P. Schaefer Price is a member of our board of directors and is our President and Chief Executive Officer and has been with Pharmasset since June 2004. From September 2002 to June 2004, Mr. Price served as an Executive in Residence at Bay City Capital, a venture capital firm for which he provided advice to portfolio companies and assisted with due diligence for investment opportunities. From July 2001 until September 2002, Mr. Price served as Managing Director of Lakeshore Bioventures, a lifescience merchant bank. From January 1997 until July 2001, Mr. Price was the President of PowderJect Vaccines, the vaccine subsidiary of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals PLC. Under his leadership, PowderJect's vaccine business grew from a small research group into the world's sixth largest vaccine company prior to its acquisition by Chiron Corporation. Mr. Price has also served as a Vice President at the merchant bank of Burrill & Craves and Assistant to the President at Berlex Biosciences. Mr. Price received a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin—Madison and an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota.
Kurt Leutzinger, C.P.A., M.B.A.
Chief Financial Officer
Kurt Leutzinger is our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and has been with Pharmasset since January 2005. From January 2004 to January 2005, Mr. Leutzinger was a consultant to Abgenix, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed biotechnology company. From July 1997 to January 2004, Mr. Leutzinger was the Chief Financial Officer of Abgenix, where he was responsible for financings, acquisitions, investor relations, financial reporting and financial analysis. From 1987 to 1997, Mr. Leutzinger was a private equity portfolio manager for General Electric Investments concentrating on early-stage investments in medical devices and biotechnology. Mr. Leutzinger's prior experience includes Mergers & Acquisitions at Primerica and public accounting at Arthur Anderson & Co. Mr. Leutzinger is a C.P.A., and received a B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University and an M.B.A. from New York University.
M. Michelle Berrey, M.D., M.P.H
Chief Medical Officer
M. Michelle Berrey, M.D. is our Vice President, Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer and has been with Pharmasset since January 2007. From August 1999 to January 2007, Dr. Berrey served as Vice President, Viral Diseases, Clinical Pharmacology & Discovery Medicine at GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Berrey's experience includes the design, early development, medical governance, clinical strategy and product life cycle management for antiviral products, and she has simultaneously managed multiple clinical trials across all phases of development. Dr. Berrey was most recently responsible for the early development and clinical strategy of Phase 1-2a studies for new targets against HIV, hepatitis viruses and hepatic fibrosis at GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Berrey received a Master of Public Health from Emory University, and she received her M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia. She completed her Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and she was a Senior Fellow in Infectious Disease Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, where she conducted research in HIV transmission and acute HIV infection.
Michael J. Otto, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Michael J. Otto, Ph.D. is our Chief Scientific Officer and has been with Pharmasset since November 1999. From February 1998 to September 1999, Dr. Otto was an Associate Director of Anti-Infectives Clinical Research at Rh™ne-Poulenc Rorer, where he was responsible for providing clinical development support for antiviral and antibacterial compounds. From 1994 to 1997, Dr. Otto served as the Vice President for Research and Development at Avid Therapeutics until its acquisition by Triangle Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Otto previously held positions at DuPont-Merck, DuPont and Sterling Drug. Dr. Otto serves as the U.S. editor for Antiviral Chemistry & Chemotherapy . Dr. Otto is an author of more than 60 scientific publications and a named inventor on 6 patents and patent applications. Dr. Otto received a B.S. from Loyola University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology from The Medical College of Wisconsin.
Michael D. Rogers, Ph.D.
Chief Development Officer
Michael D. Rogers, Ph.D. is our Chief Development Officer and he joined Pharmasset in October 2007. Previously, Dr. Rogers was at GlaxoSmithKline, where he most recently served as Vice President, Division of Viral Diseases, responsible for antiviral discovery activities directed toward human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) indications. Dr. Rogers has over 23 years of industry experience and has participated in all phases of antiviral and anti-infective drug development, including discovery, preclinical development, and phase 1, 2, 3 and 3b/4 clinical development programs.
During his career, he has led multinational development teams from discovery to marketing and has a successful product development record, including Lexiva and the approvals for Agenerase, Mepron and Malarone.
Dr. Rogers received his doctorate in medical parasitology and a Master of Public Health degree in medical microbiology from the University of North Carolina. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical microbiology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Patrick T. Higgins, M.B.A
Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales
Patrick Higgins is our Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales and has been with Pharmasset since November 2007. Mr. Higgins is responsible for coordinating the global product launch and marketing activities for Pharmasset's drug candidates. Mr. Higgins was recently Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Virology at Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc. His areas of expertise include hepatology, HIV and cytomegalovirus for transplant patients. Mr. Higgins was responsible for directing the development and implementation of marketing and sales plans for Roche's US hepatology franchise, including the global launch of Pegasys® and Copegus® for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection. Mr. Higgins has over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry sales and marketing experience. Throughout his career, he has participated in a total of 13 product launches for antiviral, oncology, dermatologic and allergy indications. Prior to joining Roche, Mr. Higgins served in a variety of advertising, sales and marketing roles at Schering Corporation. He was instrumental in developing Schering's Oncology/Biotech group that launched Intron-A® (interferon alfa-2b) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis. Mr. Higgins received his M.B.A. from Seton Hall University and his Bachelor of Arts from Villanova University.
Paul Lubetkin
Executive Vice President, General Counsel
Paul Lubetkin has been our Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary since October 2008. Previously, Mr. Lubetkin held similar positions in public and private companies in the healthcare industry commencing in 1990, including Emisphere Technologies, Aptuit, CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals, Pliva, Odyssey Pharmaceuticals, PersonalPath Systems, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. He was a litigation partner in the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP and served in the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Lubetkin received a B.S. from Northwestern University and a J.D. (with distinction) from the University of Iowa.
Abel De La Rosa, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Business Development & Scientific Affairs
Abel De La Rosa, Ph.D. is our Senior Vice President, Business Development & Scientific Affairs and has been with Pharmasset since December 2002. From February 2000 to December 2002, Dr. De La Rosa held both scientific and business positions at Visible Genetics Inc., including Vice President of Product Development and Director of Strategic Marketing and Latin American Business. He was responsible for the development, transfer and improvement of products, including TRUGENE HIV-1 v1.0 Genotyping Test ® and other sequencing-based assays for HCV and HBV. Dr. De La Rosa previously held positions at Innogenetics, Inc., Boston Biomedica, Inc., and Digene Corp. Prior to joining Digene, he completed two NIH Post-Doctoral Fellowships at the National Cancer Institute, an IRTA Fellowship in the Laboratory of Pathology and a Fogarty Fellowship in the Laboratory of Biochemistry. He is an inventor and author on several U.S. patents and publications relating to molecular diagnostic methods and techniques for infectious diseases and cancer. Dr. De La Rosa received a B.A. in Microbiology from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Microbiology from Miami University.
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