John J. Talley is an American medicinal chemist who was the lead chemist in the discovery of the COX-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib and a co-inventor of amprenavir, a protease inhibitor used to treat HIV infection. [1] [2]
He earned his BA at the University of Northern Iowa and his PhD in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. From 1979 to 1986 he worked at the General Electric R&D center in Schenectady, New York then joined the Searle division of Monsanto, where he led the team that discovered celecoxib, as well as other marketed COX-2 inhibitors valdecoxib, parecoxib, and mavacoxib, as well as amprenavir which licensed by Searle to Vertex Pharmaceuticals. [2] [3] In 2002 he was hired by Microbia to lead their antifungal drug discovery efforts. [4] [1] [5] He left the company in 2008. [6]