Ira Spector, PhD

Ira Spector, PhD is the CEO and Co-Founder of SFA Therapeutics. Ira founded SFA in 2016 after seeing data from a new approach to treating immuno-inflammatory diseases discovered at Temple University in Philadelphia. Ira is a passionate drug developer who has worked on 34 approved drugs, including ToricelTM for kidney cancer (RCC) and MylotargTM for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). SFA is pioneering new treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a hepatitis B-induced liver cancer that causes 880,000 deaths per year; a second drug to prevent relapse/recurrence in leukemia and lymphoma; and a third drug to reduce the incidence of cytokine storm, an often-fatal side effect of CAR-T therapy in treating cancer. Ira has co-founded three previous startups. His father-in-law and brother-in-law died from cancer, his parents had cancer, and both Ira and his wife have had tumors removed. Ira’s passion is personal: to improve the outcomes for patients with cancer.