Franklin Okumu, Ph.D.
VICE PRESIDENT OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & MANUFACTURING "ADVISOR"

Dr. Okumu brings over 20 years of pharmaceutical product development experience to Armis Biopharma®. He joined the company as a Product Development Advisor in 2017 leveraging his experience with global pharmaceutical development of innovative drugs, antibiotics and drug device combination products.

Prior to his work at Armis Biopharma®, Dr. Okumu was Vice President of the Proprietary Products division of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (NYSE: RDY) where he contributed to the development and approval of multiple innovative products.

Previously Dr. Okumu served a Principal Scientist in the Diabetes Research Unit at Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO), and as Executive Director of Biopharmaceutical Research and Development at DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ: DRRX).

Prior to this, Dr. Okumu was the Associate Director of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OPTR) where he co-invented Fidaxomicin the only locally acting macrocyclic antibiotic approved by the FDA in the past 30 years. Based on this approval Optimer Pharmaceuticals was acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CBST, 2013) for $535M which was acquired later by Merck (NYSE: MRK) for $9.5B. Dr. Okumu began his career at Genentech (NASDAQ: DNA) and at Aradigm (NASDAQ: ARDM).

Dr. Okumu holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Antioch College (1991) and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from The University of Kansas (1996).