Steve Pakola, MD

Dr. Pakola brings more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience, including holding key leadership roles in preclinical and clinical development, regulatory affairs. Dr. Pakola’s therapeutic area experience encompasses retinal disorders, including diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema and age-related macular degeneration, as well as other non-ophthalmic diseases. He was the lead inventor and program lead for the Jetrea® (ocriplasmin) program, from inception in 2002 through the therapy’s United States and European regulatory submissions in 2012. Prior to Aerpio, Dr. Pakola served as Chief Medical Officer at Amakem NV and ThromboGenics Inc. Earlier in his career, Dr. Pakola served as Associate Director of Cardiovascular Clinical Research at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he was Global Medical Lead on the Lipid-Lowering Development Program and the USA Medical Lead for the Direct Thrombin Inhibitor Dabigatran Program. Prior to that, Dr. Pakola served in senior-level clinical development positions at Quintiles Cardiovascular Therapeutics and at Organon. Dr. Pakola earned a B.A., summa cum laude, and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.