Roger Newton has worked for more than 27 years in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. He is currently founder, President & CEO, and a director of Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to his current role, he was Senior Vice President, Pfizer Global R&D and Director, Esperion Therapeutics, a Pfizer, Inc. company. He was co-founder, President & CEO of the original Esperion founded in July 1998. Under Roger’s leadership and the team’s effort, Esperion raised more than $200 million in funding, building a portfolio of biopharmaceuticals and small molecule product candidates, and was acquired by Pfizer for $1.3 billion in February 2004. Pfizer then divested Esperion in May 2008 and Roger restarted the company as an independent enterprise with $23 million in venture capital funding.
Prior to founding the original Esperion, Roger was with Warner Lambert/Parke-Davis (now Pfizer) from 1981-1998. As a Distinguished Scientist and Chairman of the Atherosclerosis Drug Discovery Team, he co-discovered and was the product champion of what is now the most prescribed cholesterol-reducing drug in the world, atorvastatin (Lipitor®).
Roger’s research interests for the past thirty years have focused on the nutritional and pharmacological regulation of cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism as they relate to atherosclerosis and vascular diseases. Roger is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan Medical School. He has co-authored nearly one hundred peer-reviewed articles and chapters during his research career. Roger has a Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of California, Davis, a Master of Science degree in nutritional biochemistry from the University of Connecticut, and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Lafayette College.
Roger is a member of the Board of Directors of AcelleRx Corporation, Rubicon Genomics, and Ann Arbor Spark. He is a member of the National Advisory Boards of the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center and University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute. He is also a member of the Technology Advisory Boards of Arboretum Ventures and Metagenics, Inc.
