About Us
Biotech Primer Inc. delivers current, relevant training to help professionals understand the science, business, and regulatory processes essential to the Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical, Molecular Diagnostics and Medical Device industries. With continuously updated materials and industry experts behind the podium, we provide the most engaging instruction anywhere.
When we opened the company doors in 2001, our sole focus was entry-level science education for the non-scientist, which helped clients bridge in-house communication gaps and develop more cohesive, well-trained teams for product development. Since then, we expanded to offer advanced training for all levels of experienced professionals—an estimated 100,000 people trained worldwide to date. We help prepare companies make strategic business decisions, navigate important regulatory hurdles, and move healthcare products from the bench to the bedside. To accomplish these goals, we offer a diverse range of education, ensuring participants retain and put into practice what they learn.
Our Expertise

BIOTECH FOR NON-SCIENTISTS

BUSINESS OF BIOTECH

Medical Device & Diagnostic

DRUG DEVELOPMENT

DRUG MANUFACTURING
Our Experience
Biotech Primer instructors offer extensive industry experience.
By drawing on their various backgrounds, these seasoned professionals are steeped in the real world situations you face. They have developed drugs, diagnostics and medical devices for companies ranging from multinational corporations to start-ups.
BIOTECH PRIMER COURSES ARE ON-POINT.
You can expect:
- Limited class size so all your questions are answered
- Thought-provoking case studies, dynamic discussions, and interactive activities so you practice what you learn
- Industry war stories to help you avoid lessons hard learned by others
BIOTECH PRIMER PARTICIPANTS RETAIN KNOWLEDGE.
We use a distinct methodology to get our point across. Research proves multiple learning styles – visual, aural, verbal, physical, and logical – activate different parts of the brain. By involving a variety of thought patterns in the learning process, we not only ensure everyone receives the information, but that all participants retain the knowledge they need.
BIOTECH PRIMER INSTRUCTORS ARE ENGAGING.
EACH CLASS IS TAUGHT BY A DEDICATED INDUSTRY EXPERT, NOT BY A PATCHWORK OF INVITED ACADEMIC LECTURERS.
We cultivate an unforgettable learning environment that is never dull. Find out more about our instructors by checking out their individual bios, below.
OUR Instructors

Leo Adalbert, MBA, Strategic Commercialization Expert
Leo Adalbert, Founder and Principal Consultant of StraNexa Biopharm Commercialization Consultancy LLC, brings more than 25 years of deep cross-functional commercial and clinical development experience across both biologics and small molecules. Leo has built brands across multiple therapeutic areas, with particular expertise in specialty, rare disease, and Orphan Drug markets across all phases of drug development.
Leo is an insightful, collaborative, and creative leader with a proven track record spanning global marketing, business development/transactions, and alliance leadership. This cross-functional perspective enables Leo to look at challenges holistically and to critically assess the major market drivers, strategies, and tactics vital to building competitive advantage through a science-driven, market-led, patient-focused approach that maximizes product value to patients, clinicians, and payers through a product’s lifecycle.
Prior to founding StraNexa, Leo held various leadership roles across marketing, business development, and alliance leadership at leading firms such as AstraZeneca, Merck, Astra Merck, and Regeneron. Leo earned an MBA from Harvard Business School (fellowship), a BS in Business Administration from West Virginia University (summa cum laude), and executive leadership certifications from Northwestern University (Kellogg) and University of Pennsylvania (Wharton). He has also recently completed extensive coursework in biological sciences, earning high honors (Phi Theta Kappa distinction).

