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Richard Gams, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer, is one of the founders of Prologue. He brings a wealth of academic and industrial experience to this research organization.
Dr. Gams’ oncology experience reflects 26 years in the field. From 1972 to 1985, he was professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also served as deputy director for Lurleen B. Wallace Comprehensive Cancer Center during this time. Since 1986, he has served The Ohio State University College of Medicine as professor, and in 1992 he began his role as director of developmental therapeutics at the University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition to his commitments at Ohio State, he currently chairs the Leukemia and Blood Cell Development Study Section of the American Cancer Society and serves on the editorial board for Oncology magazine.
In 1985, Dr. Gams joined Adria Laboratories as senior director of clinical development in oncology. After joining Adria, he was responsible for the design and conduct of all clinical trials of new cancer treatment agents. He also coordinated all aspects of the submission of New Drug Applications (NDAs) for Idamycin ® (Pharmacia & Upjohn), an anthracycline developed to treat acute myelogenous leukemia; Zinecard ® (Pharmacia & Upjohn), which prevents anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy; and Fareston ® (Schering Plough), which is used in the treatment of breast cancer. In addition, he played a major role in the submission of the NDA for Mycobutin® (Pharmacia & Upjohn), which is prescribed for the prevention of pulmonary MAC infection in AIDS patients. Dr. Gams has revolutionized the clinical trial process by engineering powerful, efficient, computerized expert systems. These systems incorporate protocol rules and prospective advice for the investigator regarding the proper course of action to be taken at every patient visit. Use of these systems, which have captured favorable attention from the FDA, has resulted in extraordinarily high levels of compliance and completeness while minimizing the inevaluability rate and considerably shortening the time necessary to complete the trials. | 