Dr. Zhijian Lu is a company founder and the Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry for Kovina Therapeutics.  Dr. Lu received his PhD in organic chemistry from Rutgers University and spent nearly 19 years at Merck followed by 10 years working in drug discovery including 5 years as the CEO of a biotech providing support to pharmaceutical clients.  Dr. Lu’s drug discovery efforts focused on a wide variety of therapeutic areas including antiviral, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.  Throughout his career, he actively participated in multiple discovery projects from lead identification through phase III trials gaining extensive expertise in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics as well as off-target activities.  Dr. Lu is a co-inventor on nearly 30 patents and has more than 20 publications.