A leader and innovator in the pharmaceutical industry will speak in the final installment of this year’s B&E Distinguished Speaker Series at West Virginia University, hosted by the College of Business & Economics. The event will be held Nov. 5 at 10:30 a.m. in the WVU Mountainlair Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.

Marvin Samson, who has been in the pharmaceutical industry since he graduated from high school in his hometown of Philadelphia, is the founder and chief executive officer of Samson Medical Technologies, LLC. His company specializes in injectable drug delivery systems and programs for hospital and alternate site pharmacists. On the innovator/inventor side, he holds five U.S. patents pertaining to pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Samson was the interim president of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia during the 2011-12 academic year, where he is currently the chairman of the Board of Trustees.

He is a member of the board of directors of Virtua Health System, NanoPass Technologies Ltd., Flynn Pharma, Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited, Antares Pharma Inc., The Franklin Institute and Cooper Rowan Medical School. He is a past chairman of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association and a past president of the PDE, a pharmaceutical trade association.

As a young man, he held a variety of jobs, beginning as a material handler and assistant compounder and worked his way up to plant manager of Philadelphia Laboratories.

In 1967, Samson helped found Elkins-Sinn, Inc., today known as West-Ward Pharmaceuticals. He served as the president and chief executive officer for 18 years. Following his tenure at Elkins-Sinn, Samson founded and was president and chief executive officer of Marsam Pharmaceuticals Inc., from 1985-98, building this organization from scratch to an estimated $100 million in sales.

After establishing Samson Medical Technologies in 1998, he joined SICOR, Inc., a vertically integrated, global specialty pharmaceutical company, as president and chief executive officer.

Following SICOR’s acquisition by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Limited, he was elected group vice president of Worldwide Injectables. In 2007, he joined Qualitest Pharmaceuticals Inc., as chairman of the board and chief executive officer, where he remained until the purchase of Qualitest by Endo Pharmaceuticals in 2010.

Samson, who has received various awards for business leadership, continues to serve his community through charitable support of educational institutions, hospitals, healthcare research and development, and children’s programs. He resides in Palm Beach, Florida and has three children and seven grandchildren.

The B&E Distinguished Speaker Series is presented in part by Wells Fargo. For more information on this event or the WVU College of Business and Economics, visit http://be.wvu.edu .

-WVU-

CONTACT: Patrick Gregg, College of Business and Economics
patrick.gregg@mail.wvu.edu or 304.293.5131

pg/10/31/14

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.