Dr. Charlie Gombar, PhD

Dr Gombar is currently Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Program Management at Pyxis Oncology. Prior to that Dr. Gombar was Deputy Director, HIV drugs at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he was responsible for the programs investing in the development of long acting antiretrovirals for prevention of HIV infection.

Before joining the Gates Foundation Dr. Gombar was Senior Vice President of Project Management and Pharmaceutical Development at Endo Pharmaceuticals. In that role he led a group of project leaders and project managers responsible for the successful development of new drugs and devices, a group of scientists responsible for formulation development. In addition, Dr. Gombar was responsible for overall portfolio management for Endo R&D.

Prior to Endo, Dr Gombar was head of the Development Strategy and Operations Optimization within Biotherapeutics Research at Pfizer (formerly Wyeth). He joined Wyeth Research in 1997 where he held several positions. Prior to the acquisition of Wyeth by Pfizer he was Vice President, R&D Strategy and Business Improvement. In that role he led a group whose purpose was to help define the strategic path forward in R&D to help Wyeth thrive in the increasingly challenging environment and to drive process improvements in R&D. Prior to that Dr. Gombar led the team developing methylnaltrexone for treatment of opioid-induced constipation and post-operative ileus. The methylnaltrexone team was Wyeth Research’s first “High-Impact” development team. Before the methylnaltrexone assignment Dr. Gombar was Vice President, Project Management, responsible for all R&D projects in Neuroscience and Women’s Health & Bone, as well as drug development training for all project team members. While at Wyeth he served as project leader for the development of zaleplon (Sonata), new indications for the antidepressant venlafaxine (Effexor XR), and other agents being developed for Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, neuropathic pain, and stroke.

Dr. Gombar has held positions in the Drug Metabolism Department as well as Project Management at SmithKline Beecham, where he was project leader for several cardiovascular development projects including carvedilol (Coreg®). He spent several years in Project management at Sterling Winthrop where his project responsibilities included the antiplatelet agent clopidogrel (Plavix®). Dr. Gombar’s other Project Management experience was at Knoll Pharmaceutical Co. where he led development efforts in Neuroscience. Dr. Gombar also served a Vice President of Clinical Operations at the CRO Biopharm Clinical Services.

Dr. Gombar has been involved in teaching courses in drug development for the Pharmaceutical Education Research Institute and elsewhere. He is currently the director of the American Course in drug Development and Regulatory Science being sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Gombar received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Pace University and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the Albany Medical College.