CNR Alumni Association

Christina Campbell is a founding research member and current pharmacologist at Theravance, Inc. (www.theravance.com), a 14 year-old biopharmaceutical company located in South San Francisco, CA. She is a key member of the research team responsible for transforming the company (formerly Advanced Medicine) from start-up venture to the present fully vertically-integrated, medium-sized biopharmaceutical company. She has over 14+ years of industrial experience in preclinical drug development: from target discovery, lead optimization, early development strategy, and clinical trial support to preparation of regulatory FDA documents. She has a proven track record of scientific rigor and results: contributing to the successful nomination of 13 development candidates, all of which advanced to Investigational New Drug-enabling studies and into clinical development. In addition, she has been a key member of the scientific team identifying new target opportunities strategically aligned with core competencies and business needs. Christina participated in the discovery of VIBATIV™ (Telavancin), partnered with Astellas Pharma, Inc., a novel lipoglycopeptide antibiotic approved by the US FDA in September 2009, for the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections caused by certain gram-positive bacteria including MRSA, and approved in Europe in September 2011 for the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia caused by MRSA. She also participated in the discovery of AZD4303, a short acting sedative-hypnotic licensed to AstraZeneca, currently in Phase 1 development and aided in the discovery of Relovair™, a next-generation long-acting beta agonist in combination with inhaled corticosteroid, in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline in Phase 3 globally for COPD and asthma. She has fueled Theravance's pipeline with discovery of: 5HT4 agonists for gastrointestinal dysmotility and Alzheimer's disease (TD-5108 and TD8954, presently in Phase 2 and 1, respectively), peripheral mu opioid antagonists for opioid-induced constipation (TD-1211, presently in Phase 2), monoamine re-uptake inhibitors for chronic pain(TD-9855, presently in Phase 1), among others. In 2011, Christina was a market entry strategy consultant for the Educational Mission Corporation of India (EdM), an educational start-up based in Mumbai, India, seeking to enter the Indian vocational education space. She provided: educational sector, financial and business model, competitor, partnership, and launch strategy analyses and recommendations for EdM. Christina received her International Masters of Business Administration with distinction from St. Mary's College of California's Trans-Global Executive MBA program in the fall of 2011. She received honors in multiple areas including marketing, global money and economics, operations, and corporate governance. She has also engaged in international business negotiations in Latin America and South-East Asia. Prior to her work at Theravance, Inc. and with EdM, Christina worked in collaboration with NASA-AMES Research Center (Dr. Richard Grindeland Laboratory) and the University of California at Berkeley (Dr. George White Laboratory) on The Effects of Recombinant Growth Hormone on Skeletal Muscle Regeneration. Prior to Christina's work with Berkley and NASA-Ames, she was an honored undergraduate student instructor for lower division courses at UC Berkeley in Biology, Botany, and Paleontology. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in BioResource Sciences from the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Go Bears!