Peter Schafer PhD

Dr. Peter Schafer, Ph.D. is Scientific Vice President at the Bristol Myers Squibb. He currently heads the translational development group focused on inflammatory and immunological diseases. Peter joined Celgene in 1999 and has held various positions in the Research and Early Development organization. 

As Director of Biology for Drug Discovery, he was part of the team responsible for bringing the PDE4 inhibitor apremilast into development and has contributed to the Otezla® regulatory submissions for psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis indications. Peter began his research career as an undergraduate studying tumor immunology at the University of Chicago, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Chemistry in 1991. 

He received his doctoral degree from Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology in 1996, where he studied B cell antigen processing and presentation in the laboratory of Susan Pierce, and conducted post-doctoral research at The R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute (Raritan, New Jersey), studying the role of p38 MAP kinase in inflammatory cell responses in the laboratory of John Siekierka. 

While at Celgene, Peter has also conducted basic research unraveling the mechanism of action of the cereblon-targeting compounds lenalidomide and pomalidomide in hematology and oncology and contributed to the regulatory approvals of Revlimid and Pomalyst for multiple myeloma and other diseases. His team is currently responsible for the preclinical pharmacology and clinical pharmacodynamic studies on several different products in development for the treatment of rheumatology, dermatology, gastrointestinal, and fibrotic diseases.