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Karim F. Lalji is Cardiome’s Senior Vice President, Commercial Affairs. Cardiome is a pharmaceutical company that is developing products for the treatment of cardiovascular and critical care diseases. Mr. Lalji is an officer of the company and he leads all Commercial activities and is on the Senior Management team driving the corporate strategy. Mr. Lalji was instrumental in achieving a licensing agreement of the company’s lead assets with Merck & Company in a transaction valued at $1 billion.
Mr. Lalji was previously Vice President of Business Strategy and New Product Commercialization at Sepracor, Inc. In addition to Business Strategy, he was responsible for the commercial success of drug candidates, including pipeline strategy and prioritization, and ensuring that the development program were focused on the commercial strategy to drive successful product launches. One of the key achievements for Mr. Lalji at Sepracor, Inc. was his leadership in the development and launch of Lunesta (eszopiclone) for the treatment of insomnia which achieved one of the most successful launches of any drug in the United States. Mr. Lalji’s earlier experience includes ten years with Merck & Company, where he led several successful product launches. At Merck, Mr. Lalji led the worldwide launch of Crixivan for HIV disease which included the launch of the triple cocktail which revolutionized the treatment of HIV disease. Mr. Lalji also led the Worldwide Fosamax franchise for osteoporosis with the franchise achieving $1billion in sales during his tenure. Mr. Lalji also has cardiovascular experience from Merck & Company as the Director of Business Strategy for the cholesterol reducers and hypertension/heart failure franchises.
Mr. Lalji is currently a member of the Board of Overseers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, an academic teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Microbion Corporation based in Bozeman, Montana and is a member of the Board of Directors of Methylation Sciences Inc. of Burnaby, British Columbia.
Mr. Lalji holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia and a Science Masters in Health Policy and Management from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was awarded the Wilinsky Prize for Academic Excellence while at Harvard.
Following a distinguished career in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. John M. McCall is now President of PharMac LLC, a drug discovery, project management, project evaluation and research organisation. Dr. McCall began his career as a medicinal chemist with Upjohn, where he was Director of CNS Research. Subsequently he held positions as Vice President and Global Head of Chemistry for both Pharmacia and Pharmacia & Upjohn, and was Vice President Global Research and Development with Pfizer. Dr. McCall consults broadly and is a member of a number of important scientific advisory boards and steering committees, including his role as a spinal muscular atrophy project director for NINDS. Mr. Nixon is an independent businessman with more than 30 years of experience in venture capital, investment banking and operations. Mr. Nixon has previously held senior positions including: Senior Vice President of MDS Capital Corp.; Managing Partner & Director of Vengate Capital Partners Co. (Toronto); Senior Vice President, Finance & Administration, and Corporate Secretary of Kinetek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Vancouver); and Vice President, Finance & Chief Financial Officer of INEX Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Vancouver). Mr. Nixon has also held the positions of Vice President, Corporate Finance of Burns Fry Ltd. (now Nesbitt Burns) (Toronto) and Vice President of the Canadian Enterprise Development Corporation (Toronto). Mr. Nixon has served as a board member for numerous Canadian and U.S. companies and holds a MBA from the University of Western Ontario as well as a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary. John M. McCall
Dan Nixon
Dr. Roger Ulrich is co-founder and Chief Development Officer at Calistoga Pharmaceuticals Inc., located in Seattle, Washington. Previously, Dr. Ulrich held various leadership and research positions in the industry including Senior Scientific Director with Merck Research Laboratories-Rosetta Inpharmatics, Director of Regulatory Toxicology, Safety Pharmacology, and Cellular and Molecular Toxicology with Abbott Laboratories, and Senior Scientist with Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. He began his industry career with The Upjohn Company in the early 1980’s and has since participated in the discovery and development of several marketed drugs. Dr. Ulrich is a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences, has authored more than 125 publications, and holds several issued and pending patents. He received BA and MA degrees in Biology, Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences from Western Michigan University, and a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from West Virginia University.