David Perlin, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and government vp of the Hackensack Meridian Heart for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) has been honored with BioNJ’s 2023 Dr. Sol J. Barer Award for Imaginative and prescient, Innovation and Management.
Dr. Perlin has served because the founding chief scientific officer of the CDI since its inception in 2019 to handle unmet medical wants in infectious illnesses, cancers, behavioral well being, autoimmune, and neurocognitive issues, in addition to different acute and power well being issues.
“Dr. Perlin is an distinctive chief whose experience and dedication elevates and advances our well being community mission to remodel well being care and function a frontrunner of constructive change,” mentioned Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, chief government officer of Hackensack Meridian Well being. “He’s anticipating the unbelievable modifications coming within the well being care panorama – and discovering methods to maintain forward of the curve.”
“David is a colleague who’s making a distinction in all one of the best methods,” mentioned Sol Barer, Ph.D., present Chairman of the Board of Teva Prescription drugs, founding father of Celgene, and a biotech innovator and chief who’s the namesake of the award. “His is a thoughts which strives continuously for excellence, and he’s relentless in his pursuits.”
“We’re thrilled to honor Dr. Perlin with the 2023 Dr. Sol J. Barer Award for Imaginative and prescient, Innovation and Management for his tireless work on behalf of Sufferers, medical innovation and New Jersey’s ever-growing life sciences ecosystem,” mentioned BioNJ President and CEO Debbie Hart. “Pushed and passionate, Dr. Perlin is altering the lives of Sufferers world wide…tackling the unimaginable. He’s New Jersey’s personal innovation superhero.”
The CDI has been dedicated since its inception to make revolutionary science actionable for sufferers in actual time to ship on options for unmet medical wants. Over three plus years, the CDI has loved exponential success, evolving to incorporate 26 major investigators, greater than 170 staff, and, together with acquiring 57 NIH grants, it has garnered greater than $165 million in analysis commitments.
Dr. Perlin was lately promoted to government vp of the Hackensack Meridian Well being community. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDI, underneath his management, labored forward of the virus’s arrival in February 2020 and developed a take a look at that allowed the crew to triage sufferers through the crucial first wave of the pandemic. Dr. Perlin then oversaw profitable science in testing convalescent plasma therapies, and surveillance of the brand new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus over the past two years.
Most lately, Dr. Perlin leads a crew together with colleagues from Rockefeller College, Columbia College, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Rutgers, Merck and Aligos to find and create new antiviral medicine to battle SARS-CoV-2 and different coronavirus threats of the longer term. The consortium, referred to as the Metropolitan AntiViral Drug Accelerator (MAVDA), is funded by a $65 million grant with an choice to increase to $108 million over 5 years. It’s certainly one of 9 nationwide antiviral drug accelerators as a part of the NIH Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) program created underneath the Antiviral Program for Pandemics (APP), which was established to hurry improvement of therapeutics for COVID-19.
Dr. Perlin additionally leads an NIH-designated nationwide Heart of Excellence in Translational Analysis (CETR) to develop novel antibiotics towards high-threat drug resistant bacterial infections. This $33 million program has 4 superior compounds on the preclinical improvement stage.
“The work of David Perlin makes the lives of sufferers higher,” mentioned Ihor Sawczuk, M.D., FACS, the president of Lecturers, Analysis, and Innovation at Hackensack Meridian Well being, and likewise the founding chair of the Hackensack Meridian Well being Analysis Institute. “His work throughout COVID-91 specifically reveals simply how his imaginative and prescient of accelerating science from bench to bedside is crucial to Twenty first-century success.”
The Dr. Sol J. Barer Award was established by the BioNJ Board of Trustees in March 2008 to acknowledge excellent analysis and enterprise leaders who’ve made and proceed to make important contributions to the life sciences trade in New Jersey and globally. The nominee is voted on by the BioNJ Board of Trustees primarily based on nominations.
Previous recipients have included: Dr. Barer in addition to Dr. Lisa Drakeman, former president and CEO, Genmab; John Johnson, former president and CEO, Dendreon; John Crowley, chairman and CEO, Amicus Therapeutics; Paul Thomas, founder and former CEO, Roka Bioscience; Dr. Francois Nader, former president and CEO, NPS Prescription drugs; Dr. Stuart Peltz, CEO, PTC Therapeutics; Dr. Abe Abuchowski, former CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Lengthen Prescription drugs; Dr. Clive Meanwell, former CEO, The Medicines Firm; Fred Hassan, managing director, Warburg Pincus; Dr. Andrew Pecora, former chief improvements officer, Hackensack Meridian Well being; Dr. Invoice Hait, world head, Johnson & Johnson Exterior Innovation; and Kenneth Frazier, government chairman and former CEO, Merck & Co.; and Judith M. Persichilli, commissioner, New Jersey State Division of Well being.
Dr. Perlin was offered with the Dr. Sol J. Barer Award by Dr. Barer himself, on the night of Feb. 2, 2023, throughout BioNJ’s Annual Dinner Assembly and Innovation Celebration on the East Brunswick Hilton.