Hepatitis B Foundation, PA Biotechnology Center Name New Leaders

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The longtime leader of the Hepatitis B Foundation and Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center in Doylestown is due to step down next summer, with two Bucks County residents set to succeed him.

Tim Block — who co-founded the Hepatitis B Foundation in 1991 with his wife, Joan Block, and Janine and Paul Witte — announced Monday that Chari Cohen will take over as president of the foundation in July 2022 while he moves on to become executive chair of its board of directors, according to a news release.

Block will also begin a sabbatical to teach at Yale University and continue his research.

Cohen, of Newtown, joined the foundation in 2001 and worked with Joan Block to develop its public health, policy and advocacy program into a “formidable and internationally influential operation,” the release says.

Cohen said she was “honored and humbled” to have an “opportunity to build on the legacy of Joan and Tim Block” as the Hepatitis B Foundation’s next president.

“Their leadership has positioned the foundation to continue expanding on our strengths and uniquely collaborate with patients, providers, advocates and other stakeholders to help us prepare the world for a functional cure for hepatitis B,” she said in the release. “It will be a privilege to lead this team of world-changers toward the next step in our mission to bring a cure to everyone.”

Perkasie resident Lou Kassa is set to become president of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center next July after joining in 2014.

Block said the center has nearly doubled its economic impact and “programmatic size” over the last seven years with Kassa serving as its executive vice president.

“The Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center will be in excellent hands with Lou Kassa at the helm,” Block said in the release. "His hands are steady and his vision is far-sighted."

Kassa played a major role in a $20 million expansion of the center in Buckingham Township, the Bucks County Courier Times reports.

The project included a 37,000-square-foot addition and the construction of a 200-seat event space. Tim Block estimated that the expansion could create more than 100 new jobs.

Research and development at the facility has produced several FDA-approved drugs and medical devices that are now on the market, with more than 10 new drugs and medical devices in clinical trials, the PABC said in 2020. The center also houses a teaching lab and research facilities for biomedical research and employs more than 300 people.

The center is set to open a 50,000-square-foot life sciences incubator in Philadelphia next year in partnership with Brandywine Realty Trust.