Partnerships Latin America Speaker Spotlight: Jeffrey S. Kasher, Ph.D.

Jeffrey S. Kasher, Ph.D., was named vice president and chief operating officer, global clinical development for Eli Lilly and Company in February 2007.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, Pa), a doctorate in pharmacology from the State University of New York (Syracuse) and a postdoctoral fellowship in physiology at Yale University School of Medicine.

Kasher joined Lilly in 1986 as a senior pharmacologist in the department of drug metabolism and disposition where he made numerous contributions to the discovery and development of projects in the infectious disease therapeutic area. In 1992, he was named manager of pharmaceutical project management. Kasher had operational responsibility for the Zyprexa (olanzapine) heavyweight team from 1995 to 1998, successfully leading the late phase development, global submissions, and launches of the product. In 1998, he was named director of pharmaceutical products, where he helped establish Lilly’s product team organization.

Kasher moved to Belgium in 2000 as the managing director for the research and development site in Mont Saint-Guibert. Upon his return to Indianapolis in 2003, he served as operations director and then executive director for discovery biology in Lilly Research Labs, leading the transformation of the division into therapeutically-focused drug hunting teams.

Most recently, Kasher served as the executive director of the osteoarthritis/rheumatoid arthritis platform team, leading the development of an integrated strategy for a portfolio of novel drug candidates.

Jeffrey Kasher, PhD, Vice President and COO, Global Clinical Development, Eli Lilly and Company, is the 2010 Partnerships in Clinical Trials Latin America Conference Chair. He will also be presenting, "Understand the Different Outsourcing Models."