TUCSON, Ariz., March 13, 2020 — The Critical Path Institute (C-Path) today announced it has named Sudhir Sivakumaran, Ph.D., as Executive Director of its Critical Path for Alzheimer’s Disease (CPAD) consortium effective immediately. Dr. Sivakumaran, a neuroscientist and research and development professional, has nearly 20 years combined experience in academic, pre-clinical and early clinical research and development, phase 1 and phase 2 clinical study design, data analysis and diligence and business development. He has been with C-Path since July 2019 as Associate Director for CPAD.
As Executive Director of CPAD, Dr. Sivakumaran will guide all operational and scientific input for the CPAD Consortium and develop and implement the strategic plan and priorities for individual working groups within CPAD. He will work with key individuals at global regulatory agencies including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency. Dr. Sivakumaran will also provide scientific leadership and oversee projects dealing with neuroscience, biomarker qualification, clinical outcome assessment development, data sharing and aggregation related to utility of modeling and simulation in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
“We are thrilled that Sudhir has accepted the role of Executive Director of our long-standing Alzheimer’s consortium, CPAD,” said C-Path President and CEO Joseph Scheeren, Pharm. D. “He brings a wealth of experience to the program and in the short time Sudhir has been with C-Path, he has stepped up to continue to drive CPAD’s initiatives to create new tools and methods to increase the efficiency in the development process of new treatments for AD and related neurodegenerative disorders. With Sudhir leading CPAD, I know we’ll continue to enhance our already ample collaborative efforts with our agency, industry and patient organization partners in this area.”
Dr. Sivakumaran previously held positions as Associate Director, Research Management at Aptinyx, Inc. in Greater Chicago and Senior Manager, External Partnerships & Alliances, Neuroscience at Pfizer, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. He has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications and was the recipient of multiple research grants and awards including the Epilepsy Foundation & American Epilepsy Society Post-doctoral Training Fellowship, Integrated Pilot Award from BU-CTSI, Academy of Finland Research Grant and the CURE Young Investigator Travel Award among others. He speaks English, Tamil, and Italian and his interests include traveling the world, long road trips and exploring and enjoying world cuisine. Dr. Sivakumaran holds a doctorate in neuroscience from SISSA/ISAS in Trieste, Italy and an M.Sc. and B.Sc. in microbiology from Univ. of Madras in India.
“I am very excited to be at C-Path and for the opportunity to lead the CPAD consortium,” said Dr. Sivakumaran. “Alzheimer’s disease is globally one of the most devastating diseases for millions of people and their loved ones. We are at a game changing moment in finding meaningful and effective therapeutic options in AD. An organization like C-Path, and its consortium CPAD, provides a great opportunity for us to come together within a neutral, pre-competitive environment in partnership with industry experts, regulatory agencies and patient organizations and work towards finding effective solutions for the most pressing needs and de-risk the drug development process in AD. I look forward to continuing to work with everyone at C-Path and beyond, towards refining and redefining our future course of action in AD drug development.”
Reporting directly to Scheeren, Dr. Sivakumaran will serve on C-Path’s leadership team, which is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the Institute.
About CPAD
CPAD’s mission is to accelerate the drug development process for patients with chronic neurodegenerative disease leading to dementia. Its primary focus is on AD. CPAD works with industry, regulatory authorities, and patient advocacy organizations to advance Drug Development Tools for evaluating drug efficacy and safety, to optimize novel clinical trial designs, and aggregating anonymized patient-level data using CDISC consensus standards to facilitate the regulatory review process.
CPAD has the following areas of pre-competitive focus: (1) regulatory qualification of biomarkers (2) development of CDISC data standards for AD endpoint assessments, (3) creation of integrated databases for observational and clinical trials data, and (4) development of quantitative model-based tools for drug development.
About Critical Path Institute
Critical Path Institute (C-Path) is an independent, nonprofit organization established in 2005 as a public and private partnership. C-Path’s mission is to catalyze the development of new approaches that advance medical innovation and regulatory science, accelerating the path to a healthier world. An international leader in forming collaborations, C-Path has established numerous global consortia that currently include more than 1,600 scientists from government and regulatory agencies, academia, patient organizations, disease foundations, and dozens of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. C-Path US is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona and C-Path, Ltd. EU is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with additional staff in multiple other locations. For more information, visit c-path.org and c-path.eu.