Biotech CEO Sisterhood: Melinta Therapeutics CEO Christine Miller on expanding the company into the acute care business, improving employee satisfaction, and her leadership principles
Interviewed by Sisterhood editorial board member Grace Colón, Christine Miller describes taking the job at Melinta after a business reorganization and in the middle of the pandemic, and where and how she has led the business since. Plus, the importance of investing in the antimicrobial space.
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Biographies
Christine Ann Miller has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of Melinta Therapeutics since August 2020. Ms. Miller is a global pharmaceutical leader with more than 20 years of experience in life sciences. Under her leadership, she is accelerating Melinta’s transformation and redefining the portfolio strategy from pure play antibiotics to become a leader in the hospital acute care space achieving over 60% product revenue growth. Christine has ensured the FDA approvals for KIMYRSA™ (Oritavancin) and REZZAYO™ (rezafungin for injection). She has also secured 3 partnerships: in-licensing of rezafungin from Cidara Therapeutics for exclusive commercialization in the US; licensing agreements to commercialize anti-infectives in Canada with Xedition and Middle East and North America with Hikma.
Most recently, Ms. Miller led the global and U.S. product portfolio for Sandoz, a $10 billion division of Novartis, where managed the company’s global and US product portfolio and has been involved in 20 different product acquisitions; has launched more than 50 new products that generated over $300 million of new annual revenue. Before Sandoz, Ms. Miller spent over a decade at Actavis (now Allergan) and its predecessor Watson Pharmaceuticals where she led the preparation of numerous product launches and held leadership roles in both R&D operations and supply chain management.
Ms. Miller started her career at Merck as a chemical engineer and procurement analyst and earned an MBA and a Master’s in Technology Management at Stevens Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Ms. Miller’s leadership focuses on the philosophy of “Putting People First” and her passion for building and leading high performing teams with goal-driven operational rigor. She articulates a clear mission, vision and strategy that engages people to cohesively work towards creative problem solving and innovative solutions.
Christine completed service on the Board of Iveric Bio, which was acquired in 2023 by Astellas at a deal value of $5.9M. She is also Chair of the Antimicrobials Working Group, the leading biotech antimicrobials advocacy group in the US. She also serves on the board of BioNJ and is an advisory board member of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) and is a frequent panelist and speaker at industry events.
Dr. Grace E. Colón has a 30-year career spanning biopharma, genomics, diagnostics, digital health, synthetic and industrial biotechnology, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. She is co-founder of Inaya Therapeutics and was CEO of InCarda Therapeutics, raising $120M and advancing the lead program from pre-clinical stage to Phase 3. Previously she held leadership roles at Gilead Sciences, Intrexon, New Science Ventures, Affymetrix, and McKinsey. She serves on the board of Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VYGR), as board chair of Bloom Science and Emm, on the Board of the MIT Corporation, and as Vice Chair of the Emerging Companies Section and on the Board Executive Committee of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Previously she served on the boards of CareDx (NASDAQ:CDNA) and on multiple early-stage biotech boards.
A native of Puerto Rico, she is passionate about advising and mentoring entrepreneurs as well as aspiring board directors, particularly women and underrepresented minorities. She is also an active advocate for women’s health, having experienced the long-term impact of severe endometriosis. She received her Ph.D. from MIT and a B.S.E. from the University of Pennsylvania, both in chemical engineering. In 2023 she was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
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