Lisa Ricciardi has been appointed chief operating officer, ContraFect Corp. Ms. Ricciardi will continue to serve in her role as a director. ContraFect is a biotechnology company focused on developing protein and antibody therapeutics for life-threatening, drug-resistant infectious diseases.

Ms. Ricciardi previously served as senior vice president, Global Corporate & Business Development at Foundation Medicine and senior vice president, US and International Business Development at Medco Health Solutions, Inc. Ms. Ricciardi also held several senior management positions at Pfizer, where she was responsible for launching three drugs and growing franchises in cardiovascular disease, arthritis/rheumatology, and anti-infectives. She also ran the anti-infectives commercial franchise at Pfizer and oversaw the launch of both Zithromax and Trovan.

“Lisa has a unique blend of commercial, business development and overall operational experience that will be extremely helpful to ContraFect as our internal pipeline programs advance towards commercialization and we continue to evaluate business development strategies to accelerate value creation,” said Steven C. Gilman, Ph.D., ContraFect’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Lisa has been a valuable member of our Board of Directors since she joined in February, and we look forward to having her contribute full-time to support the continued growth of ContraFect.”