Osvaldo (Lalo) Flores, Ph.D., is the co-founder, president and chief scientific officer of Novira Therapeutics. He has more than 18 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development across multiple therapeutic areas and has held senior positions at biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies. Prior to co-founding Novira, he held multiple leadership roles at Merck, including director of antiviral research as well as senior director and department head of molecular endocrinology. During his tenure at Merck, he was responsible for developing and delivering the strategy for research and development, managing the pipeline from target identification through clinical proof of concept across multiple therapeutic areas and contributed to the identification and advancement of over 10 drug candidates to preclinical and clinical development. Dr. Flores began his career in industry at Tularik, a company acquired by Amgen in 2004, as one of the initial employees. At Tularik he led discovery efforts for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cytomegalovirus (CMV) and hepatitis C (HCV) programs that produced a clinical candidate for CMV and the discovery of CDK9/Cyclin T1 as a drug target. Dr. Flores holds a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from Rutgers University and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).