Dr. Bernard served as our Medical Director from 1999 until 2010 and currently serves as Chair of our Medical Advisory Board. He has served on our board of directors since 2010. Dr. Bernard is currently the Melinda Owen Bass Professor of Medicine for the Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine for Vanderbilt University Medical Center and former Chief of the Division.

In addition, he was formerly the Executive Vice President for Research, Chief Research Officer, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Sciences, and Chairman of Vanderbilt’s Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, which is responsible for approving the Vanderbilt Medical Center Formulary of approved drugs and therapeutics. 

Dr. Bernard has been conducting national and international trials of pharmaceuticals since 1980 and he has been steering committee chair of the National Institutes of Health, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Clinical Trials Network since its inception in 1994 through its conclusion in 2014. This network is the only federally supported ongoing system for the conduct of research in the hospital Intensive Care Unit, or ICU. As an intensivist and former Medical Director for the Medical Intensive Care Unit, Dr. Bernard is therefore in a strategic position to observe, firsthand, the pharmaceutical management issues surrounding the care of a wide variety of the most severely ill patients and identify their unmet medical needs. He holds an M.D. from Louisiana State University and a B.S. from the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

The board believes Dr. Bernard’s medical background is extremely valuable as the Company seeks to continue expanding its pipeline with promising products that offer advancement in patient care and are well-positioned competitively.