Fierce JPM Virtual Week - Executive Interview - Scaling Complex Orals to Launch

Dr. Kurt Nielsen, a veteran industry executive and currently a Managing Partner at Expert Insights Consulting, a top advisory firm for Pharma Services firms and investors, and an Orientation Marketing strategic partner. Kurt has previously served in a variety of product development and executive roles including CEO at Pii, CTO at Catalent, President at Lupin Somerset, a division of Lupin Inc., and as well as SVP of Launch Management and Commercialization at Sandoz, Inc and EVP of Pharmaceuticals at URL Pharma. He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Villanova University.

Dr. Smithey is the President, CEO and Co-founder of Serán BioScience.  Over his 30-year career, he has led multiple research and development projects in a broad range of therapeutic areas.   His work has led to the successful development of several novel medicines, including Tucatinib (Tukysa®) for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.  Dr. Smithey has extensive experience building entrepreneurial organizations that embrace a strong science and engineering approach to solving unmet need in drug development and biotechnology.  Previously, Dr. Smithey led a team at Bend Research (now Lonza®) directed at research and development of novel pharmaceutical technologies, including the industry leading spray-dried dispersion technology that is broadly in use today.  Subsequently, Dr. Smithey co-founded Agere Pharmaceuticals, a specialty CDMO, which was acquired by Patheon in 2015.  He is an inventor in over 50 patent and patent applications in numerous technology and therapeutic areas.  Dr. Smithey obtained a Ph.D. in Quantum Information and Optical Physics from the University of Oregon.