Developing World Cures
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DWC’s management team is composed of a team of highly talented and experienced pharmaceutical research and development scientists and healthcare executives. Strong expertise throughout the pharmaceutical value chain is resident within the organization. This team will bring its considerable skills and expertise to identify projects with high medical need, as well as a high likelihood of success, plan rapid and cost effective development programs and execute these plans to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals to bring new medicines and diagnostics to the developing world.

Peter Farina, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Peter Farina is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Developing World Cures. Before founding DWC, Dr. Farina was Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he was responsible for the company’s North American pre-clinical drug development in the therapeutic areas of immunology/inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, and virology. Dr. Farina also served as Vice President of Research for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. during his 28 year career with the company. Among Dr. Farina’s s notable accomplishments are the successful development and registration of Aptivus (tipranavir), an HIV protease inhibitor, Viramune (nevirapine) a transcriptase inhibitor and Atrovert HFA for COPD and emphysema. He is also the author of over fifty publications and patents.

Dr. Farina currently serves as the Co-Chairman of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE), senior fellow for the Center for Biological Innovation (CBI) at MIT, an advisory board member of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, a member of NYAS President’s Council, as executive in residence to Canaan Partners, senior advisor to PureTech Ventures, and as an advisor to other biotech companies.

Dr. Farina’s received a B.S. in chemistry from Hofstra University, and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from SUNY Buffalo. Dr. Farina went on to do postdoctoral work as an NIH Fellow in bio-organic chemistry with Stephen Benkovic at the Pennsylvania State University.

Senior Management

Valerie Ceva, MBA

Valerie Ceva brings a diverse and extensive set of business skills and life sciences experience to the company. She has a successful track record in healthcare strategic consulting, business development and global venture capital transactions. This includes over 20 years of experience in operational and leadership roles with major pharmaceutical firms and healthcare start-ups, as well as in consulting and private equity/venture capital.

Ms. Ceva is a Partner with The Strategic Choice, a life sciences management consulting firm and was previously a Partner with VentureWorks, LLC. In this capacity, she has focused on emerging technology: supporting venture capital firms in strategy development and investment, and supporting early stage companies in business model development, venture capital acquisition and operational execution. She has specialized in biodefense, biotechnology and ehealth. Ms. Ceva’s recent work included several long term projects such as: creation of a vaccine/diagnostic company, the development and execution of a new strategy for a top tier venture firm (acting deal team) and operating as interim COO for an ehealth company during the expansion/commercialization stage. Prior to her work at VentureWorks, Ms. Ceva held key positions at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Strategy, US and Corporate Business Development, Marketing and Sales, as well as Venture Manager at Accel Partners. Ms. Ceva’s broad portfolio of responsibilities involved all of the life sciences divisions, such as Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Generics and Vision Care.

Ms. Ceva has a BS in Biology from Bucknell University and an MBA from University of Chicago.

Susan Levinson, Ph.D.

Susan Levinson brings to DWC direct experience across the entire pharmaceutical value chain from research to marketing. Dr. Levinson founded The Strategic Choice, a life sciences management consulting firm in 2006, after 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry. As a pharmaceutical executive, her experience included leadership roles in marketing, licensing and business development, project management, drug discovery, development and strategic planning. Most recently, Dr. Levinson held executive positions in Business Strategy and Marketing Planning for Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Here Dr. Levinson established a new global brand planning model for the US organization, and managed the annual strategic and tactical planning process and led numerous strategy and change initiatives. Dr. Levinson also was responsible for New Product Marketing for HRT, osteoporosis and chronic wound markets and for launching a major cardiovascular product. She began her career at Novartis as Director of Licensing for the former Ciba-Geigy organization, where she led licensing strategy and negotiations within the Bone, Inflammation, Pulmonary and Oncology therapeutic areas. As a business development and marketing executive, she has been responsible for research agreements, product and technology licenses, as well as marketing alliances for products cumulatively worth over a billion dollars. Prior to Ciba-Geigy, Dr. Levinson founded and built a technology licensing practice . She began her career in drug discovery research and as a Principal Scientist, managed drug discovery programs.

