Karen Basbaum

Senior Vice President, Business Development

Ms. Basbaum is our Senior Vice President, Business Development, after joining Poseida in July 2020 and most recently serving as Vice President, Business Development. Prior to Poseida, she held positions in drug discovery and business development for several biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies.

Ms. Basbaum joined Poseida from DNAtrix, a biotechnology company developing oncolytic viruses for the treatment of cancer, where she was Senior Vice President of Business Development. Prior to that role, she was VP of Business Development at both Dauntless Pharmaceuticals and Elcelyx Therapeutics and Director, Business Development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, where she worked on numerous transactions, most notably the sale of the company to Bristol Myers Squibb in 2012 for $7B. Earlier in her career, she held various scientific roles in drug discovery at Abbott Laboratories (now AbbVie) and Celgene Corporation (now Bristol Myers Squibb).

Ms. Basbaum holds an MBA from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine and a Master of Science in Organic Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She holds two Bachelor of Science degrees (honors) in Biology and Chemistry from the University of North Dakota.