George Holland, PhD – President
Prior to organizing Aviara Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Dr. Holland served 9 years at Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (formerly Texas Biotechnology Corp.) where he was Vice President of Chemical Sciences. Previous to Encysive, Dr. Holland was for 26 years with Hoffmann-La Roche (Nutley) where he served both as senior therapeutic area management and leader of medicinal/synthetic chemistry groups working on a broad range of synthetic and therapeutic targets. At Encysive he was involved in all phases of the drug discovery and development effort that resulted in the regulatory approval and commercialization of the endothelin antagonist Thelin in North America, Europe and Australia. Dr. Holland has more than 36 publications and 50 patents. He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Iowa State University and conducted postdoctoral studies at Purdue University with Nobel Laureate Herbert C. Brown.
Board of Directors
George Holland PhD, President, Aviara Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Richard A.F. Dixon PhD, Chairman, Board of Directors
Dr. Dixon is Director of Molecular Cardiology Research, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, Texas. Formerly he was a Founder, Director, and Chief Scientific Officer of Encysive Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he held various management positions, including head of the molecular biology department at Merck and Co. He conducted postdoctoral research as a Fellow of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the Nobel Laureate Daniel Nathans studying the action of SV40 T antigen in viral replication. At Merck, his research group studied the molecular biology of the ras oncogene and other proteins which regulate its function, including rasGAP and farnesyl transferases. He and his research groups have produced 10 NCEs which have entered into human testing, one of which has lead to the approved drug Thelin™. He has also been directly involved with 4 other NDA programs that have resulted in the approved drugs Argatroban, Crixivan, Singular, and Zocor. He is currently an advisor to the Enav Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.
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