RUSS BELDEN, STRATEGIC COMMERCIALIZATION EXPERT

Emily Burke, PhD, Biotechnology Expert
Dr. Emily Burke is a biopharma communication expert and is a medical writer for ScienceMedia. She has developed and delivered customized courses for Biotech Primer for 11 years both nationally and internationally, and has been an invited speaker on behalf of Biotech Primer at many high profile events including the annual BIO International Convention and the California Life Science HR Conference. She also wrote the Biotech Primer WEEKLY blog and authored two books; The Biotech Primer One and The Biotech Primer Two both available on Amazon.com. Prior to joining Biotech Primer, Dr. Burke conducted post-doctoral research on the molecular pathogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus and Lassa fever virus at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA and worked as a patent writer for ISIS Pharmaceuticals in Carlsbad, CA. Dr. Burke received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of South Alabama.

WILLIAM P. CACHERIS, PHD, EPIDEMIOLOGY EXPERT
William P. Cacheris has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries of which over 20 years has been focused on consulting and business analytics. As the founder and president of Tessellon, Bill has extensive knowledge of epidemiology and forecasting across many therapeutic areas. In particular, he is a master of global oncology epidemiology data sources and various disease registries. Using this vast knowledge and experience, Bill uses his forecasting and modeling skills to develop robust and meaningful market assessments that are essential in business planning for pharmaceutical companies ranging from epidemiology, patient segmentation, disease treatment patterns, market analysis and trends, future market dynamics, and forecasted products sales.
Bill’s academic qualifications include a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Florida State University and his M.B.A. from University of Missouri, St. Louis. His background in metal chelates led him to the world of magnetic resonance contrast agents and blood substitute industries which he served for over 7 years. His knowledge of science and business led him to the consulting firm of the Mattson Jack Group as Vice President, S&T and Strategic Products, where he lead the global product offerings for forecasting, epidemiology, and oncology for over 10 years. During his tenure at the Mattson Jack Group, Bill not only gained valuable skills in forecasting and product databases, but also extensive global business experience extending to Europe, China, and Japan, which has enabled Bill to establish key partnerships for Tessellon in these geographies.

Kevin Curran, PhD, Biotechnology Expert
Dr. Kevin Curran is currently a biotech consultant in the field of gene therapy. Kevin provides market research and scientific insight on new genetic therapies in the disease categories of hemophilia, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy. These disease areas are currently being transformed by AAV viral vector gene therapies, anti-sense oligonucleotides and genome editing technology.
Kevin received his Bachelors of Science in Biology from Southern Oregon University and his PhD in Genetics from the University of Washington in Seattle. Prior to joining Biotech Primer, Dr. Curran worked in the field of cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he analyzed the effect of small molecule therapies on cancer progression. Dr. Curran then worked in the stem cell field at UCSF and behavioral neuroscience at the Salk Institute.
For the past six years, Kevin has served as the biotech consultant at Biotech Primer. He delivers two day seminars on the science behind emerging medical therapies.

Shane P. Desselle, RPh, PhD, FAPhA, Drug Development Expert
Shane P. Desselle received his B.S. in pharmacy and PhD in health care administration from University of Louisiana at Monroe. He is President of Applied Pharmacy Solutions, a research company aimed at finding solutions regarding prescription drug benefit design, labor economics, and patient medication adherence interventions. He has 80 peer-reviewed publications and is the founder and chief editor of the international peer-reviewed journal, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, which has the highest Impact Factor score of any journal in pharmacy. Dr. Desselle has been consulted for many projects for pharmaceutical manufacturers and professional and philanthropic organizations, including studies related to prescription drug advertising, selecting appropriate migraine headache therapy, and patient understanding of Medicare Part D benefits. Dr. Desselle won the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Sustained Contribution in Pharmaceutical Social and Administrative Sciences Award in 2019 in recognition of his research, teaching, and service in pharmacy education. In 2020, he co-authored a manuscript earning the Wiederholt Award for best paper published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association that year.

