Management Team

Paul J. Marangos Ph.D. (Chairman, CEO & Co-founder)

Dr. Marangos is widely published in the field of drug discovery and drug development having authored over 250 articles in peer review journals and edited four books on drug development. He has authored 14 issued patents and is the founding editor of The Journal of Molecular Neuroscience. Dr Marangos was at the NIH for 12 years before entering the pharmaceutical business. He has been at Hofmann La Roche for three years and Gensia Pharmaceutical Corporation for three years where he headed their research arm and participated in their IPO. He was Founder, Chairman and CEO of Cypros Pharmaceutical Corporation, a company he took public in 1992 and then merged in 1999. Most recently, he was President and CEO of InfaCare Pharmaceutical Corp and SD Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Marangos has had direct experience in almost every aspect of the pharmaceutical business and has functioned as a CEO for 14 years in both public and private companies. He has been directly involved in two IPO’s and raised over $100 million in equity capital.

Andrew X. Chen Ph.D., R.Ph. (Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer).

Dr. Chen is a highly creative pharmaceutical chemist with 18 years of experience in pharmaceutical and formulation chemistry and the inventor on all the Companies patents. He has held positions of increasing responsibility at a number of pharmaceutical companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Immnologic Pharmaceutical Corp., Prizm Pharmaceuticals and IriSys Inc. Dr. Chen is currently Founder and President of Latitude Pharmaceuticals Inc. , a profitable formulation company in San Diego that designs novel formulations for its pharmaceutical clients. Drs Chen and Marangos have both worked successfully together for the past 5 years and were co-founders of SD Pharmaceutical (SDP). SDP was purchased in 2006.

Dr. Norman K. Orida Ph.D. MBA. (Senior VP BD).

Dr Orida has held positions of increasing responsibility in a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for the past 25 years including, Curexo, Optimer, Medinex, Tanabe Seiyaku and Ligand Pharmacuuticals. He has had extensive experience in business development at both in and out licensing.

James Rock MBA (VP New Product Development).

Jim has had extensive experience in both clinical development, regulatory affairs as it relates to the 505b2 registration path and marketing. He has held positions of increasing responsibility at several companies including, Santarus, SD Pharmaceuticals and Pacific Beach Biotech.

Corporate Counsel

Knox Bell DLA Piper, La Jolla, CA.

Mr. Bell has had over 30 years of experience in biotech and pharmaceutical corporate law as regards corporate governance, contracts and product licensing. Mr. Bell was also Corporate Counsel at SD Pharmaceuticals Inc.