Michael J.M. Hitchcock

Michael J. M. Hitchcock, Ph.D. (Mick) has served as a member of the board since March 2021. Dr. Hitchcock is currently Past Chair of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Foundation and Adjunct Professor of Microbiology at UNR Medical School, a position in which he has served since July 2016. Dr Hitchcock’s career in pharmaceutical research and development initially began with Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he served in several infectious disease research and project planning roles from 1980 through 1993. He joined Gilead Sciences, Inc. in 1993 and during his 27 years with the Company, he held a variety of positions, including vice president roles with responsibility for project and portfolio management, alliance management, strategic planning, medical affairs and specific areas of research. He also served as Senior Advisor at Gilead from 2009 through November 2019. During his career, he was involved in the development and commercialization of a number of anti-infective agents, primarily antivirals (tenofovir, adefovir, cidofovir, elvitegravir, oseltamivir, stavudine, didanosine) for treatment of HIV, HBV, influenza, CMV and other viral diseases. Dr. Hitchcock holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Melbourne, Australia and B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in biochemistry from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, England. He also conducted post-doctoral research at Georgetown University and NIH prior to joining industry. We believe that Dr. Hitchcock is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his academic background and his experience as a senior executive in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.