Dr. Michael Luther
Founding CEO, Board Advisor
Dr. Michael Luther, Founding CEO and Board Advisor of Bantam Pharmaceutical, has over 25 years of experience in successfully leading bio-pharmaceutical organizations and companies at the interface of science and business.
Prior to joining Bantam, Dr. Luther was most recently the Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Albany Molecular Research (AMRI). In this role, he was responsible for AMRI’s global discovery and development businesses. Before AMRI, Michael was the Corporate Vice President of Global Discovery Research for Charles River Laboratories.
Dr. Luther has spent 25 years in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, including serving as the Vice President and Site Head at the Merck-Frosst Centre for Therapeutic Research in Montreal. In this role, he led drug discovery to proof of concept efforts for Inflammation and Metabolic Disease. Dr. Luther was also with GlaxoSmithKline for over 16 years in a number of positions of increasing responsibility including his last role as a Vice President in Discovery Research. In his various roles at GSK, he was responsible for leading several successful discovery teams that led to launch of new medicines as well as leading some of the pharmaceutical industry’s initial efforts in both personalized/precision medicine and drug repositioning.
Dr. Luther holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology and Chemistry from North Carolina State University, a doctorate degree in Biochemistry from the St. Louis University School of Medicine, and an MBA from Duke University. He is the author of over 45 scientific publications, and holds issued patents in diagnostics and pharmaceutical discovery and development.
Dr. Luther was one of the founding board members for both the College of Life Sciences Research Foundation at North Carolina State University, and the Quebec Drug Discovery Consortium. He is a board member at Transgenomic Inc. In addition, he is on the board of directors for The Chagas Disease Foundation, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the North Carolina Biotechnology Industry Organization.
