Jed Black

Jed E. Black is a sleep-medicine physician-scientist who has spent his career at the intersection of academic sleep neurology and biopharmaceutical drug development. He earned his medical degree at the University of Utah School of Medicine and has practiced sleep and neurology medicine for more than two decades. He is an adjunct professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Sleep Medicine) at Stanford University's Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, where he has long been affiliated as a clinician, researcher, and educator. He is a prolific academic author, with more than 200 peer-reviewed publications across roughly the last 15 years focused on narcolepsy, excessive daytime sleepiness, idiopathic hypersomnia, and related sleep-wake disorders.

In industry, Black is a Senior Vice President of Sleep and CNS Medicine (and Senior Fellow, Neuroscience) at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, where he has served as the therapeutic-area head for sleep. In that role he was a central scientific and clinical voice behind Jazz's sleep franchise, including solriamfetol (Sunosi, formerly JZP-110/ADX-N05) — a dopamine/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor for excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnea that Jazz originally licensed from Aerial BioPharma and that the FDA approved in March 2019 — and the low-sodium oxybate JZP-258 (Xywav) for cataplexy and excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy. He was closely involved with Aerial BioPharma's narcolepsy program (ADX-N05) before it was acquired/licensed by Jazz.

In 2016, Black co-founded Arrivo BioVentures, a Research Triangle-based drug-development company, alongside serial biopharma operators Stephen (Steve) Butts, Bill Wofford, and Dr. Michael Ackermann. Arrivo launched publicly in May 2016 with $49 million in committed funding and a portfolio of clinical-stage drug candidates; Black serves as a scientific advisor to the company, contributing sleep/CNS and clinical-development expertise. The founding team's prior track record includes the successful investor exits of Aerial BioPharma, Neuronex, and Addrenex Pharmaceuticals. Through this work Black also participates as an individual angel investor in early-stage companies, primarily in health and life sciences.

• Invests and advises primarily where his expertise is deepest: biopharmaceuticals and life sciences, especially sleep medicine, neurology, and CNS/neuroscience therapeutics.
• Operates as an individual angel at the seed stage and, more substantively, as a founding scientist / company-builder (Arrivo BioVentures) rather than a traditional check-writing fund GP.
• Values strong clinical and scientific rationale and experienced repeat operators — the Arrivo model was explicitly built around a "serial biopharma entrepreneurial team" with prior successful exits, financed with $49M at launch.
• Brings regulatory and clinical-development credibility (FDA approvals of Sunosi and Xywav-class assets) that is most useful to companies advancing drug candidates through the clinic.