We’re excited to share our recent publication that captures the incredible journey of developing cancer therapeutics from discovery to commercialization – full of challenges, breakthroughs, and the encouragement that continues to move us forward.
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2025/sc/d5sc90071a
Spotlight on INNOVOTEX Co-Founder, Dr. Jonathan L Sessler
Here we highlight Prof. Jonathan L. Sessler, PhD – R. P. Doherty, Jr. – Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin and a pioneer in supramolecular and medicinal chemistry. Dr. Sessler has a personal vendetta against cancer. He has gone through four separate cancer fights and has turned his own journey as a patient and survivor into a lifelong mission: to invent therapies that are smarter, more humane, and more effective. During his second bout with cancer, his oncologist, physician-scientist Richard A. Miller, MD, challenged him: “You’re a chemist—find new cancer drugs.” That challenge sparked his groundbreaking discovery of “texaphyrins,” expanded porphyrins designed to target tumors selectively.
Discovery to Impact
Determined to translate discovery into patient impact, Dr. Sessler teamed up with Dr. Miller to co-found Pharmacyclics, Inc. The Pharmacyclics journey was far from linear: years of ups and downs, early setbacks, and ultimately a strategic pivot into blood cancers defined the company’s trajectory. That persistence paid off – Pharmacyclics delivered a breakthrough therapy, ibrutinib, and was acquired by AbbVie in 2015. Importantly, the lessons learned through that process – scientific, clinical, and strategic – laid the foundation for what comes next.
INNOVOTEX
Today, Dr. Sessler is channeling his drug development experience and personal anti-cancer passion into INNOVOTEX, a company advancing a new generation of tumor-targeted, macrocycle-enabled chemotherapies. Where Pharmacyclics succeeded in hematologic malignancies, INNOVOTEX is positioned to bring precision therapies back to solid tumors – the area that first inspired Dr. Sessler’s research and entrepreneurial activities.
A Legacy of Scientific Excellence
Internationally recognized for his creativity at the chemistry–medicine frontier, Dr. Sessler has authored hundreds of publications, secured dozens of patents, and earned election to both the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2021) and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2022). Today, his lab continues to turn molecular design into therapeutic leads—with the aim of making cancer treatment more precise, more tolerable, and more personal for patients worldwide.