Cara Cassino BA, MD

Dr. Cassino has over 20 years of experience as a clinician and executive in healthcare, including extensive experience in pharmaceutical product development with 20+ successful regulatory submissions/approvals in the US and globally. Dr Cassino joined ContraFect Corporation in 2015 and currently serves as Executive Vice President of Research and Development, and Chief Medical Officer. Prior to joining ContraFect, Dr. Cassino served as Senior Vice President of Global Clinical Development at Forest Laboratories, Inc (acquired by Actavis plc, now Allergan plc), where she oversaw across 4 therapeutic areas, including Antiinfectives. Prior to this, Dr. Cassino held senior executive positions at Pfizer, including Global Medical Team Leader of Pfizer's antibacterial franchise and Medical Development Group VP for Pulmonary Vascular Disease and Rare Diseases.
Dr. Cassino also served as Executive Medical Director for the late stage US respiratory franchise at Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc, and saw Spriva through US NDA submission, approval, launch and post-marketing activities. Prior to joining industry, Dr Cassino spent 8 years a part of the full time faculty of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Cassino received her BA, summa cum laude, in Chemistry from New York University (NYU) followed by an M.D. from NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Cassino completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at NYU/Bellevue Hospital and a fellowship in Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine at NYU and Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr Cassino is Board Certified in both internal medicine and pulmonary medicine.