About pharmahungary group

Mission of pharmahungary

providing wide range of innovative and cost-effective preclinical pharmacology R&D services focusing on but not limited to cardiovascular (infarction, heart failure, stroke, sepsis, arrhythmias, etc) metabolic diseases (diabetes, dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, obesity, uremia, etc), renal, and inflammation indications with strong scientific support

clinical R&D services focusing on full management of clinical trials with Medical Devices, Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products, Investigator Initiated Trials, and clinical trials that need strong regulatory & scientific support with e.g. sensitive patient population

to manage internal R&D projects to develop new technologies for out-licensing and co-development in the fields of diagnosis and therapy of cardiovascular and metabolic disease

Why pharmahungary?

Over 20 years of experience in drug and Medical Device development with over 300 development projects.

Creative, cost-effective, flexible, high quality.

Scientific support based on international scientific excellence (publications over 320, impact factors over 1 000, citations over 20 000).

Internationally trained management & staff (MDs, PhDs, clinical pharmacologists, PharmDs, chemists, biologists, medical engineers, MBA quality managers).

Complex platforms of cardiovascular and metabolic disease models.

Custom designed models with co-morbidities.

Large animal studies for final proof-of-concept and medical device studies.

Strong biochemical and molecular biological background for complex proof-of-concept studies.

Strict confidentiality, IP law of the European Union.

Management

Founder & CEO:

Péter Ferdinandy, MD, PhD, MBA clinical pharmacologist

Péter Ferdinandy is listed in the Highly Cited Researcher 2014, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 databases acknowledging the world’s most influential scientists (see link). He published more than 340 papers in international peer-reviewed journals with an impact factor over 1 400 and over 23 000 citations. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Pharmacology as well as member of the editorial boards of Basic Res Cardiol, J Mol Cell Cardiol, and J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods. Péter was the president of the International Society for Heart Research, European Section, and the chair of the Working Group of Cellular Biology of the Heart of the ESC. Currently he is the president of the Hungarian Society of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology (www.huphar.org) and Executive Committee member of the European Federation of Pharmacological Societies. Péter received an MD diploma in 1991 and a PhD degree in 1995 from the University of Szeged. He became a registered clinical pharmacologist in 1999, and obtained his DSc degree of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2004. He completed MBA studies in Finance and Quality Management in 2004 at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He worked for 2 years at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, as a postdoctoral fellow of MRC Canada. He was the head of the Cardiovascular Projects at Biorex Co (a partner of Abbott), a US-Hungarian biotech company, and consulted preclinical and clinical pharmacological projects for several pharmaceutical companies all over the world in the last 20 years. He was the founder of the Cardiovascular Research Group at the University of Szeged, see www.cardiovasc.com. He is a professor of pharmacology and clinical pharmacology, head of the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Semmelweis University, and became vice-rector for science and innovations of the Semmelweis University in 2018.

Chief Innovation Officer - cell technologies:

Anikó Görbe, MD, PhD Clinical Chemist, Psychotherapist

Anikó Görbe received an MD diploma in 1997 and a PhD degree in 2007 from the University of Szeged, Hungary. She became a registered Clinical Chemist in 2002, and a Psychotherapist in 2011. She worked for 1 year at the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University of London, London, UK, as a research fellow of the Wellcome Trust Foundation. Currently she is an associate professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Semmelweis University Budapest, Hungary. She performed her habilitation in 2015 in theoretical medical sciences at University of Szeged. She published over 75 papers in international peer-reviewed journals with a cumulative impact factor over 350 and over 2 700 citations.

Chief Innovation Officer - in vivo technologies:

Péter Bencsik, MD, PhD

Péter Bencsik received an MD diploma in 2003 and a PhD degree in 2008 from the University of Szeged, Hungary. He joined Pharmahungary in 2007. He gained research experience at the Institut für Pathophysiologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen, Univerity of Essen, Germany in 2005 and at Inserm U886, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, Lyon, France in 2010. He published over 60papers in international peer-reviewed journals with a cumulative impact factor over 240 and citations over 2 000.

Translational Program Director:

Zoltán Giricz, PharmD, PhD

Zoltán Giricz received an PharmD diploma in 2001 and a PhD degree in 2006 from the University of Szeged, Hungary. He joined Pharmahungary in 2012. He gained research experience at National University of Ireland, Galway in 2007-2009 and at the San Diego State University, San Diego, California in 2009-2011. He published over 85 papers in international peer-reviewed journals with a cumulative impact factor over 320 and citations over 5 900.

