Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> August 26, 2002
ROBERT J. CAPETOLA is President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director
of Discovery Laboratories, Inc. Dr. Capetola's distinguished career in
the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry spans over 25 years,
managing teams that developed several important drugs to
commercialization. Dr. Capetola worked for 17 years at Johnson &
Johnson, starting as a drug discovery scientist and rising to the
position of Senior Worldwide Director of Experimental Therapeutics.
After Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Capetola joined Ohmeda Pharmaceuticals, a
division of The BOC Group, as Vice President of Research and
Development, while also serving as the President and Board Director of
Delta Biotechnology, a UK subsidiary of Ohmeda. In his years in the
pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Capetola was instrumental in bringing to
market such drugs as erythropoietin, Retin-A, Suprol, Floxin, Suprane,
oral contraceptives, inhaled nitric oxide and Revex. In late 1996, Dr.
Capetola founded Acute Therapeutics, Inc. in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a
company focused on the technology of humanized lung surfactants
(protein-lipid complexes produced naturally in the lung and essential to
the lungs' ability to absorb oxygen), acquired via an exclusive sub-
license from Johnson & Johnson. One year later, Dr. Capetola merged his
company with Discovery Laboratories, becoming Chief Executive Officer of
Discovery, and began to focus the business on developing humanized lung
surfactants for a wide array of respiratory indications. Dr. Capetola
received his BS from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Science and
his PhD in pharmacology from Hahnemann Medical College. Profile
company?
Dr. Capetola: We are developing the tremendous potential of our
humanized pulmonary lung surfactants for
