Prior to becoming the CEO of Dantari, Richard served as Vice President, Global Development at Amgen where he led the R&D activities for the Biosimilar Business Unit. He initially joined Amgen as Clinical Development Medical Director and served as Medical Affairs Lead for denosumab (XGEVA®), for patients with bone metastases from prostate cancer, breast cancer and other solid tumors. He then became the Global Development Leader for Aranesp Oncology; and then from inception he built much of the Biosimilars Division and oversaw the R&D activities, especially the nonclinical and clinical activities across a portfolio of 10 molecules in multiple therapeutic areas.
Prior to Amgen, Dr. Markus was Sr. Medical Director at Corus Pharma (acquired by Gilead), where he led the phase 2 and phase 3 development of Cayston®. His earlier experience also includes leading phase 1-2 development programs for immunotherapy at Allecure (now part of Mannkind), and efforts at Allergan including orphan indications with botulinum toxin.
Dr. Markus received his BS degree in Cybernetics from UCLA. He then earned his MD/PhD at the University of Southern California and stayed at USC for his medical training before going into industry to lead clinical development.