Prior to joining ExSAR, Dr. Almassian had over eighteen years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across multiple disciplines including Research & Development, Operations, and Business Development. He joined ExSAR in 2005 and set about transforming the company from a platform-based drug discovery service provider to a drug development enterprise focused on protein misfolding disorders. Prior to joining ExSAR, Dr. Almassian was the Chief Operating Officer at Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a CNS and Oncology company in Maryland, where he oversaw research, development, operations and business development. At Panacea, he led the discovery of a novel class of neuroprotective agents including a lead drug, PAN-811, for potential treatment of stroke and traumatic brain injury.

Before joining Panacea, Dr. Almassian held several senior executive positions at VION Pharmaceuticals (VION), a spin-off from Yale University. As an officer of the company, he helped grow the start-up from 4 senior staff to over 75 full time employees over a six-year period. He built the drug development operations teams, which championed the development of five drugs and biologics through all phases of development. Dr. Almassian was instrumental in a number of important academic and pharma-biotech deals for VION, including a $57 million partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim to co-develop globally a Phase III head and neck cancer drug. Before VION, he was with Genelabs Technologies (GNLB) in California, where he was responsible for the pharmaceutical development of three drugs for the treatment of cancer, HIV and lupus.

Over his career, Dr. Almassian has authored numerous publications and several patents covering a broad range of therapeutic areas including CNS, cardiovascular and cancer. Dr. Almassian received his M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry from Northeastern University in Boston. After receiving his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences in Boston under the mentorship of Professor William O Foye, a world renowned medicinal chemist, he was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at Boston University Medical Center, where he performed cardiovascular and cancer research.

Company Profile (History) | Senior Management Team | Board of Directors | Scientific Advisory Board
Bijan Almassian, Ph.D. | Marc A. Silver, M.B.A. | Yoshitomo Hamuro, Ph.D. | Sam Milstein, Ph.D