Stefan Aigner

Dr. Stefan Aigner is a physician-turned-pharmaceutical executive with more than 30 years of healthcare-industry experience spanning clinical medicine, corporate development, and company-building. He earned his medical degree *summa cum laude* from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and completed four years of postgraduate training in obstetrics and gynecology at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), an unusual combination of clinical and financial credentials. Early in his business career he worked as a senior consultant at The Wilkerson Group, a specialty healthcare consultancy in New York.

Aigner co-founded Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where from roughly 1999 to 2006 he served as Executive Vice President of Business Development and Scientific/Medical Affairs. There he built the company's cardiovascular portfolio through partnerships with leading U.S. and European firms, led multiple acquisitions and in-licensing deals, and helped scale the company to more than 1,300 employees. Reliant was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in 2007 for approximately $1.65 billion.

From 2006 to 2008 he was Executive Vice President of Corporate and Business Development at Alpharma, Inc., a global specialty pharmaceutical company, where he played a central role in the transaction that led to Alpharma's acquisition by King Pharmaceuticals for roughly $1.6 billion in 2008.

In 2008 Aigner co-founded and became CEO of Inspirion Delivery Technologies (later Inspirion Delivery Sciences) and Inspirion Pharmaceuticals, focused on abuse-deterrent prescription products. Under his leadership the company secured FDA approvals for abuse-deterrent products including MorphaBond ER and RoxyBond, and raised more than $50 million in funding. That business has since operated under the Protega Pharmaceuticals banner, where Aigner serves as Chairman and CEO. He has additionally served on the board of directors of Cipher Pharmaceuticals (appointed 2016). In parallel, he is an investor in and medical advisor to Direct Allergy, an allergy-testing/diagnostics company led by founder-CEO Robert Schultz, where his most-cited angel investment was made around 2015.

• Invests as an angel at the seed stage, primarily in healthcare and specialty-pharmaceutical / diagnostics ventures where his deep operating and dealmaking background is directly relevant.
• Brings an operator-investor profile: rather than a financial-only angel, he offers FDA-pathway, business-development, licensing, and commercialization expertise built over 30+ years.
• Favors companies where his clinical (M.D.) and financial (CFA) lenses both apply — e.g., regulated drug products, abuse-deterrent formulations, and allergy diagnostics.
• Tends to pair capital with a hands-on advisory role (as seen with Direct Allergy, where he is both investor and medical advisor).