Chlorion Pharma, Inc. was founded in 2004 by Drs. Jeffrey Coull, Martin Gagnon and Yves De Koninck. Our platform science was conceived of and demonstrated by the founders, in collaboration with other scientists, working at Laval University and the Hospital for Sick Children. Presently, the company’s state-of-the-art research and development facility is situated in Laval, Canada.
Chlorion’s vision is to become the predominant drug development company in the chloride modulation space, as it pertains to disorders of the central nervous system. Considering the broad involvement of aberrant chloride homeostasis in both psychiatric and neurological conditions, the company is achieving this vision by pursuing first-in-class therapeutics for a range of indications, including pain and epilepsy, as well neurodegenerative, affective and movement diseases.
The majority of therapeutics under development are designed to act primarily in the CNS; we believe that a central mechanism of action is critical for a therapeutic to effect meaningful symptom relief (and potentially disease modification) for individuals afflicted by the conditions targeted (e.g. neuropathic pain).
The objective of our lead program is to develop a systemically-administered and mechanism-based (CCC modulator) first-line-of-therapy for neuropathic pain.
This therapeutic, and others, will be developed to the point that sound proof-of-concept is achieved, after which we intend to enter into strategic partnership(s) with a full-scale pharmaceutical company.
Jeffrey A.M. Coull, PhD
President, Acting Chief Executive Officer and Co-FounderPrior to founding Chlorion, Dr. Coull spent multiple years working as a management consultant in the pharmaceutical sector, having performed strategic planning and analyses for such companies as Wyeth, Johnson and Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi-Aventis, Aspreva and Cardiome.
Dr. Coull also worked for a boutique investment bank in Toronto. Including his work with Chlorion, he has led fundraising efforts that culminated in financing proposals (term sheets) totalling $50M.
During his PhD studies at McGill and Laval Universities, Dr. Coull, together with Dr. Yves De Koninck, made several seminal discoveries in regards to the pathophysiology of neuropathic pain. He is a principal inventor on three patent applications, which form the basis of Chlorion’s technology and therapeutic strategy.
For his research on neuropathic pain, Dr. Coull has received several national recognitions, including the NSERC Doctoral Prize, which is awarded to the scientist with the best dissertation (natural sciences) in Canada.
Dr. Coull’s work has appeared in such high impact journals as Nature and the Journal of Neuroscience, and he has contributed to pieces in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star, among others.
Martin Gagnon, PhD
Senior Vice President of Operations and Co-FounderDr. Gagnon possesses nearly 15 years of research experience in drug design and discovery, having led efforts that have culminated in patented compounds for cancer treatment under commercial development, and in the identification of Chlorion’s CL-Series compounds.
Combining a PhD in Pharmacology & Therapeutics from McGill University and post-doctoral fellowships in molecular oncology, organic chemistry and cellular neurobiology, Dr. Gagnon has a strong background in several key areas that include rational drug design, high-throughput assay design and screening, cell biology, biochemistry and radiochemistry. His extensive knowledge of both biology and chemistry gives him unique abilities to integrate these two crucial yet rarely unified fields. For his research efforts, Dr. Gagnon has obtained several awards, notably from Hewlett-Packard and GlaxoSmithKline.
More recently, Dr. Gagnon has been involved in several successful public and private funding initiatives. He is also managing several projects concurrently, both in house and with academic and industrial partners.
Vacant
Vice President of Drug DevelopmentChlorion’s Vice President of Drug Development will be announced shortly (Q3 2008).
Giorgio Attardo, PhD
Senior Director of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical DevelopmentDr Attardo has a proven track record for identifying and advancing novel therapeutics from early discovery, through pre-clinical development, and into Phase I & II clinical trials. As such, he provides a strong foundation for the design, synthesis and development of Chlorion’s drug candidates.
Before joining Chlorion Pharma, Dr. Attardo held positions of increasing responsibility to the appointment of Senior Director, Chemistry and Pharmaceutics, with Gemin X Biotechnologies Inc. During his five year tenure, he created Obatoclax and spearheaded its pharmaceutical development for Phase I & II clinical trials. He was also instrumental in the acquisition of GMX1777 and its advancement from bench discovery to Phase I.
Prior to Gemin X, Dr Attardo was at BioChem Pharma for twelve years and held the positions of Associate Director of Chemistry and Anticancer Program Director. He was responsible for the scientific direction of the anticancer, immunomodulator, and nucleoside medicinal chemistry groups. His efforts in drug discovery and preclinical development led to several preclinical drug candidates amongst which Troxacitabine and EPC-2407 advanced to human clinical trials.
Dr. Attardo holds a M.Sc. degree in physical chemistry and obtained his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry under the direction of Prof. Bernard Belleau at McGill University. He completed industrial postdoctoral research for BioChem Pharma Inc. in 1989. Dr Attardo has authored and co-authored 40 publications, 55 conference presentations and is an inventor on more than 25 patents and patent applications.
Mr. Patrick J. Walsh
Acting Executive ChairmanPat Walsh has spent decades in the life sciences industry, as a pharmaceutical executive, biotechnology CEO and entrepreneur.
