by GreenfireBio | Dec 15, 2020 | Uncategorized
Austin TX, December 16, 2020 — Greenfire Bio, LLC announced today that it has completed its first transaction, the acquisition of a first-in-class, orally bioavailable small molecule dual inhibitor of the Salt Inducible Kinases 2 and 3 (SIK2, SIK3) for ovarian...Dr. Shin is currently the CEO of M2N Bio Corp. in Seoul, Korea. He also serves as Senior Director, Bio-Pharma Division of M2N Corp. He has spent the past 25 years in various research, development, and administrative roles for companies involved in both basic and applied research. Past experiences include senior researcher at the Korean Drug Development Fund, Special volunteer at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and post-doc training at Amicus Therapeutics. Dr. Shin received his M.S. and B.S. from Seoul National University and his Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from SUNY [State University of New York] at Stony Brook. He was also a visiting fellow doing research at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Markus has over 25 years of hands-on experience in drug discovery and development programs from ‘de novo’ drug design, to preclinical and early/late-stage clinical development, and to commercialization and life-cycle management. Prior to joining GreenfireBio as the GRN-300 Program Lead, Markus held positions in Oncology Program Management at Eisai where he was involved the registration trial and the initial NDA approval for lenvatinib and the strategic planning and execution of supplementary product indications. Markus obtained his undergraduate degree in Biotechnology from Imperial College, his Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Cambridge, and his MBA from NYU Stern School of Business. Postdoctoral research positions in pharmacology were at the Charite (Campus Benjamin Franklin Klinik, Berlin) and The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto).
Andy has over 30 years of experience as a financial leader. Most recently he served as senior advisor to corporate executives and the Board of Directors and founder of a financial consulting firm. Previously, served as Equity Capital Markets Group Head at Wells Fargo and was a member of the Investment Banking Operating Committee. Also worked as a Managing Director in Equity Capital Markets for J.P. Morgan Securities and Citigroup prior to that. Andy received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Dartmouth College.
Shailaja has 20 years of integrated product development experience across small, mid, and large pharma companies. Prior to joining Greenfire Bio, she was a Technical Director in the Oncology & External Supply group at Takeda Pharmaceuticals responsible for late-phase development and commercialization of Takeda products. Shailaja’s experience includes leading a Large Molecule Drug Product Development team at Janssen supporting early development portfolio and authoring multiple INDs. She was the Drug Product Technical Leader for SYLVANT® (siltuximab) and supported the accelerated filing for DARZALEX® (daratumumab).
At Janssen, Shailaja completed a 2-yr rotation in Global Quality leading the implementation of Global Quality Standards and in Clinical Supply Chain as a Trial Supply Manager. Shailaja started her career as a Process Development Scientist at Bayer Biological Products (Plasma Products division), now Grifols. She led the formulations group at KBI Biopharma in Durham, NC, before relocating to PA in 2006. Shailaja is recognized as a Subject Matter Expert in lyophilization and has published extensively in the field. Shailaja obtained her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Connecticut and a B. Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from Andhra University, India.
Gayathri has over 16 years of research and development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with expertise in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, renal, pulmonary hypertension, microbiome, and oncology. Gayathri started at Amgen, where she contributed to the discovery pipeline in several therapeutic areas and advanced small molecules to the clinic. At Merck, Gayathri held a leadership role in discovery, preclinical, and clinical development programs. She has co-authored over 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals and holds several patents. Gayathri completed her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Hyderabad, India, postdoctoral training at Stanford University, and an MBA from Cornell University.
Hong-Min Suh is Chairman & Director at M2N Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ 033310) and Chief Executive Officer & Director at DK Marine Co., Ltd. Mr. Suh is also Chairman-Executive Board at The LEADCORP, Inc. (KOSDAQ 012700).
He received an undergraduate degree from George Washington University and Master’s degree from the University of Michigan.
Vikas has over 20 years’ experience in drug development from biotech start-ups to large pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, he was Senior Director and Program Leader of the TAR 200 Bladder Cancer Program at TARIS Biomedical LLC a start-up in the Boston area focused on urology that was acquired by Janssen Pharmaceuticals in 2019. Previously Vikas worked in Cephalon (now TEVA) Global Drug Delivery in positions of increasing responsibility leading dosage form design and development of products based on proprietary drug delivery technologies. He was also a Board Observer at Algorics, a cloud based clinical data analytics and decision-making platform, which was subsequently acquired by Anju software.
He has a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, a Graduate Certificate in Innovation Studies from the University of Minnesota and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from BITS Pilani, India. He is an inventor on 5 patents and an author for 15 publications.
Chris has 35 years of industry experience working in a variety of settings from large multi-national pharmaceutical companies to early-stage therapeutic start-ups. His most recent experience includes CBO roles at Nocion and Respira Therapeutics. Prior to Respira he had similar responsibilities at TARIS Biomedical where he negotiated several R&D collaborations as well as the sale of their lead asset to Allergan. Chris spent 12 years at Inhale/Nektar in various business roles and lead the negotiations of multiple transactions including the acquisition of Shearwater Polymers. Chris started his pharmaceutical career at Pfizer and spend 11 years in both technical and business roles. He earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and has a Doctor of Pharmacy and Bachelor of Science from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy.
Ajit Gill is past CEO and President of Nektar Therapeutics, when the company grew from a private startup to a public company with 800 employees and a market cap of over $2 billion USD. Earlier, Mr. Gill was VP and General Manager of Kodak’s Interactive Systems, VP of Finance at TRW-Fujitsu and Director of business development at VisiCorp. He graduated from IIT Kanpur with a B. Tech degree in Electrical Engineering and earned an M.S from University of Nebraska and an MBA from University of Western Ontario, Canada. Mr. Gill is currently serving as an advisor for several health care companies in India.
Diane Marcou is an independent financial consultant who provides interim financial leadership to early stage companies. She has provided financial and strategic advisory services to a number of venture-backed technology and life sciences companies, including as CFO of Immunome, TARIS Biomedical, Cytrellis Biosystems, T2 Biosystems and Fractyl Laboratories. Prior to working as an independent financial consultant, Ms. Marcou was Chief Financial Officer and VP of Finance and Administration for Incentive Systems (dba Centive), a privately held venture-funded software company, and Chief Financial Officer at Workgroup Technology, a publicly traded software company with domestic and international operations. Ms. Marcou earned her CPA at PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers & Lybrand) and a B.S. in Business Administration from Boston College.
Dr. Purnanand Sarma serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Immunome. Sarma has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of pharmaceutical industry business across multiple R&D platforms, ranging from venture-backed biotechnology start-ups to large cap pharmaceutical companies. He was most recently the President & CEO of Taris Biomedical, which he built over the last nine years into a leader in therapeutic urology, focused on diseases such as bladder cancer and overactive bladder. In addition to raising more than $100M in equity capital, he also sold one of Taris’ products to Allergan (NYSE:AGN) in a deal worth up to $587M. Prior to Taris, Sarma was the VP and General Manager of World-wide Drug Delivery Technologies for Cephalon Corporation (NYSE:CEPH). Before joining Cephalon, he spent over 10 years in various capacities at Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR), including VP of Drug Development & Program Management and built the entire green field operation of Nektar Therapeutics (India), serving as its first Managing Director. He started his career at SmithKline Beecham in King of Prussia, PA, after earning his PhD in Pharmaceutics from the University of Minnesota and B. Pharm from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India. Sarma also serves as an independent Board member at Ohm Oncology and Vaxess Technologies Inc.
Sanjeev has over 25 years of experience in biomedical R&D, business development and alliance management, working in large biopharmaceutical and small biotech organizations.
Most recently as the SVP of human healthcare business and alliances at InveniAI® LLC, an industry leading biotech that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform drug discovery and development, Sanjeev led development of the internal pipeline as well as external partnerships. Sanjeev started his pharmaceutical career in drug discovery at Merck and held several leadership roles in drug discovery and business development. Sanjeev headed the department of Protein Sciences and Structural Biology at Merck and was a key contributor to several drug candidates and has co-authored 75 publications. As an Executive Director of business development, Sanjeev led several in-licensing deals across multiple therapeutic areas, established external research collaborations, and managed alliances. Sanjeev holds a Ph.D. in Structural Biology from the Indian Institute of Science, India, and an MBA from Villanova University.
Dr. Nganele has over 30 years of global pharmaceutical and biotech experience in both large and small companies with broad experience through the life cycle of drug development and commercialization. He was on the marketing team that launched the first drug at Pfizer to achieve yearly sales of over $ 1 billion. After 10 years of commercialization experience, he moved to new product planning and drug development team leadership. At PDL Biopharma, he led the team that developed and obtained FDA approval of Cardene IV for emergency hypertension. He eventually moved to Europe where he helped pioneer the development of Biosimilars, at Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals, a division of Novartis, leading the teams that developed biosimilars for Enbrel and Humira. He moved on to oncology drug development at Morphosys in Germany where he oversaw development of antibodies and bispecifics in both solid and hematologic cancers. He is passionate about efficient drug development strategies to bring molecules faster to the market by employing such tools as Adaptive Trial Designs and developing an algorithm for optimal Site selection. He obtained his PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology from New York Medical College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.