Antonio Garrido-Montalban, Ph.D.
Vice President, Drug Substance
Antonio Garrido-Montalban, Ph.D., is the vice president of drug substance at BlossomHill Therapeutics. Dr. Montalban started his career in the pharmaceutical industry in San Diego as a medicinal chemist at Kemia and has since held positions as the head of early-stage drug substance development at Arena Pharmaceuticals, executive director and site head of STA Pharmaceutical, a WuXi AppTec Company, and senior director and head of chemical research and development at Arena Pharmaceuticals. Before Arena, he was an assistant professor in the department of chemistry at Imperial College, London. Notable process chemistry contributions during his tenure at Arena Pharmaceuticals were the approval and launch of lorcaserin (BELVIQ®) and the development of etrasimod (VELSIPITY®), for which Arena Pharmaceuticals was acquired by Pfizer in 2022 for $6.7 billion. Dr. Montalban has more than 30 years of combined industrial and academic experience covering discovery to late-stage development.
Dr. Montalban received his Master of Science and doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K., and a chemical engineering degree from the University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt, Germany. He is an inventor on numerous patents, has coauthored more 35 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has written a book chapter.