Mr. Walsh’s most recent venture involved leading the successful asset sale of Kadmus Pharmaceutical’s to Organon BioSciences in May 2007. The transaction included a $15 million upfront payment and an additional $125 million in milestones. Kadmus was at an “A” round valuation at the time of the sale. Kadmus was a privately held, venture capital backed company with programs in pain, CNS, and metabolic disease.
Mr. Walsh's previous work experience includes serving for 4 years as CEO of a biotechnology start-up company in the diagnostic field and over 4 years as President and COO of Gensia Sicor, a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company that eventually sold to Teva Pharma for $3.4 billion. Prior to Gensia Sicor, he spent 10 years at Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals in domestic and international executive leadership roles including leading the U.S. business unit and the international sales group.
Mr. Walsh has served as a board of director for several public and private healthcare companies over the course of his career. He currently serves on two corporate boards, and is a member of the University of CA-Irvine Chief Executive Roundtable organization.
An experienced CEO with over 26 years of commercial healthcare experience, Mr. Walsh brings experience in private equity and public market fundraising, evaluating and implementing intellectual property as a corporate asset, and a proven track record overseeing complex pharmaceutical manufacturing and product development efforts. His experience in international business and in key world markets includes a successful record of achievement in licensing, raw material, and commercial marketing agreements. He has extensive experience leading product development efforts in the healthcare industry and has managed corporations as large as 1,500 employees. He has extensive plant management experience and has lead large scale facility re-validation and quality improvement initiatives.
Dr. Martial Lacroix
Director and Representative of AgeChem Venture FundDr. Lacroix has served as Vice President of AgeChem since inception. Prior to this, Dr Lacroix, co-founded BioChem Pharma Inc. and acted as its Director of Technology Transfer. From 1986 to 1995, he also held a number of positions with BioChem ImmunoSystems, Inc., including Director of Research and Development and Director of Quality Control.
Between 1981 and 1986, Dr. Lacroix was also a Professor-Scientist in the Department of Virology at the Institut Armand-Frappier.
Dr. Lacroix received a BSc and a MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Montréal and a PhD from the University of Toronto. Dr. Lacroix has authored 33 scientific publications and holds 8 issued patents.
Mr. Jean-Francois Leprince
Director and Representative of CTI Life Sciences FundMr. Leprince is Managing Partner at CTI Life Sciences Fund, a private venture capital company funding North-American bio-therapeutics companies.
Mr. Leprince obtained his chemical engineering degree from the Institut National Supérieur de Chimie Industrielle in Rouen, France in 1970. He started his working career in 1971 at The Dow Chemical Company in the Specialty Chemicals division before joining the Pharmaceutical division in 1978. From 1979 till 1994 Mr. Leprince held various managerial and operational positions in Belgium as General Manager of the Benelux, Switzerland as General Manager of the Middle East, Africa and South-East Asia Region and subsequently as Vice-President Europe, in France as President of the French subsidiary.
With the merger of Marion Merrell Dow to Hoechst in 1995, Mr. Leprince became the Managing Director of one of Hoechst Marion Roussel’s three subsidiaries in France.
In 1998, Mr. Leprince became President of Hoechst Marion Roussel Canada and then of Aventis Pharma Canada, a role he held until the end of 2004. He was also on the Board of Directors of Rx&D (Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies) and acted as Chairman in 2002.
Mr. Leprince acted as Chairman of the ACT (Acute Coronary Treatment) Foundation. He was a Board Member of the Montreal Board of Trade as well as the French Chamber of Commerce of Canada. He also served at the Board of Montreal International as well as the Advisory Board of the CACDS (Canadian Association of Chain Drugstores). In 2004, he was elected President of the Centre for Health Management Research at the University of Montreal.
Mr. Leprince lives in Montréal with his wife Carine and his three children Dorothée, Thibault and Florian.
Ms. Isabelle Dufresne
Director and Representative of Fonds BioInnovationMs. Dufresne brings a wealth of experience in corporate finance, strategic intellectual property management, and technology transfer in the life sciences domain. She has served for more than six years as a Director of Investments at the Centre québécois de valorisation des biotechnologies (CQVB), a technology transfer center that aims to stimulate and support technology transfer and innovation within bio-industry companies in Quebec. Additionally, she is affiliated with the Fonds Bio-Innovation, a venture capital fund that supports early-stage and Quebec-based biotechnology companies.
Before joining the CQVB, Ms. Dufresne spent two years as Project Manager for Development and Technology Transfer at SOVAR, one of four university research valorization entities whose mission is to commercialize discoveries made by researchers at Laval University and CHUQ (Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec). She has participated in the start-up and growth phase of several innovative life sciences companies, including those focused on human health, animal health, nutraceuticals, industrial enzymes and recombinant proteins.
Ms. Dufresne holds Masters degrees in both microbiology/immunology (MSc) and pharmaceutical management (MBA) from Laval University and a bachelor degree in medical Biology from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). Prior to her MBA, she also worked in Canada's largest infectiology research lab (CRI-CHUL) as a research assistant.
