Our Scientific Advisory Committee
Vince Ammoscato, M.Sc.
Vince has over 31 years of hands-on technical experience in the pharmaceutical industry, serving in various scientific and leadership roles at Ash Stevens/Piramal between 1990 and 2021.
His experience as a Process Development Scientist and Operations Lead includes the development, manufacture, and project management of multiple new chemical entities (NCEs) from preclinical development through commercialization.
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Vince also has extensive expertise in the development, manufacture, and commercialization of High Potent Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HPAPIs), which includes the design and construction of the required facilities for safe operations. He has extensive knowledge of regulatory requirements for drug substances, having managed all business and technical disciplines necessary to fulfill the requirements of the CMC sections for INDs/NDAs.
From 2017 to 2021, Vince served as Vice President, Site Head with full P&L responsibilities for Ash Stevens/Piramal.
Vince holds a master’s in science in Organic Chemistry from the University of Windsor, Canada.
Sylvia B. Bartel, RPh, MHP, CPEL
Sylvia B. Bartel, RPh, MHP, CPEL, is the Senior Vice President of Pharmacy, Chief Pharmacy Officer at Dana-Farber where she has served in various pharmacy positions over the past 30 years. Ms. Bartel obtained her pharmacy degree from the University of Wisconsin, School of Pharmacy in Madison, and her Master of Health Professions from Northeastern University, Graduate School of Bouvé College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston, MA. She completed a postgraduate pharmacy residency program at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.
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Ms. Bartel’s areas of interest include the development and implementation of strategic clinical and operational pharmacy initiatives, exploring and implementing AI-driven solutions to enhance pharmacy practice, optimizing financial performance and streamlining operations, and focusing on system improvements to ensure safety throughout the entire medication use process.
Alan Bowe
Alan Bowe, Chief Commercial Officer at Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, plays a pivotal role in advancing the company’s mission to deliver transparent, affordable prescription medications directly to patients and healthcare providers. As part of Mark Cuban’s leadership team, Alan has helped create systemic change in healthcare by challenging traditional industry models with a mission-driven approach to public health.
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Prior to joining Cost Plus Drugs, Alan served in leadership roles at Wockhardt, Exela Pharma Sciences and Par Pharmaceuticals. Alan is a graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland where he holds a Bachelor of Engineering.
Donald (Donny) Campodonico, J.D.,
Donny has been engaged in pharmaceutical drug development since 2002, working at multiple Bay Area human and animal pharmaceutical companies, such as Nektar Therapeutics, Exelixis, Inc., and Kindred BioSciences, and was an associate at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery.
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Currently, Donny serves as the Director, Research Operations – Contracts and Compliance at Stanford University School of Medicine, in addition to providing legal counsel to external clients in his personal capacity. Donny graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law in 2011 and has been a member in good standing of the California Bar Association since 2011.
Dr. Molly Chiah
Dr. Molly Chiah holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from the Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and has nearly 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Molly has worked in many pharmacy settings, including hospital pharmacy, long-term care, retail, and specialty pharmacy. She has also served as the lead pharmacist on clinical trials, including Phase 2 and 3 studies for COVID-19 treatment, a targeted cancer vaccine, and HIV and Hepatitis B therapies.
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Dr. Daniels’ research focus has been on pharmacoeconomics, safe medication systems, medication use quality, and quality pharmacy patient care. Recent work has evaluated the role of technology in reducing medication errors and enhancing patient-pharmacist interaction. His team is also examining the use of multi-hospital data in drug costs and improving outcomes. Dr. Daniels is a founding member of the Steering Committee for the Pharmacoeconomics Forum at UC San Diego.
Milana Dolezal, MD, MSc
Milana Dolezal, MD, MSc is a fellowship-trained hematologist oncologist board-certified in hematology, oncology, and internal medicine. She provides care at the Stanford Medicine Cancer Center in Emeryville. Dr. Dolezal also has extensive experience in research and drug development. She previously held positions as a clinical scientist, assistant medical director, and associate medical director.
W. Lawrence Drew, MD, PhD
W. Lawrence Drew, MD, PhD is the Director, Clinical Virology Laboratory and Professor of Laboratory Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. He has overseen multiple studies of cytomegalovirus infection in people with HIV, including a nationwide, 13-center collaborative study.
Russell A. Gall
Russell A. Gall is an operations executive and consultant with over 35 years of senior leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He served as chief manufacturing and supply chain officer on the executive leadership team of Civica, Inc., and has also served on the Boards of Directors of Hamlin Scientific, North Carolina Wesleyan College, and Nash Community College Foundation.
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Russ has been responsible for more than 24 global manufacturing sites, including the production of controlled injectable drugs, radiopharmaceuticals, potent compounds, oncolytics, cephalosporins, lyophilized products, specialty chemicals/APIs, drug delivery systems, and medical devices. Functional responsibilities have included all aspects of Manufacturing, Quality, R&D, Supply Chain, Engineering, Maintenance, Finance, HR, EH&S, IS, OpEx, and Contract Manufacturing. Among his many positions on the pharmaceutical industry, Russ served as VP of Ops/GM for B. Braun Medical’s IV Solutions, and as the VP of Ops/GM for Teva Parenteral Medicines, Inc.
