Former Schering-Plough chief medical officer becomes acting CMO of Insilico

Former Schering-Plough chief medical officer becomes acting CMO of Insilico

Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end AI-powered drug discovery company, appointed Robert Spiegel as acting CMO to oversee the clinical translation of its preclinical pipeline assets.

Dr. Spiegel brings more than 35 years of extensive R&D executive and operational experience in biopharmaceuticals and as an advisor to venture capital and private equity firms. He spent more than 25 years at Schering-Plough (now Merck & Co.), where he joined as the first director for Oncology Clinical Research, and has subsequently held a series of senior executive positions, including senior VP Worldwide Clinical Development and chief medical officer from 1998 to 2010.

“It is a great opportunity to be joining Insilico Medicine at this time in the company’s evolution,” Dr. Spiegel says. “Insilico has a broad discovery pipeline based on the identification of critical pathways affecting acute and chronic systems biology in multiple therapy areas. These include oncology, immunology, inflammation, and infectious diseases. Multiple innovative preclinical programs are targeted to enter the clinic in the coming years.”

In August, Insilico nominated its second preclinical candidate for kidney fibrosis following the announcement of a nomination of an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) candidate in February 2021.

Following a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in medical oncology, Dr. Spiegel was the director of Developmental Therapeutics at NYU Cancer Center. At Schering-Plough, Dr. Spiegel led the development of Intron A (interferon alpha), Temodar (temozolomide), and Remicade (infliximab), and was involved in the approval process of more than 30 New Drug Applications by the Food and Drug Administration.

“Dr. Spiegel brings decades of clinical research and regulatory experience and one of the industry’s broadest networks in the clinical space,” says Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine. “Our intention is to use our technology to develop clinical-stage assets in house as well as strengthen and validate Inclinico, our clinical trial outcome prediction and optimization engine.”