Paul R McGuirk has 40+ years of experience in Pharmaceutical R&D. He began his career as a medicinal chemist at Pfizer. He has a proven track record as a “drug hunter” having responsibility for two marketed drugs from inception to commercialization. He led the discovery teams in several therapeutic areas including Antibacterials and Antivirals, Immunology, Allergy and Respiratory Diseases (A&R), and Inflammation. He was chairman of the A&R Early Candidate Management Team responsible for the development of the inhaled candidate Tofimilast. He is an expert in the development and implementation of improved principles for survival of drug candidates through development having served on the leadership team of the “Attrition Task Force” at Pfizer. As a team member he was involved in the effort to improve the survival of clinical candidates in Phase 2 human efficacy clinical trials, a stage at which the success rate for the industry hovers at only 20%.   The work resulted in the “Three Pillars of Survival” a set of foundational principles that are known to significantly increase this low success rate when rigorously applied. These are now generally adopted and practiced by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry today. He led the committee for a decade that developed quality guidelines for drug candidates. His committee of senior level executives and scientists at Pfizer reviewed 310 clinical candidates over 14 therapeutic areas as a prerequisite for their entry into formal development. This process continues to be practiced and has also been disseminated throughout the industry in various iterations

Paul was an undergraduate a SUNY Stony Brook where he received a BS in Chemisty. Dr McGuirk has a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Cornell University. He joined Pfizer Inc in Groton, CT directly out of graduate school. After 26 years he retired from Pfizer as an Executive Director and joined Aeromics LLC. At Aeromics he was Executive Vice President responsible for the development of a drug, in a first in class mechanism of action (AQP4), to treat brain edema. The drug has since been licensed to Simcere Pharmaceutical Group in China. He is currently Executive Vice President and Director at Gardiner Healthcare Acquisitions Corp (GDNR: NASDAQ).