Giovanni Gaviraghi - Biography#

With 150 publications and 20 patents to his credit, Dr. Giovanni Gaviraghi has a wealth of experience in Pharmaceutical Research and Development. He is C.E.O. of Siena Biotech, that he built up starting from its very beginning in 2001. Before joining Siena Biotech, he spent more than 20 years in Glaxo, Verona, Italy where he set up a Research Centre housing about 700 researchers which is still one of the Centre of Excellence in Drug Discovery within GSK. He held a number of responsibilities besides the R&D Directorship of the Research Centre, at an international level as a member of the Glaxo Management Team of the R&D global organization, and at local level as Member of the Board of the Italian Company. In this context, he was also involved in supporting the commercial operations, linking research and development activities to the marketing and sales department. His areas of research and development include: central nervous system diseases (stroke, pain, and depression), infectious diseases (betalactams, quinolones, macrolides), and cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, arteriosclerosis and cardiac ischemia). He was involved in the identification and progression through the development of several NCE (e.g. NMDA antagonist for the treatment of stroke, new betalactams such as trinems), and in the identification, development, launch and marketing of Lacidipine, a potent once daily calcium channel blocker for the treatment of hypertension. Before joining Glaxo, he held the positions of Head of Lab at ISF, a medium-sized Pharmaceutical Company in Milan, and of Lecturer at Polytechnic of Milan. He graduated in Synthetic Organic Chemistry and Medicine, and in May 2009 received a honorary degree in Pharmacy from The University of Siena.