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Management
- Derek A. Small
- Founding CEO
- Mr. Small is also President of Luson Bioventures, a venture creation firm that focuses on launching new drug discovery and development entities. He was previously founding CEO of Coferon Inc., an early stage company developing orally active drugs for currently undruggable targets. Luson was responsible for the re-launch of Naurex in 2007/2008 and the launch of Coferon in 2008. Mr. Small has previously served on founding management teams leading drug development and business development activities at life sciences start-ups Semafore Pharmaceuticals, Simdesk, Kinagen and others, and has overseen drug development and regulatory activities from discovery into first-in-human clinical trials for novel targets in oncology, psychiatry and analgesic indications. Mr. Small received his BS degree from Franklin College and studied global business and international marketing at Harlaxton College in England.
- Joseph R. Moskal, PhD
- Founder &
Chief Scientific Officer - Dr. Moskal is Director of the Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University. He previously served as a Professor and Director of the Neurosurgery Laboratories at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and was a Staff Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratories of Marshall Nirenberg and Michael Brownstein/Julius Axelrod. Dr. Moskal is well known for his research on the NMDA receptor. He discovered Naurex’s lead molecule, GLYX-13, and also discovered the NRX-1050 series in conjunction with Dr. Amin Khan. He received his BSc and his PhD from the University of Notre Dame.
- J. David Leander, PhD
- Chief Scientific Advisor
- Dr. Leander is currently an advisor to a number of biopharmaceutical companies. Previously, he worked for more than 20 years at Eli Lilly & Co., where he was a Lilly Research Fellow and Chair of the Neuroscience Discovery group that produced Prozac®, Zyprexa®, Strattera® and Cymbalta®, as well as many other drug development programs, including Lilly’s NMDA receptor modulator program. Dr. Leander has authored more than 200 scientific publications. He received a BA from Pacific Lutheran University, an MA from Western Washington University, a PhD from the University of Florida and an MBA from Indiana University.
- Ronald M. Burch, MD, PhD
- Chief Medical Officer
- Dr. Burch is currently the CEO and Chairman of Biowave Corp. and has more than 20 years’ experience in various aspects of discovery research, drug development, regulatory affairs and new product assessment, including working on two NMDAR drug development programs. He has developed a number of CNS programs through successful product registration. Dr. Burch was previously founder and CEO of AlgoRx Pharmaceuticals and Cure Therapeutics, and has held senior positions at Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma, Zeneca, Rhone Poulenc-Rorer, Nova Pharmaceutical and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Burch received BS degrees in chemistry and marine biology from the College of Charleston, and PhD and MD degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina. He served as Medical Staff Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Julius Axelrod.
- M. Amin Khan, PhD
- Vice President
Chemistry Research
and Development - Dr. Khan has over 20 years’ experience as a senior chemist at several biotechnology companies, including Elan and Gliatech. He discovered and developed multiple novel CNS molecules that have entered human clinical trials. Dr. Khan discovered the novel NRX-1050 series of glycine-site functional partial agonists that modulate the NMDA receptor in conjunction with Dr. Joseph R. Moskal. Dr. Khan holds a BSc and BEd from the Regional Institute of Education, Bhopal, and MSc and PhD degrees from Kanpur University. He was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India.
- Ashish Khanna
- Vice President
Business Development - Mr. Khanna previously served as Director of Business Development at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, managing multiple transactions including Vanda’s partnership with Novartis on Fanapt® for the treatment of schizophrenia. Earlier in his career, he was a strategy consultant with the Palladium Group and with the Strategic Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young (now Capgemini). Mr. Khanna holds a BS in finance and BAS in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MBA from the Wharton School.
- James Schulz
- Vice President
Finance - Mr. Schulz is a partner at Upward Focus, LLC, providing senior level financial and accounting services to emerging companies. Previously, he was Director of Finance at Suros Surgical Systems, where he implemented operational and financial improvements and assisted in its acquisition by Hologic. Prior to Suros, Mr. Schulz served in a number of financial and operational roles at Eli Lilly & Co. He began his career working with a variety of clients as an accountant at Ernst & Young. Mr. Schulz holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, Bloomington and is a licensed CPA.
Board of Directors
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- Wilbur H. Gantz
- Chairman
- President and Chief Executive Officer, PathoCapital
- Edward Chandler
- Founder and Managing Director, Portage Ventures
- Terry Gould
- Partner and Head of Direct Investments, Adams Street Partners
- Derek A. Small
- Naurex Acting CEO
- David C. U'Prichard, PhD
- Partner, Druid BioVentures and President, Druid Consulting
- Kenneth Widder, MD
- Partner, Latterell Ventures
Scientific Advisory Board
- John F. Disterhoft, PhD
- Dr. Disterhoft is a Professor of Physiology and Director of the Northwestern University Institute for Neuroscience, Feinberg School of Medicine. He is a recognized expert in mechanisms of learning and memory.
- John Krystal, MD
- Dr. Krystal is the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, Chief of Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Director of the NIAAA Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism and Director of the Alcohol Research Center and the Neuroscience Division of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
- George Miljanich, PhD
- Dr. Miljanich has over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical research, drug development and product commercialization. He is currently CEO of Airmid Inc. Dr. Miljanich was formerly Senior Medical Director at Elan, where he oversaw the entire development process for Prialt®, an FDA-approved novel analgesic for the treatment of neuropathic pain.
- Patric K. Stanton, PhD
- Dr. Stanton is Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at New York Medical College. He is a pioneer in the study of neuronal plasticity, including the paradigms describing the role of long-term activity-dependent potentiation and depression (LTP/LTD) in mediating synaptic activity. Dr. Stanton serves as an advisor on CNS electrophysiology to Naurex and other drug developers.
- David C. U’Prichard, PhD
- Naurex director Dr. U’Prichard is currently a Partner at Druid BioVentures and President of Druid Consulting. Previously, he was CEO of 3D Pharmaceuticals, Chair of R&D at SmithKline Beecham and Executive Vice President at ICI/Zeneca, where he oversaw the development of a number of successful drugs, including Seroquel®, Accolate®, Avandia® and Iressa®, as well as two programs targeting the NMDA receptor. Dr. U’Prichard is a Director of several life science firms, including Life Technologies, Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Ocimum Biosolutions and Silence Therapeutics.
- Paul L. Wood, PhD
- Dr. Wood has over 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience in preclinical drug development at Elan, CoCensys, Ciba, G.D. Searle and Merck. Dr. Wood brought the first NMDA receptor-targeting program into clinical development and has authored over 200 scientific publications.