For almost 23 years, Desmond Padhi has demonstrated a deep commitment to medical innovation and bringing new medicines to patients. This commitment is also deeply personal. Both his wife and his mother are being treated with a medicine he played a key role in getting to market. It is only natural for him to help other scientists successfully launch medicines across a broad range of therapeutic areas.
As an operating partner at Westlake Village BioPartners, Padhi explains, “This a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help entrepreneurs with great ideas and passion bring their ideas to fruition.”
After more than 20 years developing drugs across multiple therapeutic areas, Padhi brings a wealth of experience in translational medicine, taking molecules from the lab to patients.
The search for solutions is literally built into Padhi’s DNA. He continues, “We are looking for people with the brightest ideas, the ones that will have a major impact on human health and welfare.”
His philosophies with entrepreneurs are simple:
- Become an expert in something that elicits your greatest passion.
- Have the curiosity and humility to learn all that it will take to be successful.
- Develop the kind of interpersonal and talent management skills to enable you to effectively work with a broad range of people. Today, leaders must understand how to attract, develop, and motivate the best talent. Instead of demanding respect, let’s learn how to earn it through building effective cultures.
Prior to joining Westlake BioPartners, Padhi spent 20 years at Amgen, rising to become the vice president of the translational medicine group and most recently vice president of the Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism and Clinical Pharmacology groups. There, his focus was on leading the groups responsible for moving programs from the late research stage through to clinical proof of concept.
Padhi progressed a significant number of Amgen’s approved medicines through early clinical development, helping advance one of the largest early pipelines in Amgen’s history. He has five patents and 45 top-tier publications to his name, with more than 1,600 citations.
Prior to Amgen, Padhi worked at the Schering-Plough Research Institute where he was the team leader for early development clinical programs, helping establish a clinical strategy, designing and conducting studies, and reporting results.
Padhi received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Saskatchewan. He received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Wayne State University and completed his clinical pharmacology fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital.
