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Biography
Michael J. Sofia is a chemist whose main research focus is hepatitis C virus and hepatitis B virus drug discovery. He was awarded the 2016 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his research on hepatitis C, along with Charles M. Rice and Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager.
He is currently the Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Arbutus Biopharma, formerly as OnCore Biopharma prior to its 2015 merger with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.
He was also awarded the 2016 IUPAC-Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistry and the Economist’s 2015 Innovation Award in the Bioscience category for the development of sofosbuvir, which was named after Sofia for his contributions to the discovery and development of the drug.
He was Sr. Vice President of Chemistry at Pharmasset from 2005 to 2012 when Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead, after which he became a senior advisor.