AZBio Board of Directors

Steve Potts, PhD, MBA

Steve Potts, PhD, MBA, has worked in the biopharma industry since 1999 in both drug development and diagnostics, serving in a wide range of areas, including medical affairs, product development, sales, marketing, and general management. He has a proven track record of success. Over his 25-year career, three of his companies have returned investors at least 8x (800%) on their investments, and he has raised over $200M for Arizona-based biomedical companies.

Dr. Potts is currently the founding CEO of Breakthru Medicine, a preclinical-stage biotech, developing multiple targeted therapeutics in oncology. Breakthru’s world-class team has brought 13 drugs to market/near-market, with 8 receiving the FDA’s Breakthrough Therapy Designation, indicating that the drugs may provide a substantial improvement over available therapies. Breakthru Medicine emerged from stealth in early 2026 with $60M in funding.

Previously, Dr. Potts served as CEO for SLAM Biotherapeutics, which is developing first-in-class monoclonal antibody therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Dr. Potts also served as the founding CEO of OncoMyx Therapeutics, an Arizona-based immunotherapy company developing a novel systemic oncolytic agent against solid and hematologic tumors. While leading OncoMyx, he raised $75M to advance multiarmed candidates into the clinic.

He was Vice President of Medical Affairs at Ignyta, where he led the global testing of 30,000 patients across 15 countries in an oncology basket trial for entrectinib. The molecule was the first in the industry to receive breakthrough designation equivalents in the USA, Europe, and Japan, and was also among the first to run a global concurrent registrational adult and pediatric trial. This groundbreaking work enabled Roche’s $1.7 billion acquisition of Ignyta in 2017 and the successful launch of Rozlytrek™.

Prior to Ignyta, Dr. Potts bootstrapped his first Arizona company, Flagship Biosciences, founded in Flagstaff, Arizona, as founding CEO.  He grew Flagship Biosciences to 75 employees and an exit for his investors. He was the Chairman of the Board of Axolotl Biologix until its acquisition by a public company, and he currently serves on the board of directors of PhoenixMD, a cancer biotech with an RSK inhibitor in Phase Two clinical trials.

He was the General Manager, Life Sciences, at Aperio, which was acquired by Danaher for $180M. He also built the Bioinformatics Department for a Fortune 500 Company, Quest Diagnostics, which subsequently delivered $2B of annual revenue.

Steve has been both an industry leader and policy advocate in Arizona, serving as an AZBIO board member, and volunteering as the chair of the drug development council of the Arizona-based International Cancer Advocacy Network. Steve has emerged as a leading volunteer advocate for pharmaceutical innovation policy, testifying before Congress on the Inflation Reduction Act’s impact on small-molecule drug development and regularly speaking on podcasts and at industry forums to ensure that US policy continues to support, rather than discourage, therapeutic innovation. Steve holds a PhD and an MBA from the University of California, Davis, and a BS in Physics from Wheaton College.