Lou Vaickus

Lou Vaickus, MD FACP, is currently serving as Chief Medical Advisor to Incysus. Dr. Vaickus is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of akta Pharmaceutical Development LLC (aktaPD®). He has served as Interim Chief Medical Officer at several biotech companies, most recently at Vedanta Biosciences, Verastem, Inc., and InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. Dr. Vaickus’ therapeutic areas of specialization include development of cell therapies, biologics, NCEs, biosimilars, and live biotherapeutic products in oncology, hematology, pulmonary and other fibrotic disorders, infectious diseases, autoimmunity, rare metabolic disorders, immunology, and medical devices. He has over 30 years of experience that began as an academic scientist and practicing physician, then spanned into industry with preclinical, clinical, and globally marketed pharmaceutical products. In industry, Lou served as Vice President and Head of Clinical Development, Global Medicines Development and Affairs at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Vertex, Dr. Vaickus was Chief Medical Officer of Tolerx, Inc. from 2002 to 2011. Previously, he served as Vice President of Clinical Research and later as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at Sunovion (formerly Sepracor, Inc.), Medical Director of Oncology/Immunology at EMD Serono (formerly Ares Serono), where he supervised clinical and medical affairs for Rebif®, and Associate Medical Director, Medical Director, and later Medical Marketing Director for the Rebif® Multiple Sclerosis Strategic Business Unit at Serono.

Dr. Vaickus attained board certification in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Hematologic Malignancies, and Medical Oncology. He completed postdoctoral fellowships in hematology, oncology, and immunology at the Mayo Clinic and Stanford University. Dr. Vaickus has held faculty positions at the U of Iowa (Division of Hematology/Oncology) and at Roswell Park Cancer Institute/SUNY Buffalo (Divisions of Clinical Immunology, Bone Marrow Transplant, Hematologic Malignancies, and Solid Tumor Oncology and Investigational Therapeutics). Dr. Vaickus holds an M.D. from Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine.