• About Naurex

    Leadership

  • Management

    • Wilbur H. Gantz III
    • Chairman
    • Mr. Gantz is President of PathoCapital LLC, a private investment firm. He was formerly Executive Chairman of Ovation Pharmaceuticals, a closely held biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by Lundbeck in 2009. Prior to Ovation, Mr. Gantz founded and served as Chairman and CEO of PathoGenesis Corporation, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by Chiron Corp. in 2000. Previously, he held a number of executive positions over a 25-year career at Baxter International, capping his tenure as President of the company. Mr. Gantz serves as a director of Adams Street Partners and W. W. Grainger and is a trustee of the Field Museum. He received a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
    • Derek A. Small
    • President & 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 also 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 Naurex’s 2nd-generation series in conjunction with Dr. Amin Khan. He received his BSc and his PhD from the University of Notre Dame.
    • Ronald M. Burch, MD, PhD
    • Chief Medical Officer
    • Dr. Burch 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 Biowave Corp., 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.
    • 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.
    • Jaswant Gidda, PhD
    • Vice President
      Research & Development
    • Dr. Gidda was formerly Vice President of R&D at Marcadia Biotech, a biopharmaceutical start-up acquired by Roche in 2010, where he was responsible for taking three drug candidates through Phase I clinical trials. Previously, he had an 18-year career at Eli Lilly & Co., serving as Group Leader of the CNS/GI/GU Division and retiring as Senior Research Advisor. Dr. Gidda co-discovered two marketed drugs and has been responsible for the successful development of over 10 drug candidates. He currently holds an adjunct appointment at the Indiana University School of Medicine and previously served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and the University of Texas (UT) Health Science Center at San Antonio and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. During his academic career, his research was focused on CNS control of peripheral organ systems. Dr. Gidda received a PhD in Zoology from Panjab University in India.
    • M. Amin Khan, PhD
    • Vice President
      Chemistry R&D
    • 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 Naurex’s 2nd-generation series of partial agonists of the NMDA receptor in conjunction with Dr. Joseph R. Moskal. Dr. Khan holds a BSc and BEd from the Regional Institute of Education, Bhopal, India, and MSc and PhD degrees from Kanpur University in India. He was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
    • Ashish Khanna
    • Vice President
      Corporate Development
    • Mr. Khanna previously served as Director of Business Development at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical start-up focused on applying pharmacogenetics to develop therapies for CNS disorders. At Vanda, he managed multiple transactions including the company’s $400+ million partnership with Novartis on Fanapt® for the treatment of schizophrenia. He was formerly a member of the cardiology strategic marketing team at Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson company. 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 also 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 the company’s acquisition by Hologic, Inc. 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

    • Wilbur H. Gantz III
    • Chairman
    • President & Chief Executive Officer, PathoCapital
    • Ian Ferrier, MD, PhD
    • Managing Partner, Scotia-Nordic and Advisor, Savitr Capital
    • Terry P. Gould
    • Partner & Head of Direct Investments, Adams Street Partners
    • Norbert Riedel, PhD
    • Corporate Vice President & Chief Science and Innovation Officer, Baxter International
    • Derek A. Small
    • President & CEO, Naurex
    • Kenneth Widder, MD
    • Partner, Latterell Venture Partners

    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.
    • John A. Lowe III, PhD
    • Dr. Lowe currently provides medicinal chemistry advisory services to the pharmaceutical industry through his firm, JL3Pharma LLC. Previously, he had a 30-year career as a medicinal chemist at Pfizer, working in the antibiotics, inflammation, lead discovery and neuroscience therapeutic groups. Dr. Lowe co-discovered the antipsychotic drug, Geodon® and discovered the first non-peptide substance P (NK1) receptor antagonist. He was Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Medicinal Chemistry, 2006 and recipient of the 2011 ACS Award in Industrial Chemistry.
    • 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 development of 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.