Joanne Imperial MD joined Covance as a Senior Medical Director based in Cardiovascular, Metabolic, Endocrine and Renal Therapeutic Area.

After receiving her MD at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, Joanne did her GI fellowship at BI/Deaconess and California Pacific Medical Center/UCSF. She founded the CPMC liver transplant program and worked there until 1995 when she and the team moved to Stanford University. She became an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Stanford University and Lucille Packard Hospital, and she served as PI in many clinical trials in her specialty area of transplant hepatology. After Stanford, she became Director of the UCSF Viral Hepatitis program and cared for community-based patients with HIV and co-infections, some of whom were incarcerated in facilities of the Dept. of Corrections. She became an avid user of telemedicine and the Project Echo model of patient care.

Her initial role in Pharma was in Medical Affairs at the biotech Onyx Pharmaceuticals where she helped expand the scope of Nexavar for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma in late-phase programs. Subsequently she worked on liver fibrosis both at FibroGen and Conatus where was involved in several late phase studies in advanced liver disease/decompensated cirrhosis and post-transplant patients.

Her most recent position prior to joining Covance was at Blade Therapeutics where she served as VP of Clinical Research and collaborated on their Ph2 programs in several fibrotic diseases including NASH, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and systemic sclerosis. With the onset of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, the company’s focus shifted to Covid-19 infection, and Dr. Imperial led the team through the entire Phase 2 process to a successful completion of study enrollment and preparation for final analysis prior to her departure in September 2020.

Joanne has also been very involved in the influential multidisciplinary Liver Forum. She co-moderated the NASH Baseline Parameters for Clinical Trials Working Group as well as a 2017 publication in Gastroenterology. She has continued to participate in the Forum, both as a member of the cirrhosis working groups as well as the Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis working group.