John T. Callaghan, MD, PhD

Bio

Dr. Callaghan is the former Director of Clinical Pharmacology at the Eli Lilly clinical research center located in University Hospital on the IU Medical School campus. He retired after nearly 27 years at Eli Lilly in October 2005. Dr. Callaghan had maintained an active association with the Indiana University School of Medicine as a Member of the Graduate School Faculty, and is an Associate Professor in Medicine in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, and the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. At Eli Lilly as a clinical pharmacologist before he was director, he had responsibility for leading drug development Phase 1 strategies from first-in-man up to new drug applications (NDAs). He led the teams and was a clinical investigator on several successful NDAs, including nizatidine (H2-antagonist), pinacidil (K+ channel opener), and olanzapine (an atypical antipsychotic). He has experience developing drugs in the fields of cardiology, gastroenterology, psychiatry, pulmonary, rheumatology, infectious disease, diabetes, and opiate pharmacology. In 1999 he was appointed Director of the Lilly Clinic and U.S. Clinical Pharmacology and had responsibility for Phase 1 programs in cardiology, endocrinology, inflammation, and aspects of oncology. Dr. Callaghan was instrumental in introducing pharmacogenetics to Lilly’s drug development process, initially by CYP2D6 and NAT2 phenotyping and later by introducing pharmacogenetic testing for NAT2, CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP2C19 alleles. As part of a core leadership team, he also promoted a formal biomarker program that revamped Lilly’s Phase 1 development strategy. In his current academic role, he has a major responsibility for Clinical and Research Fellowship training as co-Director of the Medicine/Clinical Pharmacology T32 at our institution. He has instituted courses in Drug Development Strategy and Personalized Medicine. He also has developed a series of ongoing Clinical Case Conferences involving several subspecialty divisions and departments (Pediatrics, Oncology, Psychiatry, Obstetrics, Cardiology, Hepatology, and Infectious Disease) with the goal of generating research proposals and publications for Fellows in training.