Polaris Pharmaceuticals announced today that Dr. Yali Tsai has joined Polaris as Vice President of Gene Delivery Technology. With over 25 years of hands-on experience in drug delivery technology and manufacturing, Dr. Tsai has developed a wide range of drugs, including injectable drugs, ophthalmic drugs and skin drugs, and has extensive experience in the development of specialty dosage forms such as microlipids, nanoemulsions and suspension particles.
Dr. Tsai worked as a researcher at Vical Inc. in the U.S., where he was responsible for developing drug delivery technologies for the application of cationic lipids in gene therapy. He then worked as a research pharmacist at Abbott Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for the development and production of injectable injectables and diagnostic contrast agents. He then worked at ISIS (IONIS) Pharmaceuticals as a senior researcher to develop oligonucleotides gene therapy drug delivery technologies and manufacturing processes for injectable and dermal drugs. Later, he was recruited by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals as a Senior Principle Scientist and Head of Drug Development at La Jolla site, where he led the product development, manufacturing and production of injectable and ophthalmic drugs. He is also a member of Pfizer’s global due diligence team, responsible for evaluating the feasibility of product development and drug delivery technologies for Pfizer’s partner companies.
Dr. Tsai later took over as Vice President of Latitude Pharmaceuticals, where she managed and led the development of the company’s drug delivery and manufacturing technologies for injectable drugs, including a variety of process-complex injectable dosage forms.
Dr. Tsai graduated from the Department of Pharmacy, National Taiwan University, and received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Southern California. Dr. Tsai also holds a California registered pharmacist license, and served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy, teaching pharmacy courses for many years.