Clarissa Desjardins

Dr. Clarissa Desjardins joined the Board of BELLUS Health in September 2017.

Dr. Clarissa Desjardins founded Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2011 and served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer (NASDAQ:CMTA) until it was acquired by Ipsen in 2019.

Dr. Desjardins is an award-winning entrepreneur with more than 20 years in biotechnology. She has founded three successful biotech companies, leading all aspects of company creation including conception and financing. In addition to Clementia, she founded Advanced Bioconcept, a research reagent and diagnostics company sold to NEN Life Sciences (Perkin Elmer) in 1998 and co-founded Caprion Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on proteomic biomarker discovery and drug development, where she was executive vice-president of Corporate Development.

Dr. Desjardins is the recipient of the 2018 Bloom Burton Award for her contribution to Canada’s innovative healthcare industry and the BRIO award for outstanding contributions to the biotechnology industry from the Quebec Biotechnology Association. She has been a board member of numerous companies, including the scientific advisory council of the Canadian Academy of Sciences, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Insmed (NASDAQ:INSM).

Dr. Desjardins earned a doctorate in Neurology and Neurosurgery from McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and was a Medical Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the Douglas Hospital Research Centre.