Joe (Chuan) Shih, Ph.D., is currently a Venture Partner of Lilly Asia Ventures and is widely recognized for his expertise in cancer and medicinal chemistry research. Previously, Dr. Shih was the Distinguished Investigator and Director of Institute of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research (IBPR) of National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), a premier new drug discovery institute in Taiwan. Before joining NHRI, Dr. Shih was the Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of “Integrated Drug Discovery Service Business Unit” of Crown Bioscience Inc., a US Biotech company focusing on translational oncology/metabolic disease research and drug discovery. During this time, Dr. Shih’s team discovered an exciting oncology drug development pipeline (PD-1, PD-L1 check point inhibitors, c-Met inhibitors, ALK inhibitors and a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor) which are now under active clinical investigation by CrownBio Therapeutics (now Apollomics, Inc.) and its partners across the globe.
Before Crown Bioscience and NHRI, Joe spent most of his professional career as a drug discovery scientist at Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company in the US. Joe has made significant contributions to Lilly’s oncology research and pipeline by leading the Lilly-Princeton collaboration which had resulted in the successful discovery and development of the blockbuster anticancer drug, Alimta® (pemetrexate disodium) for mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer. As a co-inventor and developer of Alimta®, Dr. Shih also led the effort in discovering the unique “Multi-Targeted Antifolate” mechanism of action of Alimta® and championed the term “MTA” to distinguish the novel pharmacological and antitumor activity of Alimta®.
Dr. Shih received a doctorate in organic chemistry from The Ohio State University. He also holds a bachelor of science in chemistry from National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan , and a master of science in organic chemistry from The Ohio State University. Dr. Shih completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University under Nobel Laureate Professor E. J. Corey.
