Georgia has one of the best networks of research for biotech in the country.  Is Georgia similarly one of the best centers in the country for biotech companies? Some say that we are great at spawning the companies, but not so good at keeping them.  Our experts in the Biotech industry tell us what is working and what we can do better to support our biotech industry.

Russell Medford, M.D.,PhD., President & CEO Salutria Pharmaceuticals, LLC

Russell M. Medford, M.D., Ph.D. has served, since April 1, 2009, as President and CEO of Salutria Pharmaceuticals, LLC., a biopharmaceutical company. From 1995 to April 1, 2009 Dr. Medford served as President, CEO and Director of AtheroGenics, Inc. He is a director of publicly-held Inhibitex, Inc. (Nasdaq: INHX) and chairman of the Board of privately-held Transcardiac Therapeutics. He is a board-certified physician, an inaugural Fellow of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association, a member of the executive committee and former Chairman of GeorgiaBio, a member of Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO) Board of Directors, Emerging Companies Section Governing Board and Health Science Governing Board, Co-Chairman of BIO’s Bioethics Committee and served as Chairman of the BIO2009 International Convention Steering Committee. Dr. Medford is a past member of the Advisory Council of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and has recently been elected to the Board of Trustees of the National Health Museum.

Dr. Medford was an Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Molecular Cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine, and currently holds the appointment of Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine. He received a B.A. from Cornell University, and a M.D. with Distinction and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, completing his residency and cardiology fellowship at Harvard’s Beth Israel and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals where he also served on the faculty of Medicine. He has published widely in the field of molecular cardiology and holds 14 U.S. patents.  Russell Medford Segment

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David Dodd, Founder & CEO RiversEdge BioVentures LLC

David founded RiversEdge BioVentures in 2009 as an Investment, advisory firm focused on life sciences and pharmaceuticals.  Prior to that he served as the President, CEO & Chairman for BioReliance Corporation, a biological testing company.  Dodd’s more than 24 year career is marked with various executive roles in the biotech industry in which he increased performance and value of his companies, both public and private, multi-million and billion dollar and early stage companies. Such roles have included being Chairman of Stem Cell Sciences, President, CEO & Chairman of Serologicals Corporation, President, CEO & Chairman Solvay Pharmaceuticals and other senior executive roles at Wyeth-Ayerst Labs and Bristol-Myers Squibb.  David currently serves on several boards such as GeoVax and ArunA BioMedical and is an External Advisory Board member of the Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience collaboration of Georgia Tech & Emory University.

David received his BS and MS from Ga. State, and a MA in Advanced Management from Harvard Business School.  David Dodd Segment

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Scott Hampton, President & Chief Strategist, Medical Device Development Group

Scott Hampton has an extensive and successful background in product engineering and commercializing medical device products. He has two decades of experience in R&D, and holds many patents for implants and surgical tools. As a founder of the Medical Device Development Group  (MDDG), he works with medical device and combinations products innovators throughout the South-Eastern USA. MDDG helps clients commercialize their ideas, and has also spun out Atlanta Catheter Therapies, which is developing drug delivery and interventional technologies in circulatory diseases. Scott is also a founder of Therakine, a biotech company focused on improving treatments for chronic inflammatory eye disease, where he serves as the Chief Operations Officer. He previously was Director of R&D at Ciba Vision working in Surgical research, and also served as Product Development Manager at Ophthalmic Innovations International. Scott received a BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College and an MS in International Manufacturing Management from the University of California, San Diego. Scott Hampton Segment