Dr. Nelson Levy
Vice Chairman

Dr. Levy was graduated Summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1963 from Yale University, where he was a Scholar of the House. In 1967, he received his M.D. degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He then went to the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.), where he did research in virology and immunology and, in 1971, published the world's first paper on mammalian gene therapy, as well as the first review on the relationship between viral infections and endocrine disease. In 1970, Dr. Levy went to Duke University, where he earned a Ph.D. in immunology and also did residency training in neurosurgery. Until 1981, he remained at Duke as a tenured professor of microbiology and immunology. His laboratory did research on cancer immunology, multiple sclerosis and the brain's control of the immune system.

In 1981, Dr. Levy left academia to become the Vice President for Pharmaceutical Research at Abbott Laboratories. He is generally credited with turning a moribund research program, which had not discovered a drug in over 20 years, into a vibrant, productive body, highly competitive within the industry. At Abbott, he started the programs that have led to several marketed drugs.

In 1984, he became the Chief Executive Officer of the CoreTechs Corporation, which implements a unique paradigm of technology transfer and starts and helps build science-based companies.

In 1992, he became the President of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Company, the $250 million, 1500 employee North American subsidiary of Japan's third-largest pharmaceutical company, where he re-focused and re-vitalized the sales and marketing organizations, in-licensed two major pharmaceuticals and filed an NDA for FK-506 (Prograf), Fujisawa’s leading product. In 1993, he returned to CoreTechs, where he is now CEO and Chairman. He is on the Board of Directors of one public and five private companies and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of four other companies, three of which are publicly-traded.