TARGANTA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director, Chemistry Research
Adel Rafai Far joined Targanta Therapeutics in May 2003 and is currently leading the internal medicinal and bioanalytical chemistry effort. He is responsible for the optimization of the medicinal properties of compounds advancing through the internal programs of the company. He has received his PhD degree in organic chemistry from the University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada) and has carried postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute (LaJolla, California). Prior to joining Targanta, Dr. Rafai Far was employed at GlycoDesign Inc., a company developing proprietary drugs for cancer treatment and the prevention of cardiovascular and chronic inflammatory diseases based on recent progresses in glycobiology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Chairman / Partner, Seaflower Ventures, Waltham, Massachusetts
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Officers Team
Job Titles:
- Independent Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Partner, New York, New York
Dilip J. Mehta, M.D., Ph.D. is the former Senior Vice President of US Clinical Research at Pfizer, Inc., where he was responsible for clinical research (Phase I, II and III), including the design and implementation of clinical protocols, statistical analysis and data processing, and submissions of New Drug Applications ("NDA"s) for Pfizer's pharmaceutical pipeline. During Dr. Mehta's tenure at Pfizer, he supervised NDA submissions for many of the company's current top-selling drugs, including Norvasc, Zololft, Zithromax, Diflucan and Viagra. Dr. Mehta managed a staff of over 450 scientists with an annual budget in excess of $350 million, and established clinical research teams in Canada, China, India and Latin America. Dr. Mehta currently serves on the Psychopharmacology Advisory Committee of the FDA, is a member of the board of directors of Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Esvee Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd. (India), Bharat Serums & Vaccines Limited (India), and is a member of the Scientific Board of Myomatrix Molecular Technologies LLC. Dr. Mehta received his M.B.B.S., M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Bombay.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- General Partner, Fairway Capital, Toronto, Canada
- Partner, Toronto, Ontario
- Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager of Fairway Capital Management
Donna Parr is Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager of Fairway Capital Management. In this capacity, Ms. Parr has lead responsibility for providing investment management services to investment products managed by Fairway, including portfolio and investee company analysis and structuring and negotiating investments and all ancillary activities necessary to complete investments and build value and liquidity.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Clinical Development & Medical Science Team Leader
Dr. Margaret M. Wasilewski, is board certified in Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine and completed Infectious Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Wasilewski has nine years clinical development experience including seven years at Eli Lilly and Company where she worked as clinical team leader for the Oritavancin registration project.
She has experience in all stages of drug development with specialty in the in antibacterial, antivirals, and sepsis. Her expertise includes clinical strategy, clinical and regulatory plan development and implementation, dose-finding solutions, Phase II/III drug development protocol development, risk assessment, safety and efficacy evaluation, due diligence, final study report completion, and manuscript strategy and development. In addition, she has experience in business development, partnering with small pharmaceuticals and contract research organizations.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Marketing
Gayle Crick Fischer had 28+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry when she joined Targanta after retiring from Eli Lilly and Company in February 2006. After practicing retail pharmacy for several years, she began her career with Lilly in pharmaceutical sales in Detroit, Michigan. She has a proven track record of success in marketing/sales from new product planning through post launch of numerous pharmaceutical products, including blockbuster brands. She has technical expertise in building and sustaining brands in infectious disease, osteoporosis, and AD/HD. During her tenure in both marketing and business development for the Infectious Disease Business Unit, she collaborated with many of her now Targanta colleagues.
Ms. Fischer obtained her B.S in Pharmacy from the University of Michigan in 1974, and her Masters in Management from the University of Michigan (Rackham School of Graduate Studies) in 1984. She currently serves as the Co-chair: Eastern Region-College of Pharmacy, Campaign for Michigan, and is a member of the Dean�s Advisory Committee, College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Officers Team
- Senior Vice President Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer
George Eldridge joined Targanta Therapeutics in September 2006 from Therion Biologics, a privately held cancer vaccines company, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Therion in 2002, George served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Curis (three-way merger among Creative BioMolecules, Ontogeny, and Reprogenesis) from 1996-2002.
