Jim Doherty

President and Chief Development Officer, Acumen Pharmaceuticals

Search every verified Jim Doherty interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Jim Doherty, president and chief development officer at Acumen Pharmaceuticals, discussed his career and the company's work in an interview on the Business of Biotech podcast. He described his long-standing focus on neuroscience, including 11 years as director of neuroscience at AstraZeneca and later work at Sage Therapeutics before joining Acumen about a year ago. Doherty spoke about the challenges of developing Alzheimer's disease therapeutics, noting that recent amyloid-targeting drug approvals have come with mixed trial data and controversies, which he attributed to the difficulties of pioneering new treatment approaches. Doherty also addressed the business aspects of running a small biotech company, emphasizing the need to balance scientific and medical decisions with maintaining support from investors, employees, and collaborators. He stressed the importance of being deliberate with capital management and prioritizing the right steps in drug development, describing it as a sequential process requiring rigorous resource allocation. He mentioned that Acumen's lead candidate, Sabirnetug, is being developed with a data-driven approach, with next steps planned sequentially.