Joe Vacca

Biography

Dr. Joseph Vacca joined Kyras Therapeutics as the Chief Scientific Officer and has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Vacca earned his BS in chemistry in 1977 from St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, and obtained his PhD degree in Organic Chemistry under Professor Peter T. Lansbury Sr. at the State University of New York at Buffalo (New York). He joined Merck Research Laboratories in 1981 and has made major contributions to several approved drugs including the HIV protease inhibitor CRIXIVAN™ (indinavir sulfate), the HIV integrase inhibitor Isentress™ (raltegravir); HCV protease Inhibitors (Vanihep™, vaniprevir) and the combination product grazoprevir/elbasvir which is the second generation HCV protease Inhibitor combined with an NS5A protein Inhibitor. The combination is under review by the FDA. Dr. Vacca retired from Merck in 2011 and took on a role as Senior Vice President of Early Success Sharing Partnerships at WuXi AppTec Limited. He recently joined Kyras Therapeutics as CSO in November 2015. Dr. Vacca has over 100 publications and patents and is the holder of many awards including a Merck Directors Award (1998); PhRMA Discoverers Award (1999); Intellectual Property Owners “National Inventor of the year Award” (1997); European Inventor of the Year (non-EU nation) (2007); ACS “Award for Creative Invention” (1999); and was a named a Merck Research Laboratories Presidential Fellow in 2008. He was recently named to the American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame (Aug. 2012) and was also named a “Hero of Chemistry” (along with the research team) for his role in the discovery and development of the HIV integrase inhibitor Isentress™

Research Interest

Pharmaceutical Industry