Daryl C. Drummond
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, USA
Biography
Drummond currently serves as the Vice President of Discovery for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, and was one of two principle inventors for many of Merrimack's nanotechnology-based drugs and platform technologies, most notably MM-398, a highly stabilized liposomal formulation of irinotecan. He joined Merrimack in October of 2009 following the merger of Merrimack with Hermes Biosciences. Dr. Drummond received a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from Indiana University in 1997, with an emphasis on membrane biochemistry and biophysics. He later joined Hermes Biosciences in 2000 as an Associate Director of Liposomal Research and Development following a post-doc in the laboratory of the renowned father of current liposome drug delivery systems, Demetrios Papahadjopoulos. Overall, Dr. Drummond has more than 20 years of experience in the research and development of advanced drug delivery systems, including four unique drugs that have been tested in various clinical trials, eight issued patents or patent applications, and more than 50 peer reviewed publications focused on lipid-based nanotherapeutics. The focus of his research is in developing targeted nanotherapeutics for treating a wide range of solid tumors. He successfully developed novel platform technologies for targeting lipidic nanocarriers such as liposomes using a range of novel ligands, but most notably Fab’ or scFv antibody fragments. He has also developed platform technologies for dramatically improving the in vivo drug retention of difficult to stabilize small molecule drugs, and for systemic delivery of nucleic acids. Three of their nanotherapeutics are being studied in clinical trials, including an ErbB2-targeted liposomal doxorubicin which is currently being evaluated in a Phase I study in ErbB2-overexpressing breast cancers and a nanoliposomal formulation of irinotecan which recently showed promising results in a Phase II trial in gemcitabine-refractory pancreatic cancer and is currently being evaluated in a Phase III trial in pancreatic cancer. A fourth antibody targeted lipososomal drug is scheduled to enter the clinic in 2015.
Abstract
Abstract : Development and clinical translation of nanoliposomal chemotherapeutics