Inova names director of new drug discovery and development center

Falls Church-based Inova Health System has named Dr. Milton L. Brown director of the new Inova Center for Drug Discovery and Development.

Brown also will be deputy director for drug discovery for the Inova Schar Cancer Institute.

“The addition of Milt and his team puts Inova squarely on the forefront of drug discovery in the United States,” Knox Singleton, Inova’s CEO, said in a statement. “And that means better treatment options and better outcomes for patients across the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Brown is a physician scientist with expertise in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of new drugs. In addition to being  a physician, he holds a doctorate in synthetic chemistry.

He previously was with Georgetown University Medical Center where he was founding director of the Drug Discovery Program.

Brown will bring to Inova a team of more than 20 scientists including research instructors, post-docs, technicians, graduate students, and research assistant professors to Inova. The team will have a strong focus on cancer drug development.

Brown earned his medical degree from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in synthetic chemistry from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He was on the faculty at the University of Virginia from 2000 through 2006, when he accepted the position as the founding director of the Drug Discovery Program.