Navreet Dhindsa

Dr. Navreet Dhindsa is the Senior Vice President for Global Research and Development Operations and Chief Operating Officer for L.E.A.F. Pharmaceuticals (L.E.A.F.). She has extensive drug development experience in the pharmaceutical industry that spans over more than 16 years, at the Indian Affiliate of Eli Lilly, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and Ipsen Biosciences. Prior to joining L.E.A.F., Dr. Dhindsa served as the Global Project Leader for liposomal irinotecan (Onivyde®) program at Ipsen Biosciences, following Ipsen’s over $1 billion acquisition of Onivyde® from Merrimack Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Dhindsa had lead, for over 4 years, the clinical operations for the global registration of Onivyde®.

Following her tenure at Lilly India, Dr. Dhindsa moved to the United States and joined Merrimack Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge MA, in 2010. During her 7-year tenure at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Dhindsa lead the clinical operations for the Development and Registration business unit, and oversaw the implementation of registration programs for multiple molecules. Most notably, she was involved in the development and approval of Onivyde®, for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. She was directly responsible for the execution of the Onivyde® NAPOLI-1 registration program globally across 15 countries and over a 100 clinical trial research sites.

Dr. Dhindsa started her industry career at the Indian Affiliate of Eli Lilly and Company in March 2002, where she worked for close to 8 years in clinical operations. She led clinical operations for the first ever Lilly translational research trial of anti-cancer drug gemcitabine (Gemzar®), which became the model approved by FDA for future Lilly translational research efforts. In 2005, Dr. Dhindsa was promoted to lead the Lilly India oncology clinical operations team. During her tenure at Eli Lilly India, Dr. Dhindsa established and managed Lilly regional clinical research office in Bangalore, India. She was also a clinical research subject matter expert for the Eli Lilly Asian region. In addition, she was involved in rolling-out Lilly’s key clinical research and development initiatives in the region, that included risk based monitoring of clinical trials, as well as key project management initiatives.

Dr. Dhindsa is a Dentist by training and holds a BDS (DDS) degree from the College of Dental Sciences in India. She is a co-author on several publications in cancer research, and is a co-inventor on patents and patent applications involving the treatment of various forms of cancer, including the FDA approved Onivyde® regimen for treatment of pancreatic cancer.