Dr. Siffert is a neurologist with broad experience in CNS drug development. He started his career at Beth Israel Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York as an assistant professor of neurology and director of the Adult Neuro-Oncology program (1996-2002). He completed residencies in pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine and in neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Siffert was certified by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry in 1996. He holds an MD from the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Dr. Siffert currently leads the R&D organization at Avanir Pharmaceuticals, comprising clinical and pre-clinical drug development, regulatory/QA, and product development/manufacturing. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Ceregene, Inc. (2007-2011), and Avera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (2005-2007) where he led clinical development of several compounds in CNS, including Parkinson’s disease. From 2002-2005, Dr. Siffert led medical teams at Pfizer in areas of pain and epilepsy.