Cidara Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel anti-infectives and immunotherapies to treat fungal and other infections, announced today the appointments of Paul Daruwala as chief commercial officer and James Balkovec, Ph.D. as senior vice president, Research.
Paul Daruwala has more than 22 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and joins Cidara to lead commercial and business development strategy and execution. Paul joins Cidara from Bristol Myers Squibb, where he served as vice president of the U.S. Viral Hepatitis Franchise, responsible for leading the U.S. launch platform in HCV and running the HBV business for BARACLUDE®.
Prior to Bristol Myers Squibb, Paul served as vice president Commercial & Strategic Management at Vertex, where he helped lead the U.S. launch of INCIVEK® for HCV. At the time, INCIVEK® became the fastest drug launch to achieve blockbuster status. Paul had previously spent 18 years at Merck in U.S. and global commercial leadership roles in antivirals, antifungals, anti-inflammatory products, business development, managed markets, and sales management. Among these, he led the global commercialization efforts for the first approved echinocandin antifungal drug, caspofungin (CANCIDAS®).
Jim Balkovec has more than 28 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has a broad background in drug discovery. Jim joins Cidara from Merck, where he served previously as senior scientific director and team leader managing programs in infectious disease, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory, and thrombosis disease areas, and has brought more than a dozen development candidates into clinical development. Among these, he led the discovery efforts for, and is a co-inventor of, the first approved echinocandin antifungal drug, caspofungin (CANCIDAS®).
About Cidara Therapeutics
Cidara is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel anti-infectives for the treatment of diseases that are inadequately addressed by current standard-of-care therapies. Cidara’s initial portfolio is comprised of a long-acting echinocandin antifungal product candidate CD101 IV, and CD101 topical, for the treatment of serious fungal infections. In addition, Cidara has developed a proprietary immunotherapy platform, Cloudbreak™, designed to create compounds that direct a patient’s immune cells to attack and eliminate pathogens that cause infectious disease. Cidara is headquartered in San Diego, California.
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