|
Tragara has assembled an expert team of entrepreneurs to carry out its mission. These individuals have extensive experience in essential areas of the Tragara mission: market-driven cancer product development, marketing, business development, biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical management, and finance. |
|
Thomas M. Estok
President and Chief Executive Officer
|
| Mr. Estok brings over 20 years of experience in the development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals to his leadership role at Tragara. Mr. Estok was most recently the founding President and CEO of Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals where he orchestrated the $104 million acquisition of Cabrellis by Pharmion in November 2006. Prior to joining Cabrellis, Mr. Estok served as Chief Commercial Officer of Conforma Therapeutics where he facilitated its $250 million acquisition by Biogen Idec. A 19-year veteran of Schering-Plough, Mr. Estok held a number of positions with progressing responsibility in R&D, in both international and domestic marketing, sales, and commercial development. His most recent position was Vice President, US Marketing and Commercial Development, Oncology. During his tenure at Schering-Plough, Mr. Estok led the oncology marketing efforts on several products including temozolomide, liposomal doxorubicin, and the interferon franchise. Mr. Estok graduated from Virginia Tech with a BS degree in Biochemistry and was awarded an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. |
|
Tracy Lawhon, J.D.
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Development Operations
|
| Ms. Lawhon joins Tragara from Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals where she was Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Development Operations until the merger with Pharmion Corporation. Previously, she was Executive Director, Project Management at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation in Florham Park, New Jersey. In that role, she led the development, registration and commercialization strategy for an oncology program from early Phase I through global regulatory submission. From 1997 to 2004, she was with Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, New Jersey, where she was Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs, CMC and Associate Director, Project Management. At Schering-Plough she led programs to establish compliance with 21 CFR Part 11 and to redevelop analytical methodology for marketed products across global manufacturing sites. Additionally, she represented the organization in global health authority meetings and contributed to multiple oncology strategy development programs. Prior to that, she worked with Warner Lambert Company, Eli Lilly and Company, and Abbott Laboratories. Ms. Lawhon has a B.S. in microbiology from Indiana University and a Jurisprudence Doctorate from the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is a member of the Indiana State Bar Association and United Way Women's Leadership Initiative. |
|
Chris LeMasters
Chief Business Officer
|
| Mr. LeMasters joins Tragara after serving as Chief Business Officer and co-founder of Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals. While at Cabrellis, Mr. LeMasters was responsible for negotiating the $104 million acquisition by Pharmion Corporation. Previously, he served as Vice President, Business Development of Conforma Therapeutics where he was responsible for the in-licensing of Amrubicin from Dainippon Sumitomo and for negotiating the $250 million acquisition by Biogen Idec. Mr. LeMasters earlier worked for six years in Corporate Business Development at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. In that role, he was responsible for the successful negotiation of numerous partnerships and licenses across diverse therapeutic areas. Additionally, he led or contributed to multiple strategy development projects, and was instrumental in the redesign of Lilly's licensing processes and organization. Mr. LeMasters was also a management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand Consulting in Chicago for four years, where he led strategy consulting projects for Fortune 500 clients. He began his business career as an operational auditor with Owens Corning Fiberglas in Toledo, Ohio. Mr. LeMasters has a B.A. in Finance from Indiana University and an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago. |
|
Sara Zaknoen, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
|
| Dr. Zaknoen joins Tragara from Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals where she served as Chief Medical Officer until the acquisition of Cabrellis by Pharmion Corporation in November 2006. Prior to joining Cabrellis, she was employed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation in Florham Park, New Jersey, where she had been executive director of Clinical Oncology Research since 2002. From 1998 to 2002, she was with Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, New Jersey, where she was director, Clinical Oncology Research. In addition to her work in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Zaknoen has led a distinguished academic and clinical career. Previously, she was assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine in Ohio, medical director at the Barrett Cancer Center at the Univeristy of Cincinnati Hospital, and director of Experimental Therapeutics at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pennsylvania. Dr. Zaknoen has a B.S. with distinction from Valparaiso University and an M.D. from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, where she graduated summa cum laude. She completed her residency in internal medicine and her fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at the University of Minnesota. She continued her research work at the National Cancer Institute where she served as a Medical Staff Fellow. |
Thomas M. Estok
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tragara Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
See profile above. |
Kim P. Kamdar
Principal, Domain Associates
Dr. Kim Puloma Kamdar is a Principal at Domain Associates, a dedicated life science venture capital firm with $2.1 billion under management. Domain Associates has created more then 180 companies over the last 22 years. Prior to joining Domain, Kim was a Kauffman Fellow at MPM Capital. Kim has over 15 years of experience in biotechnology. She began her career at Novartis Pharmaceuticals where she built and led a research group to explore the biology, genetics and genomics of model organisms to uncover small molecules that modulated signaling pathway networks. She is also a founding member of Aryzun Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company that utilized protein-protein interaction mapping for small molecule discovery with an initial focus on anti-infectives and oncology. Kim is on the Board of Directors of Tragara Pharmaceuticals, Rox Medical and Syndax Pharmaceuticals. Additionally, Kim serves as an Advisory Board Member for Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund. Kim is the author of 10 papers as well as the inventor on seven patents. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. from Emory University. |
Alain Schreiber, M.D.
