Robert Foster

Dr. Foster first began working on cyclophilin drug development in 1988, and has more than 30 years of pharmaceutical and biotech experience. Prior to Hepion, he was CEO and Founder of Ciclofilin Pharmaceuticals Inc., which merged with Hepion in 2016. Before that, he founded Isotechnika Pharma Inc. (TSX:ISA) in 1993, and was its Chairman and CEO for approximately 21 years. During his tenure at Isotechnika, Dr. Foster discovered voclosporin, an immunosuppressive drug to treat autoimmune diseases.

In 2002, Dr. Foster structured a US$215 million licensing deal, Canada’s largest at the time, for voclosporin for kidney transplant immunosuppression with Hoffman-La Roche (Basel, Switzerland). Later, he was founding CEO, and subsequently CSO, of Aurinia Pharma (NASDAQ:AUPH) after it was acquired by Isotechnika in 2013. Voclosporin (LupkynisTM) was approved by the FDA for the treatment of lupus nephritis in January 2021. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Japan) has licensed voclosporin for the treatment of lupus nephritis in the EU, Japan, UK, Russia, Switzerland, Norway, Belarus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Ukraine.