Ken Widder

Bio

Ken is an M.D. with 25 years of experience working with biomedical companies. He has founded seven companies and was Chairman/CEO of five of these. His last company, Sytera Inc. merged with Sirion Therapeutics, an ophthalmology specialty pharmaceutical company. Prior to Sytera, Ken founded and was CEO of NovaCardia, a company currently in Phase 3 trials with a selective adenosine A1 antagonist as a renal protectant for patients with congestive heart failure. Prior to NovaCardia, Ken founded and was Chairman/CEO of Santarus, which developed and currently markets ZegeridTM, a rapid onset proton pump inhibitor for esophageal reflux disease. Additionally he was Chairman and CEO of Converge Medical, a medical device company developing a sutureless anastamosis system for vein grafts in coronary by-pass surgery. Ken started his career as a founder, Chairman and CEO of Molecular Biosystems, where he was responsible for the development and approval of AlbunexTM and Optison TM, the first two ultrasound contrast agents to be approved in the U.S. He is an inventor on over 30 patents and patent applications and has authored or co-authored over 25 publications. Holds an M.D. from Northwestern University and trained in pathology at Duke University.