Vincent Njar

University of Maryland, Baltimore

Professor Vincent C. O. Njar has over 40 years of demonstrated accomplishment as a Medicinal Chemist and Oncopharmacologist in academia at several international Universities, including 25 years with University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. He has >120 scientific publications, over 35 issued patents and 30+ pending patents; H-Index: 45; citations: 15,960 (as of 01/06/2021). He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry (University College London (UCL), London, UK) and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental biology, Shrewsbury, MA, USA. He is Currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA and Head, Medicinal Chemistry Section, Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics (CBT); Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR), Rockville, MD, USA. He is the Lead Inventor of a drug candidate, Galeterone (a unique steroidal 17-benzimidazole agent, originally code named VN/124-1), which advanced to Phase III clinical trials in men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (m-CRPC, licensed by UMB to Tokai Pharmaceutical Inc., Boston, MA, USA). Galeterone was recently licensed to Education Scientific LLC (ESL), who is continuing its clinical development. He is the co-inventor of the first Mnk1/2 degraders which are currently in development for the treatment of a variety of cancers and dermatological diseases. Dr. Njar co-founded Isoprene Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IPI) in 2018, a cancer therapeutic company developing novel small molecules for the treatment of cancer.

Vincent Njar

1chapters authored