Peter D. Milner, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Peter D. Milner, M.D., currently serves as chairman of Armetheon, a California company conducting a Phase 3 trial of its novel oral anticoagulant. He was previously chief executive officer of Heart Metabolics, where he raised capital for and organized the late-stage development of an orphan treatment for a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), rare genetic heart disease. In 2007, Dr. Milner co-founded Optivia Biotechnology, a leading transporter biology company.

Additionally, Dr. Milner is credited with co-founding ARYx Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ARYX) and CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CVTX).  At ARYx Therapeutics he served as CEO and president, during which time he co-invented and developed four novel drug candidates.  While a member of the CV Therapeutics senior management team, Dr. Milner participated in the in-licensing and invention of several successful pharmaceutical products. His contributions to the success of CV Therapeutics led to the company’s acquisition by Gilead for $1.5B in 2009.

Prior to joining industry, Dr. Milner was as an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, where his research led to the discovery of pleiotrophin (PTN), a novel growth factor that regulates the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). He received his medical degree from University of Liverpool in 1980 and undertook post-graduate training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and The University of Virginia.

Dr. Milner is a board certified cardiologist, a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC), co-inventor on 50 patents and author of 29 original scientific articles that have appeared in Science, Biochemistry, Circulation, Cancer, JCI, and JBC. He serves as adjunct clinical faculty at Stanford University and as a board member of the California Healthcare Institute (CHI), where he has been responsible for championing various pieces of legislation in particular, the 2011 Leahy-Smith Patent Reform Act and the 2012 GAIN (Generate Antibiotic Incentives Now) Act.