Gerhard König is a senior R&D leader with more than 28 years of experience spanning discovery through Phase 3. He founded Arkuda Therapeutics in early 2018 to develop therapeutics that improve the lives of patients with serious neurological diseases. He also serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence with Atlas Venture.

From 2016 to 2017, Gerhard was CEO of Quartet Medicine, a biotechnology company focused on non-opioid pain medications. Before that he was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of FORUM Pharmaceuticals. Prior to FORUM Gerhard was Vice President, Scientific Programs and Evaluation for Fidelity Biosciences Group (now F’ Prime Capital), the lead investor in FORUM, where he gained experience evaluating a wide variety of therapeutic indications and platforms. Before his tenure in biotech, Gerhard spent 10 years at Bayer Corporation in West Haven, CT, and at Bayer AG, Germany, in various functions, including Director of the Dementia Research Department. That work resulted in the introduction of several small molecule compounds into early clinical development.

Previously Gerhard served on the Scientific advisory board of Keystone conferences as well as Disarm Therapeutics (now Lilly).

Gerhard received his PhD and MS degrees in molecular and cellular neurobiology with a minor in biochemistry, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.