Jeff Katstra

At Lyndra, we’re encouraged to drive forward and “go boldly.” That’s actually a campaign slogan and thought referenced from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Thinking back, it has been something I’ve tried to do my whole life, even before my career in the pharmaceutical industry. For instance, halfway through high school my family moved from New Jersey to Michigan. I did my best during that summer to get involved at my new school, by reaching out to the high school basketball coach, meeting new friends and pursuing interests in science and math. The move was a daunting situation at first, but I’m glad now that my parents gave me this life opportunity. I then attended the University of Michigan, earning degrees in mechanical and biomedical engineering. Go Blue!

When I started looking for my first job, I realized that I wanted to make a difference in the medical community. Most of the opportunities for engineers in Michigan at that time were in the automotive industry. Frankly, I didn’t want to optimize for gas mileage or design sleeper cabs for mid-sized trucks (co-op life lesson). So, I went back to the east coast, this time to Boston and met back up with my sister who had recently graduated from MIT. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to work for many great local pharma companies on leading technologies covering pulmonary drug delivery, amorphous solid dispersion’s and continuous manufacturing. Not only were those cool areas to work in, it was inspiring to work with conviction with teams to bring medications to patients in the areas of Hepatitis C (HCV), Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and Leukemia. Now, I’m excited to apply all that I learned in those earlier positions to the development here at Lyndra Therapeutics.

I came here because it’s truly rewarding to be working on a disruptive technology that could improve patients’ lives in such a big way. At Lyndra, we’re focused on changing the pill, not the person, and our new dosage delivery form has the potential to significantly improve drug efficacy while reducing side effects. Also, it is not just plain “vanilla” compounding of tablets. I’m proud to be part of Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing teams that are driving forward therapeutic areas like Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Alzheimer’s. We are working hard to be successful and to ultimately have a huge, positive impact, particularly for under-served populations. That is why I “go boldly” even against Boston traffic.