Biography

Niranjan Y. Sardesai, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Research & Development

Dr. Sardesai has over 12 years of operating and consulting experience in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. He was SVP, Research && Development, with VGX Pharmaceuticals and, with the merger of VGX with Inovio Pharmaceuticals in June 2009, became SVP, Research & Development, of the merged company. Prior to VGX, Dr. Sardesai was the founder and President of NVision Consulting Inc., a strategy consulting firm focused on entrepreneurial companies in the biopharma/lifesciences industry, and he served as Director R&&D at Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc. At FDI, Dr. Sardesai oversaw all aspects of R&D activities and expansion of the oncology portfolio. Products developed under his leadership include new-to-the-world tests for mesothelioma (MESOMARK™), bladder cancer and a multi-marker test for ovarian cancer. Dr. Sardesai also served as a senior scientist at IGEN International, Inc. developing a high-throughput screening platform for drug discovery. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications and presentations.

Dr. Sardesai received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the recipient of the Shils-Zeidman Award in Entrepreneurship. He completed fellowships at Scripps Research Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Sardesai graduated at the top of his class to receive his M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology.