Dr. Tesfaye Biftu received his PhD from Brandeis University in chemistry and MBA from Rutgers University in management. After a brief career in academia, he first joined Merck and Co. as a medicinal chemist and later went to CytoMed Inc as a Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry. Later, he returned back to Merck in where he served sequentially as a Distinguished Senior Investigator and Director of Discovery Chemistry. Dr. Biftu has published or presented over 70 manuscripts and book chapters and is an inventor or co-inventor of over 65 US and international patents in various areas of drug discovery in human and animal health including inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, thrombosis, obesity, metabolic disorders, anti-cancer agents and infectious diseases. He was the program lead and key innovator in the discovery of several drug candidates including Marizev™, the Once Weekly DPP-4 Inhibitor anti-diabetic agent, and key player in the Januvia™ project which has a total sales over 70 billion since its introduction in 2006. He managed external (US, China and India) and internal resources. Between 2009-2013, he lectured on various topics in Medicinal Chemistry and Therapeutics at Jefferson University, State University of New York, The Ohio state university, Italy, France, Sweden, Portugal and several others. Currently, he serves as a Professor and Director of the Institute of Therapeutic Science at Adama University and teaches courses and mentors PhD students in the Food and Nutrition department of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.