Daniel M. Skovronsky , M.D., Ph.D., Founder and CEO
Dr. Skovronsky founded Avid Radiopharmaceuticals in late 2004. Dr. Skovronsky has more than 20 peer reviewed publications and two NIH funded grants on Alzheimer’s disease research. Prior to establishing Avid, Dr. Skovronsky served as Scientific Director of High Throughput Screening and Drug Discovery at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Skovronsky trained as a resident in Pathology and completed a fellowship in Neuropathology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Skovronsky received his MD and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and did his undergraduate training in molecular biochemistry at Yale University. Dr. Skovronsky is the recipient of numerous scientific and business awards, and was recently named by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of their “Forty under Forty” business leaders in the region.
Alan P. Carpenter, Jr., Ph.D., J.D., Vice President, Business Development, Legal & Regulatory Affairs
Dr. Carpenter has 25 years of experience in the medical imaging and pharmaceutical industry, including previous positions at Epix Pharmaceuticals, a developer of MRI imaging agents, and the medical imaging and radiopharmaceuticals divisions of E.I. DuPont, DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals, and DuPont Pharmaceuticals. He has many years of management experience in leading R&D, Clinical, Project Management, Business Development, Strategic Planning and Legal functions of medical imaging pharmaceutical businesses; including 5 years as Vice President of R&D for the Medical Imaging Division for DuPont Pharmaceuticals and a total of 5 years in Vice President roles for R&D and Legal Affairs & Government Affairs at Epix Pharmaceuticals. He has been a leader for several imaging agent business development transactions and R&D programs, including the development and approval of several imaging agents, including Cardiolite®; the leading myocardial perfusion imaging agent, Definity®, the leading ultrasound contrast imaging agent, and Neurolite®, a radiopharmaceutical for imaging perfusion in the brain, and Vasovist® an MRI contrast agent for magnetic resonance angiography. Dr. Carpenter is an inventor on several patents and patent applications relating to a variety of imaging agents. Dr. Carpenter received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1978 and his J.D. from the Massachusetts School of Law in 1995 and is a registered patent attorney with the USPTO.
Franz F. Hefti, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Hefti brings Avid nearly 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and over a decade experience in academia. He led the drug development efforts at Rinat Neuroscience Corporation as Executive Vice President of Drug Development for three years. During his tenure, three antibody drug candidates advanced from the discovery stage to preclinical and clinical development and the success of these programs led to the acquisition of Rinat Neuroscience by Pfizer in 2006. Previously, Dr. Hefti was Senior Vice President of Neuroscience Research at Merck & Co., where he coordinated the company's neuroscience research worldwide, serving as site head for the neuroscience research centers in the U.K. and U.S. While working with Merck, small molecule drug candidates covering six drug targets in the neuroscience area were taken into development. Dr. Hefti was also Director of the Neuroscience Research Department at Genentech and previously spent more than a decade in academia as a Professor at the University of Southern California and Associate Professor at the University of Miami, where he carried out seminal research on therapeutic applications of neurotrophic factors. He has published over 250 papers on neurotrophic factors and topics in neuropharmacology, and a recent textbook "Drug Discovery for Nervous System Diseases" (John Wiley & Sons). Dr. Hefti received a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and did his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Max Planck Institute in Munich.
Michael J. Pontecorvo, Ph.D., Vice President, Clinical Development
Dr. Pontecorvo is a recognized expert in Alzheimer's disease research and led the US development of the Alzheimer's disease medication REMINYL® (now known as RAZADYNE®). Dr. Pontecorvo brings Avid almost 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, in both CNS discovery research and clinical development. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Pontecorvo has held increasingly responsible positions in clinical development, as a project leader at Janssen Pharmaceutica and as Vice President for Clinical Research at Mitsubishi Pharma America and Dov Pharmaceuticals. Author of more than 30 publications, numerous invited presentations and six patents, Dr. Pontecorvo graduated from Indiana University with a Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience.
Paul Kennedy, Ph.D., Vice President, Chemical Development
Dr. Kennedy has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical field in the areas of formulation development, clinical and commercial drug manufacture, API development and manufacture, analytical methods development and validation and regulatory support. Dr Kennedy has held positions in government, the biotechnology industry, large pharma and in several contract organizations. He has played a key role in the approval of 15 BLAs and NDAs with many of these drugs also receiving approval in the EU, Canada and Japan. Several of these approvals have been break through therapies – Tacrine® for Alzheimer’s, Zidovudine® for AIDS, Ethyol® for cancer, Xygris® for sepsis and Visudyne® for macular degeneration. Dr Kennedy has authored over 20 publications and is an inventor on 5 patents. Dr Kennedy has served as a reviewer for the Pharmaceutical Resources Branch of the NCI, served on the Board of Revision at USP and as a reviewer for Pharmaceutical Research, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. Dr. Kennedy received his PhD in physical organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. This was followed by postdoctoral studies in Sickle Cell Anemia research at the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry sponsored by the Heart Blood Lung Institute of NIH. Additional postdoctoral studies were undertaken in the formulation of anticancer drugs at the University of Kansas’ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry sponsored by the National Cancer Institute of the NIH.
Richard Baron, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Baron joined Avid in June, 2008 as Vice President Finance, Chief Financial Officer. He has over 30 years of experience with health care and technology related companies. Prior to joining AvidRP Mr. Baron was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for eResearchTechnology, Inc (NASDAQ: ERES). In addition he was the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Animas Corporation where he played a key role in helping the company through several rounds of financing, its initial public offering and its eventual sale to Johnson & Johnson. Prior to Animas, Mr. Baron held CFO positions at GENEX Services and Marsam Pharmaceuticals. Previous to these organizations Mr. Baron worked for Coopers and Lybrand (the predecessor of Pricewaterhouse Coopers) in the Financial Advisory and Audit areas where he specialized in working with and growing middle-market companies. He is a CPA and a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
