Phil Jones, Ph.D.

Philip Jones is the executive director and head of drug discovery at the Institute for Applied Cancer Science within MD Anderson Cancer Center. He has nearly two decades of drug discovery and development experience, nearly 15 years with Merck at three locations worldwide. Dr. Jones led several of Merck’s oncology drug discovery programs, overseeing cross-functional project teams that successfully delivered novel candidates into ongoing clinical trials. These include the PARP inhibitor niraparib (Zejula^TM) which recently successful completed phase 3 clinical trials and is marketed by Tesaro. He was also involved in the successful development of Raltegravir, the first-in-class HIV integrase inhibitor. Since joining the MD Anderson Cancer Center, he has brought together a team of drug discovery scientists who successfully assembled and advanced a portfolio of projects, including SHP2 inhibitors now owned by Navire. Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Nottingham, UK, and completed his post-doctoral research at Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany.