Our core commitment is to provide safe and effective products that make a difference by providing innovative solutions for unmet medical needs. Products everyone should have access to and that deliver a true benefit. As motivated physicians, researchers, and innovative leaders, it is our goal to make a difference in the lives of people everywhere by continuously improving and evaluating our goals and objectives to further the advancement of health care.
Meet the people who support our vision by providing additional expertise and insight to the development, implementation, and assessment of our company and its products.
Dr. Mario joined our Board of Directors in August 2007 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until February 2014 when he was named Chairman. From April 2003 to August 2007, Dr. Mario served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company that was acquired by GSK for approximately $1.6 billion in 2007. Dr. Mario served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of ALZA Corporation, a research-based pharmaceutical company, from November 1997 to December 2001, when ALZA was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for approximately $12 billion. Previously he served as Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chairman of ALZA from August 1993 to November 1997. From January 1992 until March 1993, Dr. Mario served as Deputy Chairman of Glaxo Holdings plc., a pharmaceutical company, and as Chief Executive from May 1989 to March 1993. Dr. Mario has current and past service on a number of corporate boards including Boston Scientific Corporation, Celgene Inc., Chimerix, Inc., Kindred Biosciences Inc., Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. and XenoPort Inc. Dr. Mario is active in numerous educational and healthcare organizations. He is Chairman of the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education, a Director of the Gladstone Foundation, and past Chairman of the Duke University Health System. Dr. Mario earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in physical sciences at the University of Rhode Island and a B.S. in pharmacy at Rutgers. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Rhode Island and Rutgers University. In 2007, he was awarded the Remington Medal by the American Pharmacists’ Association, pharmacy’s highest honor.
Dr. Bhatnagar was appointed as our Chief Executive Officer in February 2014. Prior to that, he served as our President and Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Bhatnagar joined us in 2006, and has held positions of increasing responsibility since then. Dr. Bhatnagar is a physician with over 15 years of experience in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries. His experience spans development of biologics, drugs, drug-device combinations and diagnostic as well as therapeutic medical devices. His prior experience includes working at Coulter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 1998 to 2000 and Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2000 to 2006. He is the author of several peer-reviewed publications, abstracts and book chapters. He obtained his medical degree at SMS Medical College in Jaipur, India and completed his Residency and Fellowship training in the U.S. at various institutions, including Georgetown University Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Collinson has been a member of our Board of Directors since March 2017. He currently serves as a Partner at Forward Ventures, a venture capital firm. Previously he was Chairman and CEO of Aurora Biosciences. Dr. Collinson is currently a Board member of Tioga Pharmaceuticals from 2005 and Arcturus Therapeutics from 2014. He was a Board member for Affinium Pharmaceuticals from 2007 to 2014, Oxagen from 2001 to 2012 and Vertex Pharmaceuticals from 2002 to 2011. Dr. Collinson held senior management positions with Glaxo Wellcome from December 1994 to June 1998, most recently serving as Co-Chairman, Hospital and Critical Care Therapy Management Team and Director of Hospital and Critical Care. Dr. Collinson received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Oxford, England and his M.B.A. from Harvard University.
Mr. Dalal joined our Board of Directors in April 2016. Since 2011, Mr. Dalal has served as the CEO of ReLIA Diagnostic Systems, Inc., a point-of-care diagnostics company selling blood tests used in emergency medicine. Mr. Dalal also served on ReLIA’s board from 2006 to 2015. Since 2011, Mr. Dalal has been a managing director of Synergenics LLC, a management company that operates a consortium of commonly-owned but independent biotech companies. Mr. Dalal also served from 2008 to 2010 on the board of Singapore based A-Bio Pharma and Dx Assays, from 2006 to 2008 as CEO and director of Aviir, a medical device company which commercialized multi-protein biomarker test for detecting risk of acute myocardial infarction, from 2003 to 2008 on the board of directors for Vermillion, a public ovarian cancer diagnostics company, from 2002 to 2005 as CEO and a director of Guava Technologies, which commercialized a low cost bench top flow cytometer for HIV/AIDS testing, and from 2000 to 2002 on the HHS Committee for Blood Safety and Availability. Mr. Dalal was previously with Chiron as President of its Blood Testing division as well as its Vice President, Corporate Development. Prior to working in biotech, Mr. Dalal was at McKinsey & Co in New York and Cleveland. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, MIT and St. Xavier’s College, Bombay with degrees in business, biochemical engineering and chemistry respectively.
Dr. Engleman has been a member of our Board of Directors since June 2001. He is a founding member of Vivo Ventures, LLC (formerly BioAsia Investments) and since 1990 has served as professor of Pathology and Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he oversees the Stanford Blood Center as well as his own immunology research group. An editor of numerous scientific journals and the inventor of multiple patented technologies, Dr. Engleman has authored more than 250 publications in medical and scientific journals and has trained more than 200 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Dr. Engleman has co-founded a number of biopharmaceutical companies including Cetus Immune Corporation (acquired by Chiron Corporation), Genelabs Technologies, Inc., (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline plc), National Medical Audit, and Dendreon Corporation. He is the lead inventor of the technology underlying Provenge, Dendreon’s cancer vaccine, which was approved in 2010 to treat asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic hormone refractory prostate cancer. Dr. Engleman currently serves on the boards of several private biotechnology companies, including Gryphon Therapeutics, Inc., Naryx Pharma, Inc., Eiger BioPharma, Inc., Nuveta, Inc. and Semnur Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He received his M.D. from Columbia University School of Medicine and his B.A. from Harvard University.
Dr. Engelsen has been a member of our Board of Directors since April 2004. Since November 1996, Dr. Engelsen has been a partner of Teknoinvest AS, a venture capital firm based in Norway. From June 1989 until October 1996, Dr. Engelsen held various management positions within Hafslund Nycomed AS, a 12 pharmaceutical company based in Europe, and affiliated companies. He was responsible for therapeutic research and development, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Research and Development of Nycomed Pharma AS from January 1994 until October 1996. He currently serves on the board of directors of Insmed, Inc. In addition, from January to November 2000, Dr. Engelsen was acting Chief Executive Officer of Centaur Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. Dr. Engelsen also served as Chairman of the board of directors of Centaur. Dr. Engelsen received his M.Sc. in Nuclear Chemistry and his M.D. from the University of Oslo, and is a Certified European Financial Analyst from The Norwegian School of Economics.
Dr. Glasheen has been a member of our Board of Directors since March 2017. Since 2002, Dr. Glasheen has served as a general partner with Technology Partners, a venture capital firm that focuses on clean tech and life science companies. Prior to his work at Technology Partners, he served as Managing Director of CIT Venture Capital. From 1996 to 2000, he was a leader within McKinsey & Company’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Products Practice. Dr. Glasheen also serves as an advisor to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) SBIR program in Washington D.C. Dr. Glasheen currently serves as a member of the board of directors of several privately-held biotechnology, consumer medical and medical device companies. Dr. Glasheen holds a B.S. from Duke University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Mr. Harris has been a member of our Board of Directors since June 2014. Since 2001, he has been the Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Xenoport, Inc. From 1996 to 2001, he held several positions with Coulter Pharmaceutical, Inc., a biotechnology company engaged in the development of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, the most recent of which was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Corixa Corp., a developer of immunotherapeutic products, acquired Coulter Pharmaceutical in 2000. Prior to Coulter Pharmaceutical, from 1990 to 1996, Mr. Harris held several positions at Gilead Sciences, Inc., the most recent of which was Director of Finance. Mr. Harris received a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University, Leavey School of Business and Administration.
Dr. Kirnon has been a member of our Board of Directors since July 2002. He has over 20 years of operational experience in biomedical organizations. Since January 2009, he has served as the Co-founder and CEO of PharmaPlan LLC. From January 2012 until July 2013 he served as Vice President, Co-Lead Life Science Practice at Witt/Kieffer, Ford, Hadelman, Lloyd Corp. Prior to that, Dr. Kirnon was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pepgen Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company based in Alameda, California, specializing in autoimmune diseases. He was formerly the President and CEO of Target Protein Technologies, Inc., a pharmaceutical company based in San Diego and specializing in the development of pharmaceutical compounds targeted to specific tissues and organs of the human body. Prior to TPT, he was the President and COO and a member of the board of Yamanouchi Pharma Technologies, Inc., which is responsible for developing and commercializing Yamanouchi’s proprietary drug delivery technologies as well as the U.S. development and manufacture of Yamanouchi’s pharmaceuticals. Previously, Dr. Kirnon was the President of the Drug Delivery Division of Cygnus, Inc., successfully leading that Division into profitability and subsequently through sale of its business. Dr. Kirnon has also held various business development, sales, and marketing positions at Cygnus, Biogenex Laboratories, Inc., and GlaxoSmithKline plc. Dr. Kirnon received his doctorate in organization change and transformational leadership from as well as his M.B.A. from Pepperdine University, where he is an Adjunct Professor. He received a B.A. degree in Biochemistry from Harvard University. He is also a trustee of the New England College of Optometry.
Dr. Shah has been a member of our Board of Directors since March 2017. Dr. Shah is a highly successful pharmaceutical entrepreneur and executive who has been at Vivo Capital, LLC, a healthcare focused investment firm, since March 2010. He is currently the managing director at Vivo Capital, responsible for sourcing and evaluating new deals, advising current portfolio companies and serving on the boards of portfolio companies. Dr. Shah is the founder and executive chairman of Semnur Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Shah previously served as chairman of the board of Essentialis Therapeutics, board member of Bolt therapeutics, Impel Neuropharma, Fortis Inc.,Crinetic pharmaceuticals, Verona pharma and a member of the board of trustees of St. John’s University. He is also a board member and charter member of EPPIC and a charter member of TIE.From September 2005 to December 2009, he was the founder, chairman and CEO of NextWave Pharmaceuticals, a pediatric focused specialty pharmaceutical company, which was sold to Pfizer for a total of $700 million in upfront and milestone payments. From 1993 to May 2003, he was the chairman and CEO of First Horizon Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company, where he raised over $200 million and built a highly profitable company before it was sold to Shionogi Pharmaceuticals for $1.4 billion. From 1991 to October 1999, he was vice president of E. J. Financial Enterprises, Inc., which manages a fund that invests in healthcare companies. He previously served on the boards of Biotie therapies (BITI), Unimed Pharmaceuticals (UMED), Introgen Therapeutics(INGN), Inpharmakon, Protomed, Structural Bioinformatics, and Zarix. From 1987 to 1991 he was the senior director of new business development with Fujisawa USA (Astellas). Prior to that time, he worked in various scientific and management positions with Schering-Plough and Bristol Myers-Squibb. Dr. Shah received his Ph.D. in industrial pharmacy from St. John’s University and his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Pharmacy from L.M. College of Pharmacy in Gujarat, India.
Developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of rare diseases.