Stephen Roth, Ph.D., President, CEO
In 1990, while he was professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania, Stephen Roth became the scientific founder of Neose Technologies, Inc. He left Penn to become Neose's chief scientific officer in 1992, and was made chief executive officer and chairman of the board in 1994. In 2002, Dr. Roth brought in a new CEO and remained a director until 2004. Before coming to Penn, where Dr. Roth was biology chairman from 1982-1987, he was on the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University from 1970-1980. Currently, Dr. Roth serves on numerous academic and corporate boards, including the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences and the Philadelphia Greenhouse Corporation.
Patrick Gage, Ph.D.
Dr. Gage is a highly respected veteran of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He joined Flagship Ventures as a venture partner in 2003. He is currently chairman of the board of two Flagship portfolio companies, Compound Therapeutics and Acceleron, and is also a director of Neose Technologies, Inc., Protein Design Labs, Inc., and Serono S.A. He also advises Warburg Pincus, Perkin Elmer, and Functional Genetics, a private biotech company. Previously, Dr. Gage spent 18 years at Hoffmann-La Roche where he held the position of vice president, exploratory research. In 1989, he joined Genetics Institute, Inc. as chief operating officer and eventually, president in 1997. In 1998, Dr. Gage was named president of Wyeth Research for the combined companies, and in 2000 was also named senior vice president, science and technology, for Wyeth. In this capacity he oversaw all protein pharmaceutical manufacturing and also served as the chief scientific officer for Wyeth and as advisor to the company's chairman and CEO and board of directors.
Brian Halak, Ph.D.
Dr. Halak joined Domain Associates in 2001 and currently serves as a director of Alimera Sciences, GI Dynamics, and Vanda Pharmaceuticals. He is also a board observer with Iomai and Cell Biosciences. Prior to joining Domain, he worked for Advanced Technology Ventures, where he participated in the firm's investments in Plexxcion, Percardia, and Denovis. Earlier, he worked at the Wilkerson Group, a management consulting firm devoted exclusively to the medical industry. Dr. Halak developed strategy for leading firms in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. He received a Ph.D. in immunology and has published and presented on the topic of tumor immunology. He also serves on the investment advisory councils for Ben Franklin Technology Partners and BioAdvance in Philadelphia.
Hyman Kahn, M.D.
Dr. Kahn was senior vice president and medical director at U.S. Healthcare. He subsequently served as a medical consultant to Aetna. Dr. Kahn currently sits on several boards, including MacroArray, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Jefferson Health System.
Zev S. Scherl
Mr. Scherl joined NewSpring Capital as a Partner in 2003. Prior to NewSpring, he worked at Pequot Ventures, which manages venture funds in excess of $1 billion. Within Pequot Ventures, Zev orchestrated investments in emerging life sciences and health care companies and served on corporate boards. Previously, he was a member of the health care investment team of Behrman Capital, a private equity investment firm managing over $700 million. Before entering private equity in 1997, he served as senior director, strategic planning, for Value Health prior to its sale to Columbia HCA. He also served as U.S. manager, pricing policy, at Merck & Co. Mr. Scherl started his career at the investment banking group of Lehman Brothers. Mr. Scherl is also a director of AppTec Laboratory Services, Inc. and Scandius BioMedical, Inc. He received a B.A. with honors in economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Geeta Vemuri, Ph.D.
Dr. Vemuri joined Quaker BioVentures as senior associate in 2003, and was promoted to Vice President in 2005 and to Principal in 2007. Her previous experience includes being an associate at Toucan Capital, where she was responsible for investments in seed-stage and start-up biotech opportunities. She also was an associate equity analyst at SalomonSmithBarney and First Union Securities covering specialty pharmaceuticals and healthcare sectors. Dr. Vemuri currently serves on the boards of Argolyn, Cellatope, Immune Control, and Protez Pharmaceuticals; and is a board observer at Optherion, Regado Biosciences, Tengion, and Tranzyme Pharma. She is on the advisory committee of the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, the board of directors of Southeast BIO, and the advisory committee of BioAdvance Greenhouse. Dr. Vemuri earned her M.S. degree from Central University in India, her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Indian Institute of Sciences, and her M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Vemuri was a research scientist at The Wistar Institute and a postdoctoral fellow at Thomas Jefferson University.
PERSONNEL
Eric Sandquist, Chief Business Officer
Prior to joining Immune Control, Mr. Sandquist held a number of senior leadership roles at Merck where he commercialized and launched products in the United States and Europe. As a Vice President at Merck, Eric championed a global strategic initiative to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of product commercialization. In the role of Managing Director at Merck, Eric led a European subsidiary competing in nine therapeutic areas to achieve greater profitability, operational efficiency and market access. Eric also led the commercial development and launch of new products within Merck at the global headquarters and subsidiary levels. For example, Eric was responsible for the global launch of Maxalt ® that has yielded $2 billion in cumulative sales. Eric earned a BA in history with honors from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
David Zopf, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer
David Zopf joined Immune Control Inc. in January 2008. His previous experience includes 15 years in various executive roles at Neose Technologies, Inc., where he was most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. At Neose he managed discovery and development of new products and technologies and was co-inventor on many patents pertaining to oligosaccharide anti-infectives and the use of GlycoPEGylationtm technology to develop and manufacture second generation glycoprotein drugs. David contributed to IND filings that led to five clinical trials, including ongoing trials of long-acting forms of G-CSF and Factor VIIa. After receiving his AB and M.D. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, David pursued an academic career for 17 years at the National Cancer Institute where he served as Chief of the Section on Biochemical Pathology. During that time he authored more than 70 peer reviewed publications focused on structure/function relationships of biologically active complex carbohydrates.
Clayton A. Buck, Ph.D., Director of R&D
Dr. Buck served as The Wistar Institute's acting director and CEO from September 2000 to June 2002. He became vice president for academic affairs from 2002 until his retirement in December 2004.
Dr. Buck holds a B.S. in biology from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Montana State University. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Irvine, he joined the University of Pennsylvania as assistant professor of therapeutic research. In 1975, he joined The Wistar Institute as professor and became a member of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center. At Wistar, Clayton was director of scientific development between 1990 and 1992. From 1992 to 1999, he was deputy director of the institute.
While at the Wistar Institute, he has made major contributions to the field of cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion and the roles of specific adhesion receptors in cancer and cardiovascular development. Dr. Buck was editor-in-chief of the journal Cell Adhesions and Communication from 1992 to 1999 and has served as an ad-hoc referee for many leading journals, including Science, Nature, Cell, Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Cell Science, and Development Biology. In addition, he has given lectures by invitation at many prestigious institutions and meetings. Dr. Buck is co-author of more than 115 publications including scientific papers, reviews, conference presentations, and book chapters.
Douglas S. McNair, M.D., Ph.D., Clinical Affairs Consultant
Dr. McNair has extensive experience in the development of medical products. He recently served as Vice President, Clinical Affairs, for ABIOMED, Inc., (NASDAQ:ABMD) where he had a wide range of responsibilities. Previously, Dr. McNair worked with Cerner Corporation (Kansas City, MO) for 12 years in several capacities: Group Vice President, Regulatory & Government Affairs, General Manager-Midwest Division, and Vice President, Product Engineering. He has also been a faculty member of Baylor College of Medicine, (Houston, TX) in the Departments of Medicine and Pathology and holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and an M.D. from the University of Minnesota, (Minneapolis, MN).
Bruce A. Silver, M.D., FACP, Medical Monitor
Dr. Silver is a board-certified internist and medical oncologist, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He has twenty years of clinical oncology experience using chemo- and endocrine therapies, biologics, and therapeutic radiation and has experience in the post-transplant management of patients undergoing autologous and allogeneic transplants. Dr. Silver is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and received training in internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and in medical oncology at the medicine branch of the National Cancer Institute, where he conducted research into the immunophysiology of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Dr. Silver has participated in numerous clinical trials involving novel treatments for breast, colon, ovary, and lung cancers, lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease and in supportive care studies of hematopoietic growth factors. He has served as chairman of the department of medicine, cancer committee, and tumor boards and as principal site investigator for studies by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) at various hospitals at which he has practiced. Dr. Silver joined PRA International, a global CRO, in 2001 as a medical director and was promoted to vice-president, global product development services in 2005, where he provided oncology drug development consulting services to numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients and managed clinical trials involving a variety of conventional and novel antineoplastic agents.
Peter Lutes, Director of Operations
Peter Lutes joined the company in February 2003. Mr. Lutes has worked at Ernst & Young, Genentech, and several early stage companies. He has master's degrees in biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania and in international management from Portland State University.