Episode 39: James Sapirstein, President and CEO at AzurRx BioPharma
James Sapirstein has served over thirty-five years in the pharmaceutical industry. He is currently the President and CEO of AzurRx BioPharma (AZRX:NASDAQ). He has been part of almost two dozen drug product launches and specifically either led or has been a key member of several HIV product launches into different new classes of therapeutics at the time. Mr. Sapirstein started his career in smaller biotech companies when he later joined Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) in order to lead the Global Marketing team in its launch of Viread (tenofovir). In 2002, he accepted the position of Executive Vice President, Metabolic and Endocrinology, for Serono Laboratories. Later, in 2006, he became the founding CEO of Tobira Therapeutics, then a private company. Tobira Therapeutics was acquired by Allergan in 2016. In 2012, Mr. Sapirstein became the CEO of Alliqua Biomedical at Alliqua, Inc. Thereafter, he served as CEO of Contravir Pharmaceuticals from March 2014 until October 2018. All of these are publicly listed companies. Mr. Sapirstein has raised over $200 Million dollars in venture capital and public capital markets financing in his various engagements as CEO. He was named as a Finalist for the Ernst&Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2015 as well as in 2016.
Mr. Sapirstein holds board positions on Marizyme (MRZM) (Executive Chairman) Enochian Biosciences (ENOB), and Leading Biosciences. He was Chairman of the Board for BioNJ, an association of biopharma industries in New Jersey from Feb 2017 to Feb 2019. In addition, he is a Board Director for BIO, the leading Biopharma Industries Organization promoting public policy and networking in the healthcare space, where he sits on both the Health Section and Emerging Companies Section Governing Boards. Mr. Sapirstein received an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1997, and a BS (Pharmacy) from Rutgers University in 1984.
