Xpharma Consulting LLC was founded in 2014 by Dr. Timothy Blizzard. Dr. Blizzard attended the University of Virginia where he earned a B.S. in Chemistry with High Distinction. While at Virginia, Dr. Blizzard conducted undergraduate research in the laboratories of Professors Frank Carey and Dick Sundberg, authors of the standard textbook “Advances in Organic Chemistry.” Dr. Blizzard earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at MIT with the thesis “Synthesis of Verrucarins” in the laboratory of Professor Bill Roush . After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Blizzard conducted post-doctoral research in natural products chemistry and organic synthesis at Columbia University with Professor Koji Nakanishi.
Dr. Blizzard then joined the Merck Research Laboratories where he worked as an individual contributor and a medicinal chemistry group leader for over 28 years. During his tenure at Merck, Dr. Blizzard worked in multiple therapeutic areas, including antibacterials, antiparasitics, estrogen receptors, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, thrombosis and animal health. He led internal chemistry programs that discovered 6 preclinical candidates and directed external chemistry teams of up to 25 chemists at CROs. He led the chemistry team that discovered relebactam (MK-7655), the beta-lactamase inhibitor component of RecarbrioTM, a combination of imipenem, cilastatin, and relebactam which is approved by the FDA for treatment of hospital acquired- and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (HABP/VABP), complicate urinary tract infections (cUTI), and complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI). Dr. Blizzard also led the chemistry sub-team (ten chemists) that discovered L-786,392, a carbapenem with excellent activity against MRSA that advanced to a Phase I multi-dose clinical trial. He was also a key contributor to the discovery of ER-alpha “super antagonists” that were active against Tamoxifen-resistant tumors, and personally discovered a promising series of next-generation avermectins for parasitic infections in dogs. Dr. Blizzard was also a member of the Process Chemistry Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) for three years, the first medicinal chemist to be appointed to this long-standing Process Chemistry committee. This select group of senior Merck chemists reviewed synthetic routes for the large-scale synthesis of all development candidates and marketed products and suggested improvements that increased efficiency and reduced costs. Dr. Blizzard also participated in outsourcing and licensing at Merck and traveled to Japan and China in support of these activities.
After leaving Merck, Dr. Blizzard founded Xpharma Consulting in January 2014. In this role, he directed medicinal chemistry programs for some companies and advised others on their programs. He has also served as an expert witness in four patent cases (one in the US and three in Canada). He also won two Innocentive.com challenges: # 9933600 “A Scalable Cost and Atom Efficient Synthesis of a Benzothiazepine” & #9933733 “Design of a Self-Cleaving Linker For Targeted Drug Delivery.”
From January 2018 through December 2020, Dr. Blizzard was Vice President of Chemistry at Expansion Therapeutics. As head of chemistry, he led Expansion’s medicinal chemistry efforts on multiple drug discovery programs, overseeing internal and external chemistry teams of up to 23 chemists. Dr. Blizzard also contributed to the development and execution of the company’s overall R&D strategy and participated in due diligence discussions with potential investors. During this time, he was available only for very limited consulting.
From January 1, 2021 until November 14, 2022 Dr. Blizzard resumed full-time consulting at Xpharma Consulting.
On November 15, 2022, Dr. Blizzard assumed a full-time position as Vice President of Chemistry at a biotech startup (stealth mode). Dr. Blizzard will not be accepting new consulting clients for the duration of that employment.
Dr. Blizzard has authored or co-authored 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals, has made 21 external presentations, and is an inventor on 29 issued US patents. He has extensive experience reviewing SBIR grant applications for the NIH, and DMRDP-MID grants for the Department of Defense, and has reviewed hundreds of manuscripts for multiple scientific journals. In addition to his scientific training at UVa, MIT, and Columbia, Dr. Blizzard has completed several management courses including a mini-MBA program in Biopharma Innovation offered by the Rutgers Center for Management Development.