K. Peter Hirth

K. Peter Hirth, Ph.D., co-founder and formerly Chief Executive Officer of Plexxikon, Inc., has over 30 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical discovery and development experience and currently serves as a board member of Spinomix, KineMed, Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, and Afferent Pharmaceuticals. From 2001 to 2013 at Plexxikon, Dr. Hirth built a novel, structure-guided drug discovery platform, which brought several new chemical entities into the clinic, including Zelboraf®, an FDA-approved therapy for metastatic melanoma together with a companion diagnostic. From 1991-2000, as Sugen Inc.’s President and Founder, Dr. Hirth was instrumental in building the company from its inception and in advancing several kinase inhibitors through clinical trials in oncology. Prior to Sugen, he was Vice President of Research at Boehringer Mannheim where he successfully led the company’s erythropoietin program to approval in 1989. Dr. Hirth was a research scientist with the Max Planck Institute. He completed his post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Diego and received his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Heidelberg University, Germany.