Dr. Karabelas was Head of Healthcare and CEO of Worldwide Pharmaceuticals for Novartis AG from 1998 until July 2000. He had full responsibility for Novartis Pharma, Ciba Vision and Generics representing $12 billion in annual sales. Included in these responsibilities was strategic and operational leadership of R&D with a budget in excess of $2 billion. Prior to joining Novartis, Jerry was Executive Vice President of SmithKline Beecham responsible for US operations, European operations, Regulatory, and Strategic Marketing. He has been responsible for numerous pharmaceutical product approvals and new product launches, including the launch of four $1 billion products.

Jerry was the Founder and Chairman of the Novartis BioVenture Fund from July 2000 until December 2001. In this role he invested approximately $40 million in 14 portfolio companies.

Jerry holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacokinetics from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. He is a member of the Visiting Committee for Health Sciences and Technology at MIT. He is Chairman of SkyePharma PLC and Human Genome Sciences, Inc., and is Chairman or a Director of several Care Capital portfolio companies.