Steven Silber M.D.

Steven A. Silber, MD received his BA from New York University and his MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He then completed his residency and general medicine fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center where he was also chief resident and subsequently a faculty member and clinician.

In 1998 he joined Premier Research Worldwide, a Pennsylvania based contract research organization, of which he became president when PRW was acquired by SCP Communications.    In 2003, Steven was recruited to McNeil Consumer and Specialty Pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) as the VP of Research and Development.  In 2007, he moved to Janssen Research and Development (a JNJ company) as VP and Head of Established Products, a portfolio of about 80 pharmaceutical products sold globally through various JNJ subsidiaries.

In 2012, he began working with the Gates Foundation to coordinate J&J’s participation in its global project to stimulate drug development efforts for Neglected Tropical Diseases.  Shortly after this, J&J established its Global Public Health organization, which Steven joined as Medical Advisor.  In this role, he led the development of a pediatric formulation of an existing drug (Vermox) which is used to treat intestinal worms, one of the most prevalent infectious diseases in the world.  J&J, in collaboration with the WHO and GlaxoSmithKline, now donates 600 M doses of deworming drugs to children in multiple endemic countries (mostly in Africa, Asia and South America).   Since the inception of this program, more than 2B children have received Vermox.

Steven also led the development of a drug to treat Niemann-Pick Disease, a rare genetic disease of childhood that results in physical and mental deterioration, has no currently approved treatment, and is ultimately fatal.  He also developed and managed JNJ’s Expanded Access Program, and the collaboration with NIH’s clinical development program.  The drug has shown great promise and is now in the final stages of clinical development by Mallinckrodt.  Because of his involvement in this effort, Steven was asked to become Chairman of Together Strong-NPC, a non-profit foundation dedicated to funding research and advocacy for NPC.  https://ts-npc.org/.  For the last few years, he has served as a scientific consultant to the Beyond Batten Foundation which is developing a drug for this rare genetic disease. https://ts-npc.org/

He is on the Board of Directors of the Elwyn Foundation, one of the largest behavioral health organizations in the US.  https://www.elwyn.org/