Dr. Norbert Bischofberger (born 10 January 1956 in
Mellau
Mellau is a town in the Bregenz Forest in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg, part of the district of Bregenz.
Geography
Mellau covers an area of 40.55 km2. Mellau lies at the foot of the Kanisfluh mountain which is considered t ...
,
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
) is an Austrian
scientist
A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
and one of the inventors of the
antiviral drug
Antiviral drugs are a class of medication used for treating viral infections. Most antivirals target specific viruses, while a broad-spectrum antiviral is effective against a wide range of viruses. Antiviral drugs are a class of antimicrobials ...
Tamiflu
Oseltamivir, sold under the brand name Tamiflu among others, is an antiviral medication used to treat and prevent influenza A and influenza B, viruses that cause the flu. Many medical organizations recommend it in people who have complicati ...
generically known as
oseltamivir
Oseltamivir, sold under the brand name Tamiflu among others, is an antiviral medication used to treat and prevent influenza A and influenza B, viruses that cause the flu. Many medical organizations recommend it in people who have complicati ...
, which is, as of 2009, the only oral medication on the market to treat
influenza
Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...
A and B as well as the 2009 Pandemic H1N1 (
swine flu
Swine influenza is an infection caused by any of several types of swine influenza viruses. Swine influenza virus (SIV) or swine-origin influenza virus (S-OIV) refers to any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs. As ...
), the spread of which caused an ongoing
pandemic in 2009.
Bischofberger is currently the President & Chief Executive Officer of Kronos Bio, and previously was the Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at
Gilead Sciences
Gilead Sciences, Inc. () is an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Foster City, California, that focuses on researching and developing antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, and CO ...
, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in antivirals.
Education
Bischofberger has received a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
in Chemistry from the
University of Innsbruck
The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669.
It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...
, a
Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the
ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...
with Oskar Jeger, and has done postdoctoral work at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
with
George M. Whitesides and Syntex Research.
Tamiflu
He worked as part of the
DNA synthesis
DNA synthesis is the natural or artificial creation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules. DNA is a macromolecule made up of nucleotide units, which are linked by covalent bonds and hydrogen bonds, in a repeating structure. DNA synthesis occu ...
group at
Genentech
Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It operates as an independent subsidiary of holding company Roche. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent cent ...
from 1986 to 1990, before joining Gilead in 1990 as Director of Organic Chemistry. In 1993, he began work, as head of a team, to create Tamiflu. In 1996, clinical studies were carried out on the drug, which was the first orally active commercially developed anti-influenza medication. Explaining the motivation behind this, he said, "We decided to create a pill and not a medication to inhale because especially people who suffer from influenza struggle with breathing difficulties. And the agent would only reach the lung,"
Three years later, the right to market and develop Tamiflu were sold to
Roche
F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche (), is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational corporation, multinational holding healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, ...
, with Bischofberger and Gilead retaining the intellectual rights to it.
[
]
Other activities
* Kronos Bio, President & Chief Executive Officer, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2018)
* Morphic Therapeutics, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2019)
* Bayer
Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...
, Member of the supervisory board (since 2017)
* InCarda Therapeutics, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2016)InCarda Therapeutics Elects Dr. Norbert Bischofberger to Board of Directors
InCarda Therapeutics, press release of June 6, 2016.
References
External links
Forbes.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bischofberger, Norbert
Austrian scientists
20th-century Austrian chemists
Organic chemists
Austrian pharmacologists
Living people
1954 births
ETH Zurich alumni