Dr. Farina is a Senior Advisor to PureTech Ventures. Dr. Farina was previously Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Ridgefield, CT where he was responsible for North American development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of Immunology/Inflammation, Virology and Cardiovascular Disease. Prior to this position he served as Vice President of Research from 1998-2002 at the Ridgefield Center. He has also held positions as Director of Inflammatory Diseases and Director of Biochemistry over his 26 year career with Boehringer Ingelheim.
Prior to joining BI he spent 6 years in the Corporate Research Laboratories and Medical Products Division of Union Carbide Corporation in Tarrytown, NY where he did research and development of immunodiagnostics. Dr. Farina’s research interest has been generally at the interface of Chemistry and Biology. He has worked over his research career in inflammatory and immunological mechanisms, particularly cytokines and arachidonic acid mediators.
In addition, he was engaged in HIV virology research which led to discovery and successful registration of one of the first non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors Viramune (nevirapine).
He is the author of over fifty publications and patents. Dr. Farina currently serves as the Co-Chair and Board Member of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE); Connecticut Governor’s Council on Economic Competitiveness and Technology Advisory Board and on the Advisory Board of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy.