Adynxx - About

Company Overview

The Company

Adynxx (A - dȳ - nix), located in San Francisco, California, is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing a transformative technology platform addressing pain at its molecular roots - preventing the development of pain following surgery or trauma and resolving established chronic pain syndromes. Adynxx’s unique approach is to transform pain management by approaching pain as a disease rather than a symptom.

Product Science

Adynxx's lead compound, AYX1, is an investigational drug designed to prevent acute post-surgical pain and the transition to persistent or chronic pain with a single administration at thetime of surgery. Adynxx has successfully completed a Phase 1 clinical trial of AYX1 and initiated a Phase 2 study of AYX1 in Q1 2013. Additional compounds targeting a range of intractable neuropathic and inflammatory pain syndromes are in the pre-clinical discovery stage.

Rick Orr, President and Chief Executive Officer

Rick Orr joined Adynxx in December 2010 as President and Chief Executive Officer, bringing to the company more than 12 years of operational, development and legal experience. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Corthera where he led the successful sale of the company to Novartis in February 2010. Prior to joining Corthera, Rick was Sr. Vice President, Operations of Cerexa, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forest Laboratories. During his tenure at Cerexa, the company completed the successful clinical development of Teflaro® (ceftaroline fosamil), a parenteral antibiotic for the treatment of life-threatening infections. Rick was one of the founders of Cerexa and served as General Counsel until the company was acquired by Forest Laboratories in January 2007. Earlier in his career, he served as the Associate General Counsel of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals where he played a central role in structuring the acquisition of Peninsula by Johnson & Johnson. Prior to working at Peninsula, Rick was an attorney at Cooley LLP.

Rick received a JD magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law. He received a BA from The Ohio State University and an MA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Rick is a member of the State Bar of California.

Julien Mamet, PhD, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Julien Mamet founded Adynxx in October 2007 and served as Chief Executive Officer and President through December 2010. He currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer and is a member of the Board of Directors. Julien has extensive pharmaceutical experience in the areas of neuroscience and drug discovery and is the inventor of the AYX technology platform. Prior to Adynxx, he worked at the SCRIPPS Research Institute and Novartis Genomics Institute in San Diego, California.

Julien obtained his PhD in Pain and Pharmacology at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology in Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France, where he worked in the laboratory of Prof. Michel Lazdunski, a worldwide leader in pain research with over 600 publications in the field. His graduate work focused on the identification and validation of novel targets for pain drug therapies. In parallel to his PhD work, he taught biochemistry Masters' courses at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France. Julien obtained his BS and MS in Pharmacology and Genetics at the University Claude Bernard in Lyon, France.

Donald C. Manning, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Donald C. Manning joined Adynxx in January 2012 continuing a 14 year career in the pharmaceutical industry where he has held positions of increasing scope and responsibility starting at Novartis as Global Head of Analgesics Development to Vice President and Neurosciences Therapeutic Area Head at Celgene, Vice President and Head of Clinical Development at Alpharma, VP of Medical Affairs at King Pharma and Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Shionogi Inc.

Don received his BSc in Physiology and Biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal and earned his PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Solomon H. Snyder at Johns Hopkins University where he also earned his MD. He pursued residency training in Anesthesiology, fellowship training in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Neurosurgery under Dr. James Campbell all at Johns Hopkins. Before joining the pharmaceutical industry Don held clinical academic faculty positions in the Departments of Anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins, where he was co-director of the Pain Management Center and The University of Virginia Health Sciences Center.

Don has lectured and published widely on pain management topics and is a past-president of the Eastern Pain Association, a regional affiliate of the American Pain Society.

Scott Harris, MS, RAC, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs & Product Development

Scott Harris joined Adynxx in 2010 as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Product Development. He is responsible for global regulatory oversight, quality assurance and CMC. His career has spanned 15 years in the biotech industry, starting as a basic scientist in the area of cell and tumor biology, before moving into Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance. He has held positions of increasing responsibility at Biosite, Inc., Angstrom Pharmaceutical, Attenuon, BioMarin Pharmaceutical and his own independent consulting business. Prior to joining Adynxx, he was head of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance for Corthera until its acquisition by Novartis.

Scott obtained his MS in Regulatory Affairs from San Diego State University and his BS in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from UC San Diego. He currently holds academic appointments at San Diego State University and Cal State San Marcos, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Healthcare Product Regulation.

Dina Gonzalez, Controller

Dina Gonzalez joined Adynxx in 2010 as Controller. Prior to joining Adynxx, Dina served as Controller of Corthera until its acquisition by Novartis. She is responsible for the accounting and business operations of the company. Her career has spanned 17 years in the finance industry, starting as a cost accountant in the semiconductor industry. She has held positions of increasing responsibility at VLSI Technology, Philips Semiconductors, Cerexa (acquired by Forest Laboratories), Corthera (acquired by Novartis) as well as consulting with a variety of venture backed companies.

Dina obtained her MBA from St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas. She also holds a BBA in Accounting from St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas and her MPA in Accounting from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

William Martin, Director, Operations

William Martin joined Adynxx in January 2012 as Director, Operations. His responsibilities include marketing and commercial strategy as well as support of financing and business development activities. Prior to joining Adynxx Bill ran his own consulting business, advising venture-backed and public life sciences companies on transaction finance and valuation, marketing and commercial strategy, and business development. Bill was Director, Operations at Corthera where he supported business development activities leading to a successful sale to Novartis in February, 2010. His previous experienece also includes The Boston Consulting Group and AIR Worldwide, a company that models the risk of property damage due to natural disasters.

Bill received his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering Sciences and Economics from Dartmouth College.

