Chris Wright joined Ironwood in 2017, bringing nearly two decades of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and academia. Prior to joining Ironwood, Chris served as senior vice president and chief medical officer for Axcella Health, Inc. Before that, he worked at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for seven years, including serving as senior vice president and head of global medicine development and affairs, where he led global development functions across all therapeutic areas of clinical development, medical affairs, clinical operations, medical writing, biometrics, regulatory affairs and patient safety. In this role, Chris directly oversaw the successful submission of medications for approval to the FDA, EMA and other drug approval entities. Also at Vertex, Chris served as vice president of clinical development, where he oversaw clinical programs in the areas of hepatitis C, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, influenza, epilepsy and pain. Chris is a practicing neurologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and was an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and a Harvard-MIT Clinical Investigator Training Program graduate and advisor. He earned a B.S. in biochemical sciences from Harvard University, an M.D. and MMSc. from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. from Vrije University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.