Krishna Polu, M.D.

Dr. Polu is an experienced clinical development executive with a track record of pipeline advancement and drug approvals across multiple therapeutics areas. Most recently, Dr. Polu was the executive vice president of research and development and chief medical officer at Equillium, a public biotech company focused on advancing novel targeted therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Prior to Equillium, Dr. Polu was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Frazier Healthcare, where he founded Expedition Therapeutics and served as interim CEO of Scout Bio.

Dr. Polu is currently a board member at Frazier Lifesciences Acquisition Corporation (FLACU), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) organized by Frazier Healthcare. He previously served as chief medical officer at Raptor Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Horizon Pharmaceuticals in 2016 for $800M. Dr. Polu has also served as chief medical officer at CytomX Therapeutics, led clinical development and pharmacovigilance at Affymax and held senior level positions in clinical development at Amgen in areas of heart failure, anemia of chronic kidney disease, and diabetes.

Dr. Polu currently serves as a board director for Bicara Therapeutics and as a board observer for Magnus Medical. He received his B.A. in human biology from Stanford University and an M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Colorado followed by a fellowship in nephrology at Harvard Medical School at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.