Enveda Biosciences announced the appointment of Vanitha Sekar, Ph.D., R.Ph., to the newly created position of Chief Business Officer. Dr. Sekar will play a key role in Enveda’s ongoing growth and will be responsible for shaping the company’s business development strategy.

Dr. Sekar brings more than 20 years of business development, corporate strategy and R&D experience in pharma and biotech to Enveda. She joins Enveda from Gilead Sciences, the global biopharmaceutical company, where she was Head of Corporate Development for its flagship virology therapeutic area.

Prior to joining Gilead, Dr. Sekar was Executive Director, Business Development & Licensing, for Merck Research Laboratories. Before joining Merck, she served in multiple roles at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, including business development and R&D, and led the evaluation of multiple opportunities with cross-functional teams and business partners. She has closed numerous deals for preclinical and clinical stage assets during her career.

Dr. Sekar also has helped to develop and execute strategies for new chemical entity development, life-cycle management and post-marketing for anti-HIV and hepatitis B and C drugs. Prior to her tenure at Johnson & Johnson, she led clinical pharmacology at Tibotec U.S., which was acquired by J&J and became part of Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Sekar also spent five years as Acting Team Leader and Senior Reviewer for antiviral and neuropharmacological drugs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She earned her doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani.

“Vanitha is an exceptionally experienced, knowledgeable pharma and biotech executive who has forged key partnerships throughout our industry and understands it well,” said Viswa Colluru, Ph.D., Enveda’s CEO.

“We are excited to welcome Vanitha to Enveda, where her 20 years of experience creating value for companies, their partners and investors is a key addition to our team and commercial efforts. She joins Enveda at a fantastic time, as we are making important, rapid advances through our platform and our pipeline is showing great progress. All of us look forward to working with Vanitha as we continue our work to bring hope to patients everywhere.”