Russ graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Microbiology and Public Health and Packaging Engineering and is the recipient of a U.S. patent.
Nutan Gangrade, Ph.D.
Nutan is a scientist and leader with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Before starting his own consulting company, Nutan was a founding team member of QS Pharma, a startup CDMO. Under his leadership, the company evolved from an early-stage clinical service provider to a commercial product manufacturer. The company was acquired by Quotient Science, where he continued to serve as the Global Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development.
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Before his tenure in the CDMO industry, Nutan served in various scientific and CMC leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb, DuPont Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth-Ayerst, and American Cyanamid. Nutan has a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Georgia and a Master’s in Pharmaceutics from Banaras Hindu University in India.
David Gaugh, R.Ph.
David is a visionary leader with over 30 years of senior leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry, driving strategic planning and execution in areas such as pharmaceutical product development, regulatory affairs, business development, marketing, and sales, as well as project management, financial management, contract management, and quality initiatives.
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Davids positions have included System Director of Pharmacy for a large hospital consortium in the mid-West, Senior Director of Pharmacy Contracting for the largest hospital group purchasing organization, Vice President of Sales and Marketing and then General Manager of the generic and biosimilars division of a brand pharmaceutical company, Executive Vice President for a Washington, DC, based pharmaceutical lobbying firm (Association for Accessible Medicines), including two-years as the firms Interim President and CEO.
W. David Hardy, MD
Dr. W. David Hardy is a scientific and medical consultant focusing on developing novel vaccine and cure/remission strategies for human viral diseases. He serves as Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He served as Senior Director of Research at Whitman-Walker Health in Washington D.C., overseeing NIH-funded ACTG trials and HIV Cohort studies and industry-sponsored trials from 2015-2018.
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During that time he also held an academic appointment as Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Hardy received his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine and completed his residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr Hardy currently serves as Chair of the Education Committee and member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of HIV Medicine.
Dr. Emil Kakkis
Dr. Kakkis is Chief Executive Officer, President and a Director of Ultragenyx, a biotech company dedicated to developing treatments—where one never before existed—for rare and ultra-rare disease.
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Prior to founding Ultragenyx, Dr. Kakkis worked for Biomarin where he guided the development and approval of three treatments for rare diseases (MPS I, MPS VI and PKU). He has worked to advance the cause of rare disease treatment through advocacy on policy issues by founding and supporting the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to the acceleration of biotech innovation for rare diseases through practical and scientifically sound improvements to development strategies, regulatory policy and law.
Dr. Kakkis received the Life Science Leadership Pantheon award from California Life Sciences, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National MPS Society, the Roscoe O. Brady Award for Innovation and Accomplishment from the WORLDSymposium, and BIO’s Henri Termeer Visionary Leadership award for this transformative work in rare diseases.
Dr. Kakkis graduated from Pomona College, magna cum laude, and received the Vaile prize for his biology research. He received combined M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the UCLA Medical Scientist Program and received the Bogen Prize for his research upon graduation.
Simona Merica, Ph.D., RAC
Simona Merica is a quality executive and consultant with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including pre-clinical, clinical and commercial operations. She has extensive knowledge of quality assurance, compliance, regulatory, analytical chemistry and quality control. Simona is a proven transformational leader who empowers teams to deliver high-quality, compliant, and sustainable business results.
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She is highly experienced in the development and maintenance of quality systems, policies, cGMP compliance, and continuous improvement, as well as risk mitigation, site remediation, and leading successful customer and regulatory agency inspections and audits.
She previously held positions as Senior Quality Director at regional and site levels in global organizations, successfully working with established and start-up firms to develop solutions and implement industry best practices. She also enjoys taking on Acting Site Head of Quality roles to make a positive impact.
Simona graduated from the University of Guelph with a M.Sc. degree in Organic Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry.
Theodore Ruel, MD
Theodore Ruel, MD is a Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. His research focuses on the optimization of treatment outcomes of children born with HIV.
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He serves as vice-chair of the National Institutes of Health/Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Antiretroviral Therapy and Medical Management of HIV-infected Children and as advisor to the Pediatric AIDS Working Group at the World Health Organization.
Kevin A. Schulman, MD
Dr. Schulman is a Professor of Medicine, Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC) at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and, by courtesy, Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He is the Faculty Director of Stanford’s new applied master degree program, the Master’s of Science in Clinical Informatics Management program.
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Dr. Schulman is a health economist/health services researcher working at the intersection of business, medicine and technology. With over 500 publications, Kevin Schulman has had a broad impact on health policy.
He has been actively researching the pharmaceutical market for most of his career, including the economics of branded pharmaceuticals and the role of PBMs in the pharmaceutical market. He led a research team that described the economics of drug shortages and price spikes in the generic drug market in the US (Wiske CP, Ogbechie OA, Schulman KA. Options to promote competitive generics markets in the United States. JAMA. 2015 Oct 29:1-2).
He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, the New York University School of Medicine, and The Wharton Health Care Management Program.