Dr. Levinson has a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology.

James Stevenson, Ph.D.

Dr. Stevenson has a broad range of skills and experience gained in over 28 years in Pharmaceutical Research and Development at Merck and Company and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Most recently, he was the Director, Chemistry Information Technologies at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Ridgefield, CT. His experience includes work in Process Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Biophysics, Computational Chemistry, Structural Biology and Information Technology.  He created and led groups involved in new technologies and brings to DWC problem solving capabilities covering the entire R&D process.

Major scientific contributions include structural and physical explanation of the unusual mechanism of action of several important therapeutic agents including: non-nucleoside inhibitors of HIV reverse transcriptase (nevirapine for AIDS), p38 MAP kinase and LFA-1. In addition, Dr. Stevenson has experience in compound development, coordinating the activities for a novel anitinflammatory agent from start of development through Phase II. He published the first practical use of Raman Spectroscopy to distinguish polymorphic crystal forms of drug substances (enalapril maleate).

Dr. Stevenson received both his B.A. in Chemistry and Physics and Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University. Prior to embarking on a career in Pharma R&D, he was on the faculty of the Chemistry Department at the University of Rhode Island.

Senior Advisors

DWC has assembled an outstanding team of pharmaceutical experienced executives.

Richard Chizzonite, Ph.D.

Dr. Chizzonite is Director, Global Business Development at Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc. and was formerly Executive Director of R&D Global Licensing Group, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Ridgefield, CT. He has over 26 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry having held leadership positions in R&D and licensing and business development. Most recently, Dr. Chizzonite was responsible for global licensing for ardiovascular disease and chronic inflammatory diseases, as well as enabling technologies. Dr. Chizzonite also held the position of research leader at Hoffman LaRoche and in that capacity was responsible for drug discovery in the area of inflammation and immunological diseases.  Dr. Chizzonite received his Ph.D. from University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine,

Jayne Douglas, M.D.

Dr. Douglas is Principal at Cardinal Coaching and Consulting and former Vice President, Development at Pfizer Global R&D. Dr. Douglas has 23 years of experience in medical device and pharmaceutical research and development, primarily in the areas of global clinical trials and outcomes research. Dr. Douglas has also held the positions of VP, Development Site Head and VP, Clinical R&D site head at Pfizer Global R&D.  Dr. Douglas has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, an M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine and an M.S. in Management from Hartford Graduate Center.

Diana Galer, Ph.D., D.A.B.T.

Dr. Galer is Principal at Galer Consulting Services and former Vice President, Strategic Management Group, Pfizer, Inc. Dr. Galer brings extensive experience in toxicology, pharmacokinetics/metabolism and regulatory affairs in both the human and animal pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Galer has also held the positions of VP, Operations, Drug Safety Research Development and VP, Worldwide Head, Safety Sciences Global Operations at Pfizer Global R&D.  Dr. Douglas has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from McGill University and a Ph.D. from New York University.

Gerald T. Miwa, Ph.D. Dr. Gerald Miwa is President of Nextcea, Inc., a company devoted to the identification and utilization of biomarkers for drug efficacy and toxicity. Prior to his appointment at Nextcea he was Vice President of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA where he was responsible for ensuring that drug development candidates had adequate exposure to be effective in patients, minimizing drug-drug interactions, and anticipating toxicities arising from drug metabolites. During his career, Dr. Miwa directly contributed to the pharmaceutical development and registration of a number of drugs including: Ivermectins, Zofran, Ultiva, Zocor, Sustiva and Velcade.  He is past chairman of the Drug Metabolism Steering Committee for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) and chairman of the Gordon Conference on Drug Metabolism. He is a member of multiple societies related to DMPK and toxicology, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and author of more than 90 ublications and book chapters in the DMPK field.  Dr. Miwa completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Hoffmann La Roche. Dr. Miwa was the head of DMPK at Millennium, DuPont, and Glaxo Pharmaceutical companies and a research scientist at Merck and Hoffmann La Roche companies.

