MANAGEMENT TEAM

Dr. Huang founded Ascendia in 2012 after a career in pharmaceutical R&D and management at Pfizer, Baxter, AstraZeneca, and most recently Roche.  He has led the formulation development efforts for the successful transition of several oral and parenteral dosage forms from discovery through formulation, manufacturing, technical transfer and ultimately commercialization.  Dr. Huang holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (formerly Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Sciences) where he worked with Joseph B. Schwartz.

Dr. Huang’s research interests are centered on improvement of solubility and dissolution for, and controlled delivery of, poorly water soluble drugs through nano-emulsion, nano-particle and amorphous solid dispersion technologies.  His publications include studies on drug solubilization and controlled delivery in polymeric solid dispersion systems, amorphous drug delivery systems, controlled release, modeling and simulation, thermal and spectroscopic characterization of amorphous molecular dispersions, drug-polymer interactions and its significance on physical stability of amorphous drug, and micro/nano particulates for use in parenteral dosage forms.  He has been a reviewer for the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Journal of Controlled Release, Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy, PDA Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Molecular Pharmaceutics, and Pharmaceutical Research.  Currently, he is a member of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and American Chemical Society (ACS).

Mr. Robert Bloder joined Ascendia after a thirty-year successful career in pharmaceuticals business development and commercialization from Aptex, where he was most recently Vice President of Global Business Development. Mr. Bloder is award-winning pharmaceutical executive with an accomplished global track-record in big and specialty pharma, as well as, generics and CDMO with drug delivery.

Mr. Robert J. Bloder was the Vice President of Global Business Development for Apotex, the 7th largest specialty pharmaceutical company with over 10,000 employees and sales in excess of $2 Billion. Prior to joining Apotex, Mr Bloder was a Board Member & Vice President of Business Development at Aveva Drug Delivery Systems (sold to Apotex); Mr Bloder co-founded the specialty pharmaceutical company, ESP Pharma and served as the Vice President of Market Development, contributing to successful launch of CARDENE IV (nicardipine hydrochloride) premixed injection for intravenous use. Prior to co-founding ESP Pharma, Mr. Bloder was the Director of Strategic Partnership Development for Pfizer (formerly Parke-Davis), where he co-developed and managed day to day operations of an internal business accelerator that focused on the company’s largest, revenue-generating products like Lipitor & Neurontin. During his sales and marketing tenure at Parke-Davis, Mr Bloder launched several blockbuster and “first in class” products that fulfilled unmet market needs. Mr Bloder holds a Bachelor’s degree of Science from Bethany College.

Deep experience in new market/product development and company turnaround through partnerships, acquisitions, contract manufacturing, and hands-on leadership of the full drug development process, from conception to commercialization.

Proven ability to create and leverage strategic business opportunities and to build/lead teams and organizations to effectively execute. Strong financial orientation, including full P&L, financial analysis, and cost accounting. CMC operations and manufacturing experience, technical chemistry, regulatory affairs/filing and biopharmaceutics knowledge, national and international account management responsibilities, diversified management and change management skills, and product development/portfolio management insight.

Initiated, developed, and closed strategic profit sharing, cost sharing equity investment, ANDA acquisitions, and fee for service deals for 47 drug products and IMS market values from $3M-$636M. Portfolio included co-development partnerships, strategic licensing and distribution agreements, ANDA reformulation, formulation proof of concept, tech transfers, and cGMP development and manufacturing. Recent deals resulted in over 15 commercially approved ANDAs in two years, four company registered ANDA filings with FDA, five filed ANDAs awaiting approval, eight in the drug development pipeline, and experience with four NDA development programs.

Operational experience across pharma, biotech, chemical, petrochemical, and environmental markets. Particular expertise in small molecule, macro and peptide/protein drug development opportunities across nasal, inhalation, and solid oral dosage form drug delivery platforms.