Dr Paulo Fontoura serves as chief medical officer at Xaira, bringing 20 years’ experience of working in the pharma industry, with the most recent 16 years focusing on translational medicine and clinical development approaches for one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. With his deep understanding of neurology immunology, ophthalmology and rare diseases, and broad experience of clinical development from his time as SVP and Global Head for these therapeutic areas where he build one of the industry’s leading teams and pipelines, Dr Fontoura brings invaluable insight and experience to Xaira.
During his time at Roche, Dr Fontoura was involved in launching several breakthrough medicines for neurological indications including Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder (NMOSD) and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, as well as for a number of ophthalmic diseases such as Diabetic Macular Edema and Age-Related Macular Degeneration. In addition, he played an important part in pioneering new approaches to clinical development, such as mobile digital health outcomes using smartphone-based self-monitoring, and validation of the first digital endpoint for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Prior to this, Dr Fontoura pursued a clinical and academic career and held several faculty positions at the New University of Lisbon, from where he obtained his MD and PhD in Neuroimmunology and trained as a clinical neurologist. This was followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine, focusing on the discovery of new autoantigens and the development of therapeutic DNA vaccines for MS.
In 2022, Dr Fontoura was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, recognizing special achievement in neurosciences, the clinical practice of neurology, and academic and administrative neurology. He is a visiting professor at the New University of Lisbon, as well as a lecturer at the European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine in Basel.