Brent Blackburn

Brent Blackburn, PhD, is presently the CEO of Amygdala Neurosciences, a biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to invent and develop first-in-class medicines to treat substance use disorders. Dr Blackburn was the Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery & Development at CV Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company devoted to the discovery and development of drugs for cardiovascular diseases. In 1997, Dr. Blackburn joined CV Therapeutics to head its drug discovery unit, expanding his responsibilities in 2004 to include leading the clinical research and biometrics groups. While at CVT, the company successfully developed and commercialized two drugs and placed seven products into development for multiple cardiovascular and metabolic indications. In 2009 Gilead Sciences acquired CV Therapeutics. He has authored over 40 publications and is an inventor of more than 20 US patents. Dr. Blackburn earlier served as a Scientist at Genentech and received his BS in Chemistry from Texas Christian University and his PhD from University of Texas at Austin, which was followed by post-doctoral appointments at Oxford University (UK) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology prior to joining Genentech, Inc.