Gianfranco Fornasini

Dr. Fornasini is Senior Vice President, Scientific Affairs at Leadiant Biosciences, Inc. and is responsible for the overall management of scientific programs to advance the development of Leadiant’s compounds and products. Dr. Fornasini’s expertise includes pharmacokinetics and metabolism, specifically of endogenous substances, analytical methods with emphasis on mass-spectrometry, pharmacokinetic and bioequivalence study design, and regulatory and technical aspects of chemistry manufacturing and control processes.

Dr. Fornasini joined Leadiant in 1996 as Manager of Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism and has since held various regulatory and scientific roles with increasing responsibility until being appointed Senior Vice President of Scientific Affairs in 2003.

During his 30 years of experience in pharmaceuticals in Europe and the U.S., mainly spent in the drug development of small molecules and biologics for rare diseases, he has assumed a wide range of responsibilities, including analytical method development and validation, non-clinical and clinical pharmacokinetics, regulatory sciences and the life cycle management of company commercial products.

Until 2014, Dr. Forasinin also held the position of Head of Manufacturing Operations at Leadiant’s production plant in Indianapolis, a facility that specialized in the production of injectable products of pegylated proteins and liposomal formulations.

Dr. Fornasini earned his doctoral degree in pharmaceutical chemistry and technology from the University of Milan in Italy, and specialized in mass-spectrometry at the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Environmental Toxicology of the “Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche M.Negri” in Milan, Italy. He continued his studies at the University of Manchester in the U.K., where he received his post-doctoral training in pharmacokinetics. Dr. Fornasini has co-authored several scientific publications and is co-inventor on a variety of patents.