Holger Stark

Holger Stark (born on September 15, 1962) is a German pharmacist and a Professor at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. Stark is a co-inventor of the active ingredient Pitolisant, the only histamine H3 receptor antagonist approved to date.

Professional background Stark pursued pharmacy studies at the Free University of Berlin from 1982 to 1986, obtaining his pharmacist license in 1987. He conducted his PhD research at the Institute of Pharmacy at the Free University of Berlin from 1987 to 1991, under the guidance of Professor , in collaboration with Professor Jean-Charles Schwartz (Bioprojet, Paris/France) and Professor Charon Robin Ganelli (London/England). He was awarded his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) with summa cum laude distinction in December 1991. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Archiv der Pharmazie from 2004 to 2019. His research interests extend to various other pharmaceutical and medical domains, including NMDA receptor ligands, sphingolipids, enzyme inhibitors (such as monoamine oxidase and cholinesterase), cyclooxygenase, arachidonate-5-lipoxygenase, and ion channels. 2025: North Rhine-Westphalia Innovation Award – "Innovation" Category for the development of a new therapeutic option for the treatment of glaucoma. 2025: PHOENIX Pharmaceutical Science Award in Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy, presented by PHOENIX Pharmahandel AG & Co., Heidelberg/Erlangen, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dr. Achim Schmidtko and Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main