EXAVIR THERAPEUTICS - Key Persons
Alborz is Co-Founder and President of Exavir Therapeutics and is dedicated to making a difference for the millions of patients who are at risk for or living with HIV / AIDS.
Brian is a veteran of antiviral drug development with primary contributions leading to the approval of more than 15 new drugs. In a 20+ year career at Gilead Sciences, Inc., Brian built and led the clinical pharmacology and clinical development efforts from inception through global registrations and approvals for the treatment of HIV, HBV, HCV, and other unmet medical needs. Subsequently, Brian joined as a member of the founding management team of Pardes Biosciences, Inc, formed at the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic that advanced a potential oral therapy for SARS-CoV-2 infection from discovery through Phase 2 testing in less than three years.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Howard E. Gendelman is co-founder of Exavir Therapeutics, and the Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, and Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Gendelman's work focuses on how the neuroimmune system is involved in metabolic changes and cell damage throughout infectious, metabolic, and neurodegenerative disorders.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Jeff brings almost 30 years of drug development and regulatory experience to Exavir from US FDA, where he was most recently Deputy Director of the Division of Antivirals. Jeff was the author/co-author for 10 Guidance Documents for Industry addressing HIV, HBV, HCV, HDV, Influenza, PEPFAR, CMV, RSV.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Dr Laessig has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical regulatory roles both in industry and for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Before joining Antios, she served as Vice President, Therapeutic Strategy, Strategic Drug Development at IQVIA where she delivered strategic regulatory and clinical development planning for pharmaceuticals and biologics, including support for regulatory interactions, across a range of therapeutic areas for the IQVIA's biotechnology and pharmaceutical customers. Before that, she was Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Medical Safety, and Quality Assurance at RRD International, LLC, where she provided strategic and tactical regulatory, clinical, and development evaluation and direction to product development programs undertaken by RRD for its client companies. From 1999 to 2015, Dr Laessig served in multiple roles of increasing responsibility at the US FDA including Medical Review Officer and Medical Team Leader, Division of Antiviral Products, and Deputy Director, Division of Anti-Infective Products. From 2000 to 2016, she volunteered once weekly at the Whitman Walker Clinic in Washington, DC, the city's largest provider of HIV/AIDS care.
Dr Laessig earned her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Cornell University.
Mark Cockett is the Chief Scientific Advisor of Exavir Therapeutics and was formerly VP and Head of Discovery at ViiV Healthcare, where Dr. Cockett was responsible for delivering new HIV drug candidates that are aligned to future medical needs into clinical development and providing research support for clinical development assets as they progressed in the clinic. Mark joined ViiV Healthcare following the acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMS) HIV pipeline assets. Previously Mark was VP of Discovery Infectious Diseases at BMS, and was responsible for delivery of antiviral therapeutics into the pipeline. His team at BMS has delivered marketed products targeting HIV, HBV and HCV as well as the pipeline of HIV drugs recently acquired by ViiV Healthcare.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
- Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute
Michael Dunne is the Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute where he oversees clinical trials in therapeutic areas aligned with the mission of the Gates Foundation, with specific expertise in infectious diseases including HIV, Parasitology, and malaria. Over the course of his career, Dr. Dunne has played an integral role in global and local anti-infective drug development. Prior to joining the Institute, Michael was the founder and chief scientific officer at Iterum Therapeutics, where he led the development of the antibiotic sulopenem. From 2014 to 2015, he was vice president of research and development at Actavis. Dr. Dunne earlier served as founder and chief medical officer at Durata Therapeutics beginning in 2009, where he was responsible for the development and successful global registration of dalbavancin. Prior to joining Durata, Dr. Dunne worked at Pfizer for 17 years, leading the development and registration of several antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and HIV therapeutics. Michael was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development and a member of the Expert Scientific Advisory Committee for the Medicines for Malaria Venture.
Dr. Dunne currently serves on the Board of Directors at Iterum Therapeutics and is on the Editorial Review Board of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology and a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He earned his M.D. from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn and completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship training in pulmonary medicine and infectious diseases at Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Gallo is recognized internationally for his co-discovery of HIV as the cause of AIDS. As a biomedical research scientist, he has spent much of his career working to eliminate AIDS and other viral chronic diseases. In the early 1980s, Gallo and his team also pioneered the development of the HIV blood test, which enabled healthcare laborers to screen for the AIDS virus for the first time, leading to a more rapid diagnosis while simultaneously protecting patients receiving blood transfusions. His research also helped physicians develop HIV therapies to prolong the lives of those infected with the virus. His 1996 discovery that a natural compound known as chemokines can block the HIV virus and halt the progression of AIDS was hailed by Science magazine as one of that year's most important scientific breakthroughs.
Dr. Gallo helped founded the Institute of Human Virology in 1996, and in 2011 co-founded the Global Virus Network to position the world to rapidly respond to new or re-emerging viruses that threaten mankind, to achieve collaboration among the world's leading virologists, and to support next-generation training.
Prior to becoming IHV director in 1996, Gallo spent 30 years at the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute, where he was head of its Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology. Dr. Gallo has received numerous scientific honors and awards from around the world, holds 35 honorary doctorates, and has published nearly 1,200 papers.
Dr. Gallo was the most referenced scientist in the world in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time he had the unique distinction of twice winning America's most prestigious scientific award-the Albert Lasker Award in Medicine - in 1982 and 1986. He was ranked third in the world for scientific impact for the period 1983-2002 (PNAS, November 15, 2005, vol102, no.46, 6569-16572).