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Ron Cohen

Founder, Chief Executive Officer, President & Director, Acorda Therapeutics

Search every verified Ron Cohen interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Ron Cohen, CEO of Oryon Cell Therapies, appeared on the Life Science Insights podcast in September 2026 to discuss his work in developing next-generation cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. He described his company's focus on using patients' own cells (autologous cells) rather than donor cells, explaining that he prefers not to subject patients with degenerative diseases to immune suppression, which he noted is often required with allogeneic approaches. Cohen also reflected on his decades-long career in biotechnology, noting that he has raised over $1.1 billion in capital and offering advice to first-time founders, including a suggestion to prepare for extensive walking during fundraising efforts. During the interview, Cohen discussed the evolution of the biotech industry, describing the pace of innovation as having advanced geometrically and expressing particular excitement about the potential of artificial intelligence and large language models. He credited an acting teacher with providing influential career advice about understanding people, and he emphasized communication as a defining trait of effective leadership. Cohen also shared that he maintains a morning workout routine five days a week to stay productive.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“The industry started basically in 1979 when Genentech and so on. So it's not that old an industry. It's effectively less than 50 years old, which is amazing when you look at the progress. And as it grew on the one hand the pace of innovation seems to have advanced geometrically not arithmetically. It's stunning. And especially now with the whole AI revolution and the LLM revolution we've yet to see the full fruits of”

“Impact accounting turns ESG into impact investment because the definition of impact investment is that you have the intention to create impact which ESG had but you also measure the impact rigorously and that was in the G8 task force you know report.”

“Any investor today that does not take into account the possibility of future taxation is missing a major risk. So data centers anything like that where you've got a long time frame if you're not factoring in that there will be some tax on the carbon emissions at some point you'll be missing a big part of the equation.”

“I actually believe that optimizing risk, return, and impact today is the way to deliver a superior return. The reason is that the level of risk that you achieve by taking impacts into consideration is reduced.”

“Governments are broke. Inequality is rising. And the old model of relying on taxation and philanthropy to solve social problems has failed. The answer is to redirect the trillions already flowing through capital markets by measuring impact the same way we measure profit.”

Other executives at Acorda Therapeutics

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