Penicillin ranks as one of the greatest drugs of all time. But nearly 100 years after its discovery, antibiotic-resistant bacteria now pose a grave danger to public health. Who is developing new antibiotics to counter the threat? Very few companies, it turns out. Not because there is no need, but because of structural barriers in the market. Generics dominate, and big pharma has little interest in innovation or acquiring startups in the space. What's going on, and how might incentives be changed? Join us on Thursday, September 17 to hear from Ryan Cirz, founder and former VP of Research at Achaogen. Achaogen's Zemdri was once predicted to generate $500 million a year, but the company filed for bankruptcy in 2019. View Ryan’s slide deck
Where & When
Zoom Webinar
Thursday, September 17, 2020, 2:00 to 3:00 PM
About the Speaker
Ryan Cirz is an independent consultant. Previously, he was founder and Vice President of Research at Achaogen. Achaogen focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative antibacterials to treat multi-drug resistant (MDR) Gram-negative infections. Here, he participated in and led the advancement of four home-grown antibacterial assets through investigational new drug applications. Three of those programs advanced into the clinic with two advancing past phase one studies and one through US approval in 2018.
At Achaogen, he oversaw the early-stage (pre-investigational new drug) pipeline and provides intellectual insight/support to all things related to infectious diseases including late stage development, commercialization and medical affairs.
Ryan has a background in molecular biology and bacterial genetics, is passionate about medicinal chemistry in terms of scaffold design, lead optimization and selection and is well-versed in the broad scientific, policy and commercial challenges.
He has led the non-clinical portion of Achaogen and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority’s collaboration on plazomicin which required the design and execution of non-human primate efficacy studies on plazomicin for the treatment of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) category A agents.
Ryan was a graduate researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in California, US. He was awarded his PhD in Biochemistry from The Scripps Research Institute and his BSc in biochemistry and molecular biology from Penn State University, Pennsylvania, US.