Christopher A. Slapak, MD

Dr. Slapak received his B.S. in Chemistry with honors from the Ohio State University in 1980 and M. D. from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine in 1984.  He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago and his fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Tufts/New England Medical Center.  Dr. Slapak was subsequently appointed Instructor then Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School where he was a member of the Division of Cancer Pharmacology from 1991 - 1996.  

Dr. Slapak joined Lilly Research Laboratories in 1996.  He was appointed Medical Director of the Oncology Therapeutic Area in July of 1999.  In January 2004, he became Executive Director/Distinguished Medical Fellow.  In 2006 he was named Distinguished Lilly Scholar and in 2013 he was appointed Vice President Early Phase Research where he oversaw clinical development of all early stage oncology compounds for Lilly and Imclone.

After the successful development and launch of olaratumab (Lartruvo) and abemaciclib (Verzenio), Dr. Slapak retired from his role at Lilly in 2017 and now is an independent consultant advising on scientific and medical aspects of oncology drug development.  Areas of focus include data packages to support clinical development, implementation of first-in-human studies, and proof-of-concept designs in targeted patient populations. 

He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Hematology and has a joint appointment as Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine where he previously was an attending physician at The Wishard/Eskenazi Hospital.  He currently is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, American Society of Hematology, and American Society of Clinical Oncology.