Prior to joining Ontogeny in 1996, George was Chief Financial Officer for Boston Life Sciences, Inc., and was prior to that an investment banker at Kidder Peabody & Co., Inc. George earned a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in government and economics from Dartmouth College.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director, Biology
- Director, Biology Research
Dr. Moeck joined Targanta Therapeutics in 2000 and has served as Director, Biology since February 2005. He currently oversees the characterization of internally-developed compounds using in vitro, cell-based and in vivo assays. Dr. Moeck played a key role in the implementation of Targanta's assay development group and high-throughput screening facility. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and conducted postdoctoral research on bacterial nutrient uptake in Orsay, France.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- General Partner, VenGrowth, Toronto, Canada
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Executive Officers Team
- President
Mark Leuchtenberger joined Targanta from Therion Biologics Corporation, a privately held cancer vaccine company, where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer from 2002 to 2006. Under his leadership Therion filed its first IND, progressed through Phase 3 trials, completed the buildup of its commercial manufacturing capabilities, and raised over $120 million in three rounds of private financings.
Prior to joining Therion, Mark served as Vice President, International at Biogen, where he served as Vice President, International from 1999-2002. In this capacity, he led all commercial operations outside of North America. He joined Biogen in 1990 as Product Manager, and earlier served as Program Executive for Biogen's commercial products Amevive� and Avonex�. In the latter role, Mr. Leuchtenberger was responsible for managing the late-stage development, registration, marketing and North American launch of Avonex�. During his tenure at Biogen, he held several senior positions, including Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development where he oversaw Biogen's global market, licensing and strategic partnership activities. Prior to Biogen, he worked as a Senior Consultant at Bain and Company and specialized in healthcare products and services.
Job Titles:
- Director, Scientific Communications
Dr. Allen has over thirty years experience in antimicrobial drug discovery mostly at Eli Lilly Laboratories where he held positions of increasing influence in the research department. His expertise includes identification of novel targets (mechanism-based, high throughput screening of natural product samples and synthetic organics, hit to lead evaluation, and SAR follow up). He is very familiar with all aspects of natural products discovery programs and has extensive experience in preclinical evaluation of new antibacterial agents, the antibacterial marketplace, and where opportunities for new agents do and do not exist.
Dr. Allen also has broad research experience in directing mechanism of action and resistance studies on major classes of antibacterial agents including glycopeptides, cyclic lipodepsypeptides, aminoglycosides, macrolides, and -lactam antibiotics.
Dr. Allen obtained his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Maryland and did his postdoctoral research in the Biology Department of the University of Pennsylvania. He will continue in his part time Adjunct Professor role in the Department of Micriobiology and Immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
- Member of the Executive Officers Team
- Director of ESVEE Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Etienne joined Targanta (then PhageTech) in June 2003 at a time when the company was solely focused on leveraging its phage-bacteria platform to create new antibiotic chemical series. From 1996 to 2003, Dr. Etienne was a senior executive in Pfizer Worldwide Development Operations, accountable for the clinical execution of all Phase II and Phase III trials in addition to leading a virtual small company focused on the development of prescription botanical products for Pfizer. From 1989 to 1992, he led the experimental medicine group at Pfizer US Laboratories in Groton, CT and the entire US early clinical research group from 1992 to 1996.
Dr. Etienne holds an M.D. degree from Univerist� de Li�ge, Belgium and trained in neurochemistry and psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal. Before joining industry, he was chief investigator on an MRC (Canada) program grant on the cholinergic hypothesis of Alzheimer�s disease. Over his professional career, Dr. Etienne has developed significant experience in academic-industrial relations, the transition of compounds from the pre-clinical to the clinical stage, their early characterization, and their valuation. He also has acquired a significant world expertise in the execution of trials for registration in the US, Europe, and Japan.
Dr. Etienne is a director of ESVEE Pharmaceuticals, Private Limited in Pune, India and a principal of Decision Options, LLC in Groton, CT. Dr. Etienne sits on the scientific advisory boards of Neuro-3D, in Mulhouse, France, of Enobia, in Montreal, Canada, and he also sits on the development council of Neurogen, Inc. in Branford, CT.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- General Counsel, InterMune Inc., Brisbane, California
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Operations & Manufacturing
Roger Miller had 36 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry at the time of his retirement in December 2004. His career began in the Research component where he held positions in the physical chemistry and natural products divisions. In 1982, Miller moved into the Manufacturing component where he held leadership positions in Fermentation, Chemical Synthesis and Bio-engineered products at three separate Lilly manufacturing sites. His positions were in technical services, quality control, operations, human resources and site management. In 1997, Miller returned to Lilly corporate headquarters where he held positions in corporate business development, third party manufacturing, and quality assurance.
Mr. Miller obtained his B.A. in chemistry from Indiana University in 1971, M.S. in physical chemistry from Purdue University in 1975 and M.S. in management from Purdue in 1988.
Since retiring from Lilly, Roger founded a consulting business - AcquiRight, Due Diligence Partners - to assist small and mid-sized companies in the pharmaceutical industry more effectively and efficiently complete due diligence on their planned acquisitions. It was through this business that Miller first became acquainted with Targanta as they sought to acquire Oritavancin. When the deal was completed, this role helping Targanta to manage its third party manufacturers and supply chain was a perfect fit for Miller�s previous experiences.
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientific Officer
- Member of the Executive Officers Team
Dr Parr joined Targanta as Chief Scientific Officer in January 2005. Prior to that, Dr. Parr has been at Lilly Research Laboratories for ten years and also with several other anti-infective companies including Microcide, Intrabiotics, Embiosis, and most recently Adaptive Therapeutics where he was Vice President of Research. He has been involved in the development of several marketed and late-stage clinical candidates for both antibacterial and antifungal applications. Dr. Parr received his Ph.D. degree from The University of Calgary. He was a postdoctoral fellow at The University of British Columbia, and a member of the faculty at The University of Ottawa before beginning his industrial career.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Strategic Development
William C. Vladuchick, Ph.D., retired from Eli Lilly and Company on May 1, 2005, after enjoying a 26-year career. In his last role, he served as Executive Director, Chemical Product Research & Development, having responsibility for the process development laboratories located at the Tippecanoe Laboratories located in Lafayette, for the process research and development laboratories located at the Lilly Technology Center - South in Indianapolis, and at the Lilly Development Centre located in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium.
Dr. Vladuchick graduated from Bucknell University with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1973. He completed his doctoral thesis in synthetic organic chemistry in the laboratories of Professor Barry M. Trost at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978.
After completing postdoctoral research with Professor R.B. Woodward at Harvard University in 1979, Dr. Vladuchick began his career at Eli Lilly and Company as a Senior Organic Chemist working in Chemical Process Research. Continuing his growth in the research field, he was promoted to Research Scientist in 1985 and later that year was named Manager, Pharmaceutical Project Management. In 1987, he was named Head, Chemistry, Cancer, and Virology Research, directing the activity of medicinal chemists in various therapeutic areas. He accepted the position of Head, Pharmaceutical Science Research, in 1988, and then as Head, Chemical Process Research, in 1990. He was promoted to Director, Infectious Diseases Research, in 1993, and subsequently named Managing Director, Lilly Research Laboratories - Hamburg, Germany, in 1996. In December of 1999, he was promoted to Executive Director, Early Phase Bulk Development, returning back to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Job Titles:
- Independent Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- General Partner of HealthCare Partners II
- Partner, Princeton, New Jersey
Mr. Crouse is a General Partner of HealthCare Partners II, III/IV, V and VI, and is a limited partner in HealthCare Partners VII. Prior to joining HealthCare Ventures, he was Worldwide President of Ortho Diagnostic Systems and a vice president of Johnson & Johnson International. Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Mr. Crouse was Division Director, DuPont Pharmaceuticals. He received an M.B.A. from Pace University. He joined HCV in 1994.