Prabhavathi Fernandes, PhD., FIDSA
Dr. Prabhavathi Fernandes, Ph.D., has more than 35 years of pharmaceutical discovery, development and management experience having held executive leadership positions at pharmaceutical corporations including Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Abbott Laboratories and The Squibb Institute for Medical Research. During these years she was directly involved in the development of six antibiotics, including aztreonam, fidaxomicin, and clarithromycin. After leaving Bristol- Myers Squibb, she has founded and led four biotechnology and CRO companies as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of each of these companies, including Cempra, Inc., DarPharma, Ricerca and Small Molecule Therapeutics. Dr. Fernandes is the Chairperson of the National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) for the United States government. She also serves as the Chair of the New Antibiotic Pipeline working group for the World Health Organization and is a member of the NIH ACTIV working group for COVID. She is a Director of the Boards of Ocugen, OpGen and Aelin Therapeutics and an Advisor to Felix Biotechnology. She has authored over 250 publications and several reviews, book chapters and served as an editor for books and is the section editor for the Journal of Antibiotics. Dr. Fernandes obtained her undergraduate and Master’s degree training in India, worked at the University of Ghent, Belgium in Immunochemistry, received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. She has been granted her FIDSA by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.