Rajendra D. Ghai, Ph.D. has been a Research Scientist in the Professional Services Unit of the State of New Jersey, Department of the Treasury since June of 2004. His responsibilities include functioning as an expert relevant to the development and evaluation of state contracts for professional services including pharmaceuticals, administrative and medical services. Prior to that he was the Associate Director for Research and Development Programs at the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, since June 2001. Dr. Ghai has a broad background in the life and health sciences. He holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Biochemistry and has had a distinguished career of over 17 years in the pharmaceutical industry in New Jersey starting with the Ciba Geigy Corporation and continuing through its transition into Novartis. He is skilled in drug discovery, development and monitoring clinical studies. He was a program head and was responsible for the identification of new therapeutic targets in arthritis, inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases.  He is an author of several scientific publications and patents. He was a recipient of Research grants from the National Institute of Health, Washington D.C. as well as the World Health Organization.

He was the Medical Director at Ingenix Pharmaceutical Services (United Health Group) where he had responsibility for the clinical education programs for pharmaceutical products in Phase III development.  He was responsible for identifying new clients for strategic new business initiatives in defined therapeutic areas. He was also responsible for developing key messages for a new class of cardiovascular drugs namely “Vasopeptidase Inhibitors” as well as developing outlines for manuscripts and abstracts for pharmaceutical clients in the therapeutic areas of Cardiovascular, Central Nervous System (CNS) and Oncology.

In his role with the Commission on Science and Technology, he administered the R & D Excellence program, major matching and one-time awards. He encouraged multi-institutional collaborations, which actively engaged the participation of industrial partners, leading to business development programs through Commission sponsored programs in science and technology. He also provides staff support information and materials to Commissioners of the Scientific Fields Committee to enable them to make decisions regarding new as well as ongoing R & D programs.