Chris Varma, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Chairman and CEO
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
– Margaret Mead
Chris has more than 20 years of executive leadership, entrepreneurial achievement, and investing experience in the life sciences industry. Before co-founding and leading Frontier Medicines, Chris served as President and CEO of Blueprint Medicines (Nasdaq: BPMC) a company he also co-founded, which was acquired by Sanofi for over $9 billion in 2025. Chris also spent many years in senior roles at leading venture capital firms, including MPM Capital, Flagship Pioneering, and Third Rock Ventures. During this time, he also co-founded Warp Drive Bio, which was acquired by Revolution Medicines in 2018. Chris began his career at Novartis AG, overseeing efforts spanning business development, strategy, and sales and marketing.
Chris has a Ph.D. from the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences & Technology (HST), where he qualified in Course 6 (EECS) at MIT with emphasis in machine learning approaches applied to biomedical sciences and in the department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, a M.S. in Management from Stanford University, and a M.S. and a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
