David Johnston, PhD
Chief Executive Officer, AerovectRx Corporation
Dr. Johnston is a senior pharmaceutical executive with extensive experience in preclinical and clinical drug development, regulatory affairs and product commercialization. He was recently appointed as President and CEO at AerovectRx Corporation a drug development company focused on the development of novel drug products for inhalation. Prior to that he was most recently Senior Vice President of Research and Development for Nektar Therapeutics where his responsibilities included planning and operations for drug delivery, including inhalation technologies, pegylation technology, clinical development, regulatory affairs and safety, quality control and assurance for clinical supplies, and product and device development.
Prior to Nektar, he was Chief Development Officer and Vice President Operations for Control Delivery Systems where he oversaw co-development of the Retisert™ product, marketed by Bausch and Lomb for the treatment of uveitis. He has previously held executive leadership positions with AAI International and Oread, Inc., both Contract Research Organizations providing product development and support services for pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical devices. He began his pharmaceutical career with Sterling Winthrop and Sanofi Winthrop research where he held positions of increasing responsibility in discovery and product and development, his last position being VP of Product development and Deputy International group director for Preclinical Development. Dr. Johnston earned his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in chemistry from St. Andrews University (Scotland) and completed postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Medicinal research (Heidelberg, Germany).