Kimberly Hebert, Director, Clinical Operations

Kimberly Hebert joined Adynxx in October 2011 as Director, Clinical Operations. Her career has spanned 14 years in the biotech industry, starting as a Clinical Operations Assistant, and has held positions of increasing responsibility at Alliance Pharmaceutical, Corp., Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., NovaCardia, Inc., and Merck & Co., Inc. (after NovaCardia was acquired by Merck in 2007). Most recently, she led clinical operations for an international Phase 3 study sponsored by Corthera, Inc., and continued to lead operations for the project after Corthera's acquisition by Novartis in early 2010.

Kim studied in the Clinical Trials Design and Management Extension program at the University of California, San Diego in 2001-2002 and previously studied at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dennis Podlesak, Chairman

Dennis Podlesak is a Partner at Domain Associates LLC, an exclusively life science focused venture capital firm.

Since joining the Domain team, Dennis has served as an active investor and a founder of a number of Domain companies, and also as a Chief Executive Officer or Executive Chairman for a number of Domain’s promising growth companies. Dennis first served as the Chief Executive Officer of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals and after building the company, led the sale of Peninsula to Johnson & Johnson. In his next role, Dennis was a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Cerexa, and led the sale of Cerexa to Forest Laboratories. In his next role, Dennis was again a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Calixa Therapeutics and successfully led the growth and sale of Calixa to Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Dennis also served as Executive Chairman of Corthera and after repositioning the company, actively participated in the sale of the company to Novartis AG. Dennis is currently the Chairman of the Board at Adynxx, Regado Biosciences, Syndax Pharmaceuticals and a member of the board of Kalidex Pharmaceuticals.

Dennis has over 20 years of strategic, operational and commercial experience within the pharmaceutical industry, and a track record of success in growing companies and leading business development, financing and M&A initiatives. Prior to Domain, Dennis served as Senior Vice President and Head of the North American Business Unit for Novartis AG and as a member of Novartis' Pharmaceutical Executive Committee and Global Leadership Team. Earlier in his career, Dennis served as Vice President and Head of the CEC division of Allergan, Inc., and as member of Allergan's Global and North American Management Teams. He spent the first ten years of his career with SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline plc).

Dennis received a B.A. degree in Business Administration and an M.B.A. degree from Pepperdine University and has completed postgraduate studies at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Eckard Weber, MD

Dr. Eckard Weber is a partner at Domain Associates LLC, where he specializes in creating companies around promising new pharmaceutical products. He has been founding CEO of multiple biopharmaceutical companies in the Domain portfolio including Acea Pharmaceuticals, Ascenta Therapeutics, Calixa Therapeutics, Cytovia, Domain Antibacterial Acquisition Corporation, NovaCardia, Novacea, Novalar Pharmaceuticals, Ocera Therapeutics, Orexigen Therapeutics, Sonexa Therapeutics, Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Tobira Therapeutics and Tragara Pharmaceuticals. He currently serves as interim CEO of Sonexa Therapeutics, an early-stage biopharmaceutical company. He is Chairman of the Board at Ascenta Therapeutics, Ocera Therapeutics, Orexigen Therapeutics, Sequel Pharmaceuticals, and Tobira Therapeutics. He was Chairman of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals until the company was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2005, Chairman of Cerexa until the company was sold to Forest Laboratories in January 2007, Chairman of NovaCardia until the company was sold to Merck in September of 2007, Chairman of Calixa Therapeutics until the company was sold to Cubist Pharmaceuticals in December 2009 and a Board member of Conforma Therapeutics and Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals until they were sold to Biogen-IDEC and Pharmion, respectively.

Until 1995, Eckard 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. Eckard received medical degree from the University of Ulm Medical School, Germany and spent two years in postdoctoral training at Stanford University Medical School.

Stan Abel

Stan E. Abel joined the Adynxx board in 2008, bringing to the company more than 20 years of operational, development and financial management experience. Stan most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Corthera, Inc., from October 2007 through the successful sale of the company to Novartis in February 2010. Prior to joining Corthera, Stan served as the Chief Financial Officer of Cerexa, Inc. from its inception in July 2005 through the successful sale of the company to Forest Laboratories in January 2007. Prior to Cerexa‚ Stan was the Chief Financial Officer of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from January 2003 through the sale of the company to Johnson & Johnson in June 2005. Stan was responsible for all financial activities of the company, raising over $70M in private financing and leading the company through the initial public offering process. Stan also played a key role in structuring the spin-out of Cerexa and the acquisition of Peninsula by Johnson & Johnson.

Earlier in his career‚ Stan spent four years at Eli Lilly and Company within the finance and strategy organizations. He also held a variety of financial leadership positions during his nine years at DowBrands‚ Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. Stan received a B.S. in business from Indiana University and an M.B.A.‚ with honors‚ from the University of Chicago. He received his CPA from the state of Indiana in 1995.

Rick Orr, President and Chief Executive Officer

Julien Mamet, PhD, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Julien obtained his PhD in Pain and Pharmacology at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology in Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France, where he worked in the laboratory of Prof. Michel Lazdunski, a worldwide leader in pain research with over 600 publications in the field. His graduate work focused on the identification and validation of novel targets for pain drug therapies. In parallel to his PhD work, he taught biochemistry Masters' courses at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France. Julien obtained his BS and MS in Pharmacology and Genetics at the University Claude Bernard in Lyon, France.

Michael Ashley, Board Observer

CFO, Indiana Department of Revenue
Former CFO, Eli Lilly Japan & Cardiac Pacemaker, Inc.

Eric Heil, Board Observer

Domain Associates