Dr. Acharya is a highly successful pharmaceutical scientist with over 15 years of experience in drug discovery and development with companies like Alcon Labs and Novartis where she has been involved in the entire lifecycle of drug development to commercialization. She received her PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and trained as medicinal chemist during her post-doctoral research at the UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, TX. As a project leader from major pharmaceutical companies, Dr. Acharya understands the integrated drug discovery platform for generating new research ideas for therapeutic targets and driving them from hit to lead, lead optimization, pre-clinical, and through clinical studies. She has designed and optimized lead molecules for antiviral, antibacterial, and ophthalmological drug discovery programs for Alcon and Novartis. At that time, her special focus was on anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic compounds for ophthalmological diseases. Two of the lead compounds progressed to Phase 2 clinical trials for glaucoma and dry AMD, and they underwent further development. She led the regulatory strategy to commercialize the antibacterial eye drop OfloxacinTM. Along with other industry scholars, she has co-authored 25+ peer-reviewed research articles in journals, co-authored 10+ patents, and authored two book chapters.