Dr. Gotchev enjoyed a nearly 20-year successful career in big pharma and biotech before joining the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute as a professor in drug discovery and development. His commercial journey started as a medicinal chemist at GlaxoSmithKline. He transitioned to biotechnology at Trevena Inc. where he was a team member and inventor of Olinvyk™ (oliceridine) for the management of severe acute pain. At Arbutus Biopharma he served as a director in medicinal chemistry. Dr. Gotchev led research programs across several therapeutic areas including CNS, oncology and virology. He and his team have advanced multiple clinical candidates for the treatment of hepatitis B and coronavirus infections.

Leveraging his extensive expertise in research and preclinical development, his group aims to advance novel dengue virus therapies. There are currently no approved antiviral drugs and Dengvaxia is the only vaccine available in the U.S, which is recommended for children and adolescents who have had a previous infection and live in an area where dengue is common. The World Health Organization estimated in 2024 that half of the world’s population is now at risk of dengue with an estimated 100–400 million infections occurring each year. This presents an urgent need for advancing safe and effective medicines.

Having successfully led a coronavirus protease program into preclinical development, the Gotchev laboratory has initiated programs in other disease areas where proteolysis plays an essential role in viral replication.

The team is also investigating novel direct-acting antiviral targets for treating chronic hepatitis B infection. Current approved therapies using pegylated interferon alfa and nucleos(t)ide analogs result in very low rates of functional cure. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify new agents with novel mechanisms of action.