Stephen Munk, PhD

Dr. Munk has extensive experience in drug discovery, development, and manufacturing. Before joining the Biodesign Institute at ASU in 2017, he was the CEO and President of Ash Stevens Inc., a full service Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) development and manufacturing organization. Under his leadership, Ash Stevens received 12 FDA approvals to manufacture innovator drug substances including 6 oncology drugs. Ash Stevens won 6 NIH research contracts during his tenure. Prior to that, he worked at Allergan, initially as a medicinal chemist and subsequently, the co-team leader of the adrenergic drug discovery team.

Dr. Munk’s work has been summarized in a number of publications and patents. He is a co-author of the 2016 book – Managing the Drug Discovery Process: How to Make It More Efficient and Cost-Effective. He served as an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Wayne State University, as well as on the Steering Committee of the Chemistry in Cancer Research Working Group of the American Association for Cancer Research (CICR-AACR), and the Board of Directors of MichBio (Michigan BIO) affiliate.

Dr. Munk holds a PhD in Organic Synthesis from The University of California at Berkeley and a BS in Chemistry from ASU. He also completed an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship at Purdue.