Leslie Z. Benet
Dr. Benet, Professor and former Chairman (1978-1998), Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, received his A.B. (English), B.S. (Pharmacy), M.S. from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. from the University of California. He has received seven honorary doctorates: Uppsala University, Sweden (Pharm.D., 1987), Leiden University, The Netherlands (Ph.D., 1995), University of Illinois at Chicago (D.Sc., 1997), Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (D.Sc., 1997), Long Island University (D.Sc., 1999), University of Athens, Greece (Ph.D., 2005) and University of Leuven, Belgium (Ph.D., 2010). His research interests, more than 500 publications, 7 books and 11 patents are in the areas of pharmacokinetics, biopharmaceutics, drug delivery and pharmacodynamics. Dr. Benet is listed by ISI as one of the most highly cited pharmacologists worldwide, with his published peer-reviewed papers cited more than 15,000 time.

His most recent work has addressed the interplay of metabolic enzymes and transport proteins as related to oral bioavailability and hepatic elimination, and the development of the Biopharmaceutics Drug Disposition Classification System (BDDCS). Dr. Benet was a Founder/Editor of the JOURNAL OF PHARMACOKINETICS AND BIOPHARMACEUTICS (1973-98) and Associate Editor of PHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS (1995-2000). He presently serves a member of the Editorial boards of PHARMACOLOGY, CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACEUTICAL BULLETIN, MOLECULAR INTERVENTIONS, DRUG METABOLISM AND PHARMACOKINETICS, AAPS JOURNAL, CURRENT DRUG METABOLISM, EXPERT OPINION ON DRUG METABOLISM & TOXICOLOGY and ARCHIVES OF DRUG INFORMATION. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1982, Dr. Benet received the APhA Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS)

Research Achievement Award in Pharmaceutics and the University of Michigan, College of Pharmacy, Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 1985, he served as President of APS. During 1986, Dr. Benet was a Founder and first President of the AAPS. In 1987, Dr. Benet was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1989, he was chosen to receive the first AAPS Distinguished Pharmaceutical Scientist Award. In 1990, he was the recipient of the Rho Chi Lecture Award, and the UCSF Long Teaching Award, while in 1991, he received the Volwiler Research Achievement Award of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). In 1993-94, he served as AACP President. In 1995, he received the Rawls-Palmer Progress in Medicine Award of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) and delivered the American College of Clinical Pharmacy “Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture.” In 1996, he received the AAPS Distinguished Service Award, and in 2000 the

APhA Takeru Higuchi Research Prize and the AAPS Wurster Research Award in Pharmaceutics. In 2001 he was awarded the Høst-Madsen Medal of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and the UCSF Outstanding Faculty Mentorship Award. In 2004, he was awarded the Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress Research Achievement Award and the Controlled Release Society’s Career Achievement in Oral Drug Delivery Award. In 2007 he was selected as the UCSF Distinguished Clinical Research Lecturer and made an International Honorary Member of JSSX. In 2010, he received the ASCPT Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award in Therapeutics. Dr. Benet formerly served as Chair of the Pharmacology Study Section and the Pharmacological Sciences Review Committee for the NIH, the FDA CBER Peer Review Committee, the FDA Expert Panel on Individual Bioequivalence, the Board of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the FIP, the Organizing Committee for the Millennial World Congress of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Congressionally mandated IOM/NRC Committee on Accelerating the Research, Development and Acquisition of Medical Countermeasures Against Biological Warfare Agents and as a member of the FDA Generic Drugs Advisory Committee and the FDA Science Board. He served as the Chair of the CBER subcommittee of the FDA Science Board that delivered its review of science at the FDA in December 2007. He presently serves on the IOM Forum on Drug Discovery, Development and Translation, the Biodefense Standing Committee of the National Research Council and on the Boards of Directors of the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education, Impax Laboratories and Medicines 360. He is a Scientific Advisory Board Member and/or Consultant for more than 30 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.


David R. Parkinson
David R. Parkinson is President and CEO of Nodality, a South San Francisco-based biotechnology company focused on the biological characterization of signaling pathways in patients with malignancy to enable more effective therapeutics development and decision-making. Until October 2007 Dr. Parkinson was Senior Vice President, Oncology Research and Development at Biogen Idec. At Biogen Idec he oversaw all oncology discovery research efforts and the development of the oncology pipeline. Previously he had served as Vice President, Oncology Development, at Amgen and Vice President, Global Clinical Oncology Development at Novartis. During his tenures at Amgen and Novartis, Dr. Parkinson was responsible for clinical development activities leading to a series of successful global drug registrations for important cancer therapeutics, including Gleevec, Femara, Zometa, Kepivance, and Vectibix.

Dr. Parkinson worked at the National Cancer Institute from 1990 to 1997, serving as Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch, then as Acting Associate Director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, before leaving for Novartis. He has also held academic positions at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas and New England Medical Center of Tufts University School of Medicine.

He received his M.D. as gold medalist from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1977, with Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology training in Montreal at McGill University and in Boston at New England Medical Center. Dr. Parkinson is a past Chairman of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Biologics Advisory Committee and is a recipient of the FDA’s Cody Medal. He is a past President of the International Society of Biological Therapy, and past Editor of the Journal of Immunotherapy. He currently serves on the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine, serves as co-chair of the Cancer Steering Committee of the NIH Foundation Biomarkers Consortium and is Chairman of the AACR Finance Committee. He has just completed a term as a member of the FDA’s Science Board and has also just completed a term on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cancer Research. In 2008 Dr. Parkinson became a Director of Facet Biotech, Inc., a public biopharma company.