Returning guest, Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman, Co-founder, and CEO of Ocugen, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel gene and cell therapies and vaccines discusses the company’s current work on a vaccine to treat COVID-19​. They have recently acquired the rights to develop and commercialize an intranasal COVID-19 vaccine from Washington University for the U.S., Europe, and ​Japan markets. In addition to infectious diseases, they also have a robust pipeline to treat eye disease and orthopedics.

Shankar Musunuri, PhD., MBA: Dr. Musunuri is a seasoned biotech veteran with about 30+ years of results-driven experience advancing and commercializing a diverse portfolio of products. Before co-founding Ocugen in 2013, Dr. Musunuri held leadership roles at numerous companies ranging from “Big Pharma” to novel start-up biotechs. After a long tenure at Pfizer, he founded Nuron Biotech, Inc., which he grew to a commercial company in less than three years, serving as President and CEO. Dr. Musunuri spent nearly fifteen years at Pfizer, where he gained extensive product launch and life-cycle management experience, playing a key role as Global Operations Team Leader for the most successful launch in vaccine history, Prevnar 13 ®. Dr. Musunuri obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Connecticut’s School of Pharmacy and serves on the advisory Board of Fuqua’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke University.

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