Gubra launches Gubra Ventures and appoints Zoë Johnson to lead new venture creation unit
Gubra today announced the launch of Gubra Ventures, a new business unit focused on creating independent biotechnology companies from high-quality scientific innovation. Zoë Johnson has been appointed Head of Gubra Ventures and will lead the identification, development, and early growth of new ventures in close collaboration with Gubra’s scientific teams and leadership.
Gubra Ventures is designed to complement Gubra’s core research activities by incubating selected high-potential programs within dedicated venture structures. Each venture will be established with its own governance and leadership, enabling focused development while creating multiple pathways for long-term value creation. This approach allows promising science to be advanced efficiently, with greater flexibility and speed, without diluting Gubra’s core business.
“Gubra Ventures is a natural next step in the evolution of our business model,” said Markus Rohrwild, CEO of Gubra. “Our scientific platforms have reached a level of scale and maturity where we can explore new opportunities with greater agility. This structure allows us to advance promising science in a focused way while expanding our pipeline and long-term value creation potential.”
As Head of Gubra Ventures, Dr. Johnson will work closely with Gubra’s teams to ensure strategic alignment and to fully leverage the company’s scientific expertise, infrastructure, and capabilities.
“Gubra Ventures is built to turn strong science into focused, capital-efficient companies,” said Zoë Johnson. “By incubating programs within venture structures that are purpose-built for them, we can accelerate development while maintaining flexibility for future partnering or growth. I am excited to join Gubra at a pivotal moment and to help shape the next generation of companies emerging from its science.”
Dr. Johnson brings more than 20 years of experience across early-stage innovation, translational biology, and venture creation in both pharma and biotech. She has held senior R&D leadership roles spanning discovery through clinical development, with expertise across immunology, inflammation, oncology, and cardiometabolic disease. Most recently, her work has focused on early company building at the intersection of science, strategy, and execution.
The launch of Gubra Ventures underscores Gubra’s commitment to maximizing the impact of its scientific platform while expanding development and partnership opportunities.