Managing Director; Financial Manager; Researcher:

Erika Földi, BSc

Erika Földi received her BSc diploma in 2017 from Semmelweis University as a Health Care Manager. She has joined Pharmahungary Group in 2016 as trainee and acted as Office Manager and Research Assistant between 2019-2021. In 2022 she was promoted to Financial Manager and Researcher. Since 2023 she is also the Managing Director of Pharmahungary Group. As the Managing Director and Financial Manager she is responsible for day-to-day financial and administrative activities. As a Researcher her tasks include supporting the Senior Scientific Management Team in preclinical and clinical R&D projects.

Business Development Director; R&D Coordinator; Researcher:

András Nógrádi, MSc

András Nógrádi received his MSc diploma in 2011 from Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Law as a political scientist. He has joined Pharmahungary Group in 2011 as Business Development Assistant and acted as Business Development Manager and R&D Coordinator since 2013. Since 2022 he is also a Researcher and in 2023 he was promoted to Business Development Director.
As a Business Development Director he is responsible for all business development and commercialization processes of Pharmahungary Group, including B2B meetings on international partnering conferences. As an R&D Coordinator his task is to manage Competent Authority, Central Ethics Committee submissions, and to coordinate clinical trials. As a Researcher he is involved in preclinical R&D projects from cells to large animal models.

Office Manager; Research Assistant:

Anna Vadász, BSc

Anna Vadász received her BSc diploma in 2013 from Semmelweis University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science as a Humankinesiologist. Before joining Pharmahungary Group in 2022 as an Office and Research Assistant she gained experience as an Office Administrator at a large international corporation and as an Office Manager at a Hungarian company. In 2023 she was promoted to Office Manager and Research Assistant. As an Office Manager, she is responsible for organizing and coordinating all administrative tasks.  As a Research Assistant her task is to assist in coordination of preclinical and clinical R&D projects of Pharmahungary Group.

Finance & Grants Consultant:

Lilla Wenszky, MSc

Lilla Wenszky received a BSc diploma in economics and economy teacher in 2005 from the Budapest Business School, Hungary and a MSc diploma in economics in 2008 from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. She joined Pharmahungary Group in 2010. She gained work experience at a large international corporation from 2006 to 2009 as an accountant and later as a general ledger team leader. Since 2021 Lilla is supporting Pharmahungary Group with her over 10 years of experience as a Finance & Grants Consultant.

Advisory board

Scientific advisors

Professor Gary F Baxter, PhD DSc

Professor of Pharmacology at Cardiff University, former Pro Vice-Chancellor/Vice-President of the Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences

Gary Baxter is Professor of Pharmacology at Cardiff University and formerly Pro Vice-Chancellor/Vice-President of the Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences. His PhD was awarded for studies on the modulation of ischaemia and reperfusion-induced arrhythmias in hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy. After postdoctoral training at UCL and The Cape Heart Centre, South Africa, he was appointed Senior Lecturer at UCL and then Reader in Cardiovascular Biology at The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, before coming to Cardiff in 2007. Gary Baxter’s research interests centre on myocardial and coronary vascular biology, with a special emphasis on the pathophysiology of acute myocardial infarction, and the cellular basis of cardioprotection against ischaemia-reperfusion injury. The higher doctorate (DSc) was conferred by the University of Nottingham in 2009 for a body of published works on protective actions of autacoid mediators in ischaemic and reperfused myocardium. He has been elected to Fellowships of the British Pharmacological Society, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology. He was the recipient of the Bowman Prize (British Pharmacological Society, 1996) and the Dhalla Prize (International Academy of Cardiovascular Science, 2011). Previously, he served as Secretary of the British Society for Cardiovascular Research, European Secretary of the International Society for Heart Research, and Nucleus member and Treasurer of the European Society of Cardiology’s Cell Biology of the Heart Working Group. He has been a member/associate editor of several editorial boards including British Journal of Pharmacology, Heart, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Basic Research in Cardiology and Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Business advisors

Maria Halasz, MD

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Cellmid, Sydney, Australia

Maria Halasz has been involved with biotechnology companies for over 22 years; initially working in executive positions in biotechnology firms, then managing investment funds and later holding senior positions in corporate finance specialising in life sciences.
Since taking over as Chief Executive and Managing Director of Cellmid, Maria has led the restructuring of the business, the acquisition of the midkine and Advangen intellectual property portfolios and the recapitalisation of the company. An accomplished public company CEO with international experience, Maria has executed transactions in the US, China, Europe, Japan and the UK.
Maria is a graduate of the University of Western Australia (B.Sc., MBA) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She has board experience in public and private companies, and has acted on advisory boards of non-profit organisations.

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