John Amatruda

Dr. Amatruda has over 25 years of experience as a senior pharmaceutical research executive and scientific consultant, together with over 40 years of experience in the practice and teaching of medicine. He currently sits on the board of directors and scientific advisory boards of several biotechnology companies. He has also been a consultant and scientific advisor to more than 20 additional biotechnology and leading pharmaceutical companies since 2009.

As Senior Vice President and Franchise Head for Diabetes and Obesity at Merck Research Laboratories, Dr. Amatruda had end-to-end responsibility for drug compounds from target discovery to patent expiration, including basic research, experimental medicine, clinical development, external alliances, and licensing. Prior to being named Franchise Head, Dr. Amatruda led drug development groups at Merck for diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease. Under his leadership, the development program and regulatory approvals of Januvia™ and Janumet™ – the first compounds in the important class of DPP-IV inhibitors for Type 2 diabetes, and two of Merck’s leading revenue-generating drugs – were successfully initiated and completed, and worldwide submissions for Vytorin™, Januvia™ and Janumet™ were filed.

Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Amatruda was Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head for Metabolic Disorders Research at Bayer Corporation for ten years, where he assisted in the approval of Acarbose and Miglitol and led the discovery and advancement of several compounds into clinical development. Dr. Amatruda has also had a successful career in academic medicine, formerly as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, where he was head of the Clinical Research Center and a Principal Investigator on several NIH funded research projects; and currently as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine.

In addition, Dr. Amatruda has co-authored over 160 publications in the areas of both clinical and basic research, many of which have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and the majority of which are in the areas of diabetes, obesity, and lipids. Dr. Amatruda’s clinical practice at the University of Rochester and at Yale was in general endocrinology but with an emphasis on Diabetes and obesity. Dr. Amatruda was educated at Yale University and The Medical College of Wisconsin and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine and fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.