Dr. Schechter is Vice President, Drug Development and Regulatory Affairs, MacroChem Corporation, Lexington, Mass. He earned both his Ph.D. in pharmacology and his M.D. degree at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

He completed postgraduate training at the National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Schechter held many positions with Merrell Dow and its domestic and international divisions, including Chief, Experimental Therapeutics Section; Director of Clinical Research, Merrell International Research Center; Vice President, International Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; and Vice President for Clinical Research, Merrell Dow Research Institute of Merrell Dow, Inc.

He then served as Vice President, Research and Development, Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Company, Deerfield, Ill.; Senior Vice President, Drug Development, Hybridon, Inc., Worcester and Cambridge, Mass.; and Independent Consultant, Boston Research and Science, Dover, Massachusetts.

Dr. Schechter's work has appeared extensively in a wide variety of medical and scientific publications, including Science, JAMA, NEJM, The British Medical Journal, Lancet, The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and others.