Managing Partner, ProQuest Investments
Dr. Schreiber has been a Managing Partner at ProQuest Investments since 2000. He was previously CEO of Vical, Inc. developing novel vaccine technologies, and an executive with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Aventis) and Syntex (now Roche Bioscience). At Vical, he led the company in raising over $200 million in private and public capital and pioneered new approaches to vaccine development in collaboration with companies such as Merck, Pfizer and Aventis. As Senior Vice President of Research at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Dr. Schreiber directed R&D efforts that led to the development of numerous product candidates in hematology, endocrinology, pulmonology, cardiology and oncology. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of BioRexis, Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Concentric Medical, Optimer Pharmaceuticals and Somalogic Corporation. Dr. Schreiber received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry and his M.D. from Free University Brussels in Belgium, before pursuing his postdoctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. |
Eckard Weber
Partner, Domain Associates
Dr. Weber is a partner at Domain Associates where he creates companies around promising new pharmaceutical products. He has been founding CEO of multiple biopharmaceutical companies in the Domain portfolio including Cytovia, Acea, Novacea, NovaCardia, Novalar, Orexigen, Domain Antibacterial Acquisition Corporation, Ascenta, Ocera, Syndax, Tragara, Tobira, Sonexa and Calixa. He currently serves as interim CEO of Sonexa and Calixa, two seed-stage biopharmaceutical companies. He is Chairman of the Board at NovaCardia, Orexigen, Ocera, Ascenta, Tobira and Syndax. He was Chairman of Peninsula until its sale to Johnson & Johnson in 2005, Chairman of Cerexa until its sale to Forest Laboratories in January 2007, and a Board member of Conforma and Cabrellis until their sales to Biogen-IDEC and Pharmion, respectively. In addition, he is a board member of DiObex and BioVascular, Inc. Until 1995, Mr. Weber was a tenured Professor of Pharmacology at the University of California at Irvine. He has over 20 years of drug discovery and development experience and has been a consultant to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He is the inventor or co-inventor of over 40 patents and patent applications, and he has published over 130 papers in scientific periodicals. |
Ralph E. (Chris) Christoffersen, Ph.D.
Partner, Morgenthaler Ventures
Dr. Christoffersen joined Morgenthaler Ventures in 2001. Based in Boulder, Colorado, he is focusing on new biotechnology investments. Previously, he was the President and CEO of Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Morgenthaler portfolio biotechnology company with a mission to commercialize the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of ribozymes for use as human therapeutics. He currently serves on six corporate boards, and achieved successful exits with Threshold Pharmaceuticals and Avidia Biosciences. He also served as the Senior Vice President of Research at SmithKline Beecham, and Vice President of Discovery Research at The Upjohn Company, and President of Colorado State University. Christoffersen received an honorary doctor of law degree from Cornell College in 1983, the "Outstanding Research of Year" Award from the International Society of Quantum Biology in 1981, the "W. E. Upjohn Award" for contributions in biotechnology in 1988, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 from the Colorado Biosciences Association. |
|
|
