmetric upside with a view to withstanding the inherent low probability of success associated with drug development,” said Slaoui.

Among the acquired startups is Newtown-based Palladio Biosciences, which has been working on a drug to suppress polycystic kidney disease.

Read more about Moncef Slaoui at The Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.