Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> October 26, 2004
HARO HARTOUNIAN is President and Chief Operating Officer of MicroIslet,
Inc., and also a member of its Board of Directors. Before joining
MicroIslet, he was the Head of Process Development at Kelco BioPolymers,
a unit of Pharmacia, one of the world's largest producers of
Biopolymers. While at Pharmacia, his group developed the Ultra-Pure
Alginate used in xenotransplantation applications and he was involved in
development of other biopolymers and nutraceuticals used in
pharmaceutical applications and nutritional supplements. Prior to that,
he served as the Associate Director of Process Development at SkyePharma
(Formerly Depotech) where he was responsible for all aspects of process
development, scale up and technology transfer and was the key
contributor in commercialization of Depotech's first product. Before
joining SkyePharma, he held a senior research engineer position at
Dupont Central Research and Development. He has held numerous leadership
positions in professional pharmaceutical societies in the United States.
Dr. Hartounian served as an Executive Vice President of the
International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, San Diego Chapter.
Dr. Hartounian was an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical
Engineering at Drexel University and is a Lecturer in the Bioengineering
Department at University of California, San Diego. Dr. Hartounian
received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of
Delaware. Profile
TWST: Would you begin with a brief historical sketch of MicroIslet andthen give us a picture of the company at the present time?
Dr. Hartounian: MicroIslet is a biotechnology company engaged