Paul Pescatello, J.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Pescatello is CEO and President of CURE, DWC’s fiscal sponsor. CURE is a CT statewide coalition of over 100 educational and research institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Mr. Pescatello is an attorney and lobbyist with over 20 years of technology, public affairs and public policy experience. Mr. Pescatello serves on numerous boards including Connecticut Innovations, Inc., a quasi-public seed and venture capital firm, and the United Way of Connecticut. He also serves on the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee.  Dr. Pescatello received a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. He also holds a B.A. in political economy from Colorado College.

Michael Rosenberg, M.D., MPH

Dr. Rosenberg is President and CEO of Health Decisions, Inc., a private clinical research company. In studies conducted throughout the world, the company has established itself as a leader in the application of technology to improve the efficiency and speed of clinical trials. Dr. Rosenberg has been involved with the strategic design and execution of pharmaceutical development programs for more than 25 years. Dr. Rosenberg is the author of more than a hundred and fifty scientific articles and serves on numerous advisory groups in business, technology and medicine. He currently serves as Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Rosenberg has worked with the CDC and has run clinical trials in numerous developing world countries. Dr. Rosenberg completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of California and received a Master's Degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Hong Xu, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Xu has 15 years experience at Pfizer in both research and business development. She was responsible for identifying novel disease targets and assay development that led to two research collaborations. During her tenure with Pfizer business development, Dr. Xu led multiple licensing teams in cardiovascular, diabetes, bone disorders, oncology, infectious diseases and gastrointestinal therapy areas, which led to completion of several licensing and acquisitions deals. Dr. Xu also consults on biotech and pharmaceutical business through WE BioSciences, LLC.  She has consulted with Boston University Office of Technology Development, Shanghai Medicilon Inc. and Beta Pharma Inc.  Hong is passionate about bridging technologies and therapeutics between the western world with the emerging markets and the under developed countries through entrepreneur organizations.  Dr. Xu holds a Ph.D in Molecular Biology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School studying molecular immunology with knock-out mice technology.  Dr. Xu received her M.D. from Beijing University Medical School. 

George Zavoico, Ph.D.

Dr. Zavoico is an Equity Research Analyst – Life Sciences at Westport Capital Markets LLC, Westport, CT. He joined Westport Capital Markets in 2009 after three years as an Equity Research Analyst, specializing in the Life Sciences sector, at Cantor Fitzgerald. His focus is on privately-held and publicly traded (micro to mid-cap) biotechnology, specialty pharmaceuticals, and molecular diagnostics companies engaged in the discovery and development of therapeutics and value-added diagnostics for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. Prior to Cantor Fitzgerald, Dr. Zavoico was President of Cronamere Consulting Group LLC, an independent biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry consulting and medical writing and media company that he established in 1997. Dr. Zavoico was a research program director at Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and T Cell Sciences Inc., as well as a Senior Research Scientist in the Cardiovascular Biochemistry division at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Zavoico received a Bachelor of Science in biology from St. Lawrence University, and a doctorate degree in physiology from the University of Virginia. He held post-doctoral positions at the University of Connecticut Health Center and Brigham & Women’s Hospital ( Harvard University).

Directors and Scientific Advisory Board

The company is in the process of recruiting a board of directors. The board will be responsible for overseeing financial controls, intellectual property, and company policies. The board will also act as ambassadors for DWC to gain support for the company’s mission. The board members will be chosen from among the following:

CEO(s) from the pharmaceutical or biotech industry, noted Professors of Science or Medicine who are recognized as international scholars, a diplomat and international policy advisor, a legal expert in pharmaceuticals and international trade relations, an expert in business administration and finance, a noted goodwill ambassador and highly recognized former government leader.

A scientific advisory board (SAB) will also be established. The SAB will assist in identifying critical medical needs in developing countries and provide scientific and clinical expertise for DWC’s assessment of IP and R&D strategic planning. Therapeutic area and targets for research will be identified with input from the SAB. In addition, the SAB will critique research programs and DWC’s scientific efforts.