Dr. Peter T. Meinke is Director of MSK’s Therapeutics Bridge Labs (TxBL), part of MSK’s Office of Entrepreneurship & Commercialization. Launched in 2025, the program brings additional expertise to MSK’s drug development capabilities—particularly in biologics and small molecules.
Peter has extensive experience in all stages of drug discovery from target validation through early clinical development, resulting in 13 development compounds that advanced into the clinic in seven distinct therapeutic areas. Programs under his direct supervision produced one drug: NS5A inhibitor elbasvir for hepatitis C, for which he was recognized with the ACS Heroes of Chemistry award in 2017. (Elbasvir is combined with grazoprevir (trade name Zepatier) to completely clear Hepatitis C infection.)
Earlier, Peter led the Sanders Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute (TDI), since 2019. This was a unique alliance that connected researchers from MSK, The Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medicine with collaborators from across the globe to remove the barriers that impede drug discovery in academic settings. He also is Assistant Professor, Pharmacology, at Weill Cornell Medicine, and a co-founder of Sacyl Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Peter previously served as Executive Director, Discovery Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories. He joined Merck in 1989 following undergraduate (Eckerd College, FL, 1978-1982), doctoral (Syracuse University, NY, G. A. Krafft, 1982-1987) and post-doctoral (Columbia University, NY, W. Clark Still, 1987-1989) education. He is co-author on over 100 publications in peer reviewed journals and co-inventor on more than 35 patents.