Cara Therapeutics Expands Board of Directors with Appointment of Susan Shiff, Ph.D., M.B.A.

STAMFORD, Conn., June 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cara Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CARA), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing new chemical entities designed to alleviate pruritus by selectively targeting peripheral kappa opioid receptors, or KORs, today announced the appointment of Susan Shiff, Ph.D., M.B.A., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Shiff currently serves as Senior Vice President and Head of the Center for Observational and Real-World Evidence (CORE) at Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada.

“Susan brings a wealth of experience in the health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) and market access fields, and joins the Board at a pivotal time as we prepare to transition to a commercial organization,” said Derek Chalmers, Ph.D., D.Sc., President and Chief Executive Officer of Cara Therapeutics. “Her insights and skillset will be valuable resources as we develop and implement evidence-based medicine, patient access and pricing strategies across the KORSUVA development pipeline.”

“I am pleased to be joining the Cara Board at such an exciting time, as the Company prepares to submit its first New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration later this year,” said Dr. Shiff. “I look forward to working with the Cara team to optimize commercialization strategies for all ongoing development programs.”

Dr. Shiff has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry as a leader in the development and implementation of evidence, access and pricing strategies for products globally. Before joining Merck, she served as Vice President of Global Health Economics, Data Sciences and Evidence-Based Medicine at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, Dr. Shiff was Vice President of Evidence-Based Medicine and Market Access in Global Primary Care as well as Vice President of HEOR and Epidemiology in Emerging Markets at Pfizer. She has also held senior positions at Roche and Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Shiff began her career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She holds an M.B.A. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Shiff currently serves on the Boards of Synthace Limited and the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund. In 2016, she was selected as one of FiercePharma’s Top 15 Women in Biopharma, in 2017 Proclinical named her as one of today's most inspiring women in the pharmaceutical industry and in 2018 CB Insights named CORE as one of the most innovative Corporate Labs in healthcare.