Speech Title: Azvudine, a novel nucleoside as effective treatment forHIV and COVID-19 infections with potential for liver cancer
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.