Claire Gelfman, PhD, Drug Development Expert

Robert Johnson, Medical Device Expert

Collins Jones, PhD, Biotechnology Expert
Dr. Jones has been a scientific adviser and master instructor for Biotech Primer since 2001. Currently, he is the coordinator for the Biotechnology Program at Montgomery College. In this capacity Dr. Jones works closely with a number of Maryland Biotech companies including Bioreliance Sigma Millipore, AstraZeneca, Lonza, GlaxoSmithKline, Catalent and Regenx to develop and maintain curricula to train the Maryland Biotechnology workforce. Prior to his appointments, Dr. Jones spent ten years as a research scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He serves as a member of the Montgomery County Life Science business incubator review board, the advisory board for the Master’s Program in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University and several other local colleges. He is a regular presenter at the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Defense University Biotechnology working group.Dr. Jones spent ten years at the National Institute of Health as a research scientist. While at the National Cancer Institute his research focused on liver toxicity and liver cancers caused by environmental pollutants, including PCBs. After receiving an National Research Council grant Dr. Jones transitioned to the National Institute on Aging where he worked on the development of in vivo and in vitro methods to image phospholipid mediated signal transduction in the brain. Dr. Jones received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland and his BS in Biochemistry with a mathematics minor from Albright College.

Marc LeMaitre, PhD, Biotechnology Expert
Marc Lemaitre holds a first degree in Organic Chemistry and a PhD in Biochemistry (specializing in DNA repair and cancer) from the University of Liège, Belgium, and since 1980 the “fil rouge” of Marc’s professional interests has been the study of the Nucleic Acids. After pioneering work on Antisense and oligo delivery in Montpellier, France, followed by 2 years in the lab of Nobel Prize winner Dr. Luc Montagnier at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Marc held positions of increasing seniority in R&D, operational management, business development, and general management within CMO’s, Pharma and Biotech companies. He moved to the USA in 2006 in a leadership role with Glen Research, before being recruited in 2009 as CEO of Girindus America, a CMO with a focus on the cGMP manufacture of oligonucleotides for therapeutic applications. In this role, Marc also held the legal responsibility of “Sprecher des Vorstands” (President of the management board) of the German listed company Girindus AG, adding invaluable experience of leadership of a public company.
Having negotiated the merger between Nitto-Denko Avecia and the US operations of Girindus, Marc agreed to stay for a year to facilitate the integration of the newly merged entities. With that project now complete, he is working as an independent consultant helping companies on various strategic and/or technical projects, including: company creation, operational improvement and streamlining, fund raising, interim executive management, turn-around projects and due diligence for licensing and acquisitions.

Jim Macemon, Medical Device Expert

Kenneth J. Olivier Jr., PhD, Drug Development Expert

Joseph H. Quinn, Biopharmaceutical Regulatory Expert

JEFF ROESELER, STRATEGIC COMMERCIALIZATION EXPERT
Mr. Jeff Roeseler has 20 years of management and senior leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He currently serves as the managing partner at Biocentric, LLC, providing strategic advisement to commercial and clinical stage companies as they advance their clinical portfolios and prepare for commercialization. Over the course of his career Mr. Roeseler has leveraged his broad commercial experience to optimize strategy and execute successfully, product launches across a range of categories and disease states: rare /orphan diseases, buy-and-bill biologic devices and blockbuster CNS products.
Prior to starting Biocentric, Mr. Roeseler was the head of global marketing at Insmed where he led the development and global commercialization of a novel first-in-class therapy for a rare, life-threatening respiratory orphan disease. From 2001- 2013 he held various management roles across the commercial organization at Shire.
Mr. Roeseler’s hands-on sales and marketing expertise includes:
- Forecasting
- Sales Force Alignment
- Pre-launch Market Development
- Life-Cycle Management
- BD Commercial Assessments
- DTC Broadcast Advertising
- Global Pricing and Market Access Strategies
- Key Opinion Leader and Advocacy Development

Janet Rose Rea
Janet Rose Rea is an independent consultant providing regulatory services (e.g., Quality, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical, etc.) for organizations developing small molecule and biologic drugs with a variety of modalities, including gene and cellular therapies, rDNA biologics, and biosimilars. Her industry career has spanned over 40 years, from development through commercialization, with increasing levels of responsibility and scope in the areas of oncology and rare diseases. She has extensive interactions with worldwide health regulatory authorities, especially with the FDA.
She most recently worked for AVM Biotechnology and Atossa Therapeutics. Companies for whom she has worked include Immunex (Amgen), MDS Panlabs, Targeted Genetics, AVI Biopharma (Sarepta) and Protein Sciences Corp (Sanofi), and a number of other companies as a consultant. She was an Assistant Clinical Professor for the University of Washington in the Department of Pharmacy and is currently an instructor for Biotech Primer.

Lisa A. Selbie, PhD, Biotechnology Expert

Simon J. Tulloch, MD, Drug Development Expert
Dr. Tulloch has more than 30 years of pharmaceutical and biotech experience in clinical development, R&D management, and business roles—both in Europe and the USA. He is Chief Medical Officer for Faraday Pharmaceuticals and consults to the industry on strategic R&D issues, clinical development, and medical issues.
Dr. Tulloch has been the Chief Medical Officer at InfaCare Inc.—a privately funded biotech company—and spent ten years at Shire Pharmaceuticals. He moved to the USA to establish Shires U.S. research and development organization. Dr. Tulloch built the organization in all areas of drug development, and successfully conducted the development and NDA approval of Adderall XR. During that time, his organization also developed and got NDA approvals for Fosrenol (Shire’s first global NCE) and Equetro, as well as providing CMC, preclinical, and marketing medical support to all of Shire’s U.S. products. Latterly, he assumed the role of head of the global CNS Business Unit.
Prior to his time at Shire, Dr. Tulloch spent eight years with Johnson and Johnson companies, including five years as clinical research director for R.W. Johnson PRI’s European R&D facility in Zurich, Switzerland, working on multiple projects in various therapeutic areas and stages of development.
He trained in medicine at Oxford University, has a degree in physiology, a diploma in pharmaceutical medicine, and worked for a number of years for the UK National Health Service in hospital posts.
What Clients Are Saying
Our Clients
The following is a partial list of companies who have either hired us in-house to create a customized course or who have sent their employees to one of our courses.
• Abbott Laboratories
• AbbVie
• Abdimab
• Affymetrix
• Aldevron
• Alexandria Real Estate
• Alnylam
• Amgen
• Amylin Pharmaceuticals
• AstraZeneca
• Baxter
• Biogen
• Biomarin
• Bio-Rad
• Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Boehringer Ingelheim
• Charles River Laboratories
• CNA HealthPro
• Contact Singapore
• CRISPR Therapeutics
• Deloitte
• DLP Piper
• Eli Lilly
• Emergent BioSolutions
• Ernst & Young
• Eurofins
• Genentech
• Genomic Health
• Genzyme
• Gilead
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Hewlett Packard
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• IBM
• Ingenuity Systems
• Ionis Pharmaceutical
• Jazz Pharmaceuticals
• Johns Hopkins University
• Johnson & Johnson
• KPMG LLP
• Lonza
• Massachusetts Life Science Center
• Medicon Valley Association
• Medidata
• Merck
• Merrill Lynch Capital- Life Sciences
• Millennium
• Millipore Corporation
• Mirati
• Morrison & Foerster LLP
• NIH
• Neurocrine
• Novartis
• PTC Therapeutics
• Parker Hannifin
• Qiagen
• Regeneron
• SAIC
• Sanofi
• Sarepta
• Scripps Research Institute
• Seagen
• Shire
• Takada
• U.S. Pharmacopeia
Our Partners
Biotech Primer partners with various groups to offer their members discounts on our training. The following lists organizations with whom we have partnered.
Contact us at training@biotechprimer.com to discuss partnership opportunities.












Contact Us
Email and Phone
training@biotechprimer.com
Stacey Hawkins
CEO
stacey@biotechprimer.com
T. 410.491.2946
Mailing Address
Biotech Primer, Inc.
7006 Copeleigh Road
Towson, MD 21212