Ron Wester

Ron has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, Ron was the founding chemist at Nimbus Therapeutics after a medicinal chemistry career at Pfizer, where he discovered or co-discovered numerous clinical and preclinical candidates including Phase 3 CETP inhibitor torcetrapib (HDL-cholesterol elevation), Phase 2 NHE-1 inhibitor zoniporide (cardioprotection) and Phase 2 renin inhibitor terlakiren (blood pressure reduction). As Executive Director of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases Medicinal Chemistry, Ron led more than 100 chemists, and was responsible for establishing and advancing a diverse portfolio of projects across six therapeutic areas including atherosclerosis, cardiovascular and diabetes. He chaired the CETP Early Clinical Management Team, overcoming numerous development challenges while advancing torcetrapib through preclinical and Phase 1 studies. As Vice President of Exploratory Medicinal Sciences, Ron led up to 325 scientists in providing Pfizer drug discovery projects with integrated technology support, including new lead identification, computational sciences, analytical chemistry, reagent provision, biomarker and functional genomics, and exploratory safety.

He earned his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Yale University with Professor Fred Ziegler. Ron authored or co-authored 26 scientific publications and presentations, and is an inventor on 15 issued U.S. patents.