James Sapirstein
Independent Director
Mr. Sapirstein joined the Board of Directors of the Registrant having served over thirty years in the pharmaceutical industry. He has been part of almost two dozen product launches and specifically either led or been a key member of several HIV product launches into a new class of therapeutics at that time.
Most recently from March 18, 2014 until October 3, 2018, he served as the CEO of ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which is a company specializing in the Hepatitis B space. After beginning his career in 1984 with Eli Lilly, he accepted a position at Hoffmann-LaRoche in 1987, where he served for almost a decade as part of its commercial teams in the US and abroad.
He held a number of positions at Hoffmann-LaRoche, before moving to Bristol Myers Squibb in 1996 the Director of International Marketing in the Infectious Disease group. While at BMS, he worked on several important HIV/AIDS projects including Secure the Future.
Mr. Sapirstein started his career in smaller biotech companies when he later joined Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) in order to lead the Global Marketing team in its launch of Viread (tenofovir). In 2002, he accepted the position of Executive Vice President Metabolic and Endocrinology for Serono Laboratories before becoming the founding CEO of Tobira Therapeutics in 2006. In 2012, after several years in the infectious diseases space, Mr. Sapirstein became the CEO of Alliqua Therapeutics at Alliqua, Inc., prior to joining Contravir. Mr. Sapirstein holds board positions with RespireRx Pharmaceuticals (RSPI) and Leading Biosciences.
He is also the Chairman of BioNJ and a Board Director for BIO, where he sits on both the Health Section Governing and Emerging Companies Section Governing Boards. Mr. Sapirstein received his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University and B.Pharm. from Rutgers University.
We believe Mr. Sapirstein’s extensive experience as a biotechnology executive and as a board member in the biopharma industry and industry associations qualifies him to serve as a director.
