A small pharmaceutical company in Thousand Oaks, Dyve Biosciences, has brought on a longtime Pfizer executive and co-inventor of the drug Zoloft, Dr. Chuck Harbert, to be its chief scientific officer. Harbert has three decades of experience as a medicinal chemist and pharmaceutical manager, Dyve said in a statement. Harbert is credited with being the co-inventor of approximately 35 pharmaceutical patents, including Zoloft, and has authored about 20 scientific publications. He received the American Chemical Society’s award for team innovation alongside other Zoloft team members. Harbert held a variety of leadership roles at Pfizer across the drug R&D lifecycle, including vice president of U.S. exploratory development and strategic planning, and other senior positions at Pfizer central research. “Chuck’s accomplished tenure at Pfizer is world-class with a stellar track record of translating scientific innovation into clinical and commercial success,” Dr. Ryan Beal, chief executive of Dyve, said in a statement. “He’s been integral to the development of numerous blockbuster drugs and it’s inspiring to be working alongside him. I look forward to working with Chuck, and the rest of the Dyve team, to continue to build this incredible company.” The team essentially brought Harbert out of a 21-year retirement, according to his online biography at charlesharbert.com. Harbert worked at Pfizer until his retirement in 1999. Dyve, founded in 2014, announced last month that it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to begin Phase 2 trials for its topically administered drug for gout in the first quarter of this year – and that helped attract the attention of Harbert. “They have a breakthrough technology that changes the way drugs are delivered, ultimately improving drug safety and efficacy,” Harbert said in a statement. “Dyve’s scientists have been able to get a broad range of drugs and compounds through the skin with much higher bioavailability, at unprecedented levels, well beyond what I’ve seen in the pharmaceutical industry. I’m excited about the power of the underlying technology and the opportunity to join a very talented team.” Dyve has been developing topical skin penetration technology that enables drugs to be transported from the surface of the skin into the blood with “needle-like speed and pill-like efficiency,” the company said. In addition to gout treatment, Dyve has advanced clinical programs to treat melasma, or chloasma, a skin condition that causes dark, patches on the skin and often occurs in pregnant women, according to Healthline.com.
