Speech
Title: Azvudine, a novel nucleoside as effective treatment
forHIV and COVID-19 infections with potential for liver cancer
Location: ChinaAffiliation: President, Genuine Biotech
Biography: Max received his BS from Jilin University with
honors and earned a CGP Chinese national scholarship; he obtained hisPh.D. in
organic chemistry from Purdue University in 1992, joined Gensia (later became
Metabasis) as a medicinal chemistand worked until 2009 with his last position
as director of medicinal chemistry. Max then joined Merck as a Senior
Investigator in the External Basic Research department,and then from 2011 to
2013, he was Director of External Medicinal Chemistry, Asia Lead, based in
Shanghai facilitating Merck-CRO operations; 2013-2016, he was a Principle
Scientist in the exploratory chemistry department at the Kenilworth site. In
2016 he joined Eli Lilly as Asia Head, BD and External Innovation for diabetes
and CV research and worked until March 2018 before joining Qilu Pharmaceutical
as VP, Global Head of BD and External Innovation with responsibilities for all
BD and external collaborations globally including in-license, out-license and
setting strategies for drug discovery and external collaborations. From June
2019 to February 2021Max worked at CSPC as corporate VP, President of CSPC
Shanghai Research Institute, CEO of InnovStone Therapeutics, responsible for
small molecule new drug discovery efforts. In April 2021, Max joined Genuine
Biotech as President and responsible for all aspects of company business
including corporate strategy, R&D, financing etc. Max has extensive
experiences in business development globally and more than 25-years of
experiences as a manager of drug discovery programs spanning from early (Target
Selection and Validation, Lead Identification) to late (Lead Optimization and
candidate selection) stages; led programs that advanced multiple compounds into
human clinic trials (two completed Phase 2b POC studies); experiences in
therapeutic areas including diabetes, dyslipidemia, hepatitis B and C, liver
cancer, liver fibrosis, anemia, viral and bacterial infections; extensive
knowledge of Structure-based Drug Design, Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Delivery,
Prodrugs, Liver targeting Strategies, Combinatorial, Heterocyclic and
Nucleoside Chemistry; more than five years of managing drug discovery programs
executed at various CROs. His research activities have led to 91 publications
and 60 patents.