Currently, Ms Dufresne is a member of several boards of directors and scientific advisory boards of CQVB/Fonds-Bionnovation portfolio companies.
Dr. Shermaine Tilley
Observer and Representative of CTI Life Sciences FundPrior to joining CTI, Dr. Tilley was Senior VP at Drug Royalty Corporation, a Bay Street private equity firm doing investments in biopharmaceuticals. At DRC, she managed the due diligence, the analysis group and participated in closing 12 transactions totaling over $200M.
Before DRC, Dr. Tilley ran and managed a research laboratory, holding faculty positions at the NYU School of Medicine and Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), New York, and on the PHRI Board of Directors. Concomitantly with her tenure at NYU School of Medicine and PHRI, she consulted for the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for 10 years.
Dr. Tilley holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an MBA from the University of Toronto. In addition, she is a member of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts. Since 2002, she is a member of the Rotman (U. Toronto School of Management) Advancement Board.
Currently, Dr. Tilley is a member of several scientific and clinical advisory boards of CTI portfolio companies.
Dr. Franz Hefti
MemberDr. Hefti brings nearly 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and over a decade experience in academia.
He led the drug development efforts at Rinat Neuroscience Corporation as Executive Vice President of Drug Development for three years. During his tenure, three antibody drug candidates advanced from the discovery stage to preclinical and clinical development and the success of these programs led to the acquisition of Rinat Neuroscience by Pfizer in 2006.
Previously, Dr. Hefti was Senior Vice President of Neuroscience Research at Merck & Co., where he coordinated the company's neuroscience research worldwide, serving as site head for the neuroscience research centers in the U.K. and U.S. While working with Merck, small molecule drug candidates covering six drug targets in the neuroscience area were taken into development. Dr. Hefti was also Director of the Neuroscience Research Department at Genentech and previously spent more than a decade in academia as a Professor at the University of Southern California and Associate Professor at the University of Miami, where he carried out seminal research on therapeutic applications of neurotrophic factors.
He has published over 250 papers on neurotrophic factors and topics in neuropharmacology, and a recent textbook "Drug Discovery for Nervous System Diseases" (John Wiley & Sons). Dr. Hefti received a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and did his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Max Planck Institute in Munich.
Dr. Yves De Koninck
Member and Co-FounderDr. De Koninck co-founder Chlorion Pharma in 2004, along with Drs. Coull and Gagnon.
Dr. De Koninck is a Senior Scholar of the Fonds de la recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ), Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Laval University and has been the Director of the Division of Cellular Neurobiology at the Centre de Recherche Université Laval Robert - Giffard since 2000. He is also Adjunct Professor in Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University and core member and co-founder of the McGill Centre for Research Pain.
Dr. De Koninck is Scientific Director of the Quebec Pain Research Initiative (www.qpri.ca) and Director of the Pain Axis of the Regroupement en Santé Mentale et Neuroscience du Québec, the two main networking bodies in the province of Quebec coordinating pain research activities in the Province. Dr. De Koninck is also member of the Advisory Board of the Nano-Innovation Platform of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and member of the Program Review Committee of the Center for Biophotonics, Science and Technology at the University of California in Davis.
He has received numerous prestigious research awards, including the Early Career Award from the Canadian Pain Society and was selected among the Top 50 under 40 by Radio-Canada and the magazine Commerce (2000). Moreover, Dr. De Koninck has made numerous key contributions to understanding spinal sensory mechanisms over the last 15 years, in particular in the identification of chemicals involved in the control of pain transmission. He has published over 40 high-impact peer-reviewed articles on this and related topics. Over the last 10 years, as Project Leader, he has raised over $27M in research funds from provincial and national agencies.
Dr. John Andrews
MemberDr. Andrews is currently President and Head of Research & Development at NeurAxon, Inc., a leader in discovering and developing next generation pain therapeutics focused on the inhibition of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), an enzyme involved in modulating pain and central nervous system neuronal sensitization.
He has over 20 years experience in industrial drug discovery, working in progressively senior positions at Schering, Organon, Janssen and Descartes. Positions held by Dr. Andrews in the pharmaceutical industry range from Section Head to Project Coordinator to Vice President of Drug Discovery (central nervous system) at Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a Johnson & Johnson company).
In addition to NeurAxon, Dr. Andrews’ small company experience stems from his previous role as President of Descartes Therapeutics.
He has been responsible for multiple drug development projects that have entered clinical testing, including several first-in-class therapies. Therapeutics developed under Dr. Andrews’ leadership at Organon NV and Schering AG are currently registered; others are in phase I, II, III clinical development in indications such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and pain.
Dr. Andrews has a continuous 25 year publication record in CNS drug discovery, and has contributed to over 10 issued and pending patents related to drug discovery and implementation.
Dr. Andrews has been advising management of Chlorion since 2005.
Dr. Terrence Doyle
MemberDr. Doyle was educated in chemistry at Loyola College (BSc, 1963) and the University of Notre Dame (PhD, 1966). Following postdoctoral work he joined Bristol-Myers at Candiac Quebec where he worked in the areas of CNS and Infectious disease chemistry. In 1975 he was transferred to the Syracuse BM facility to head up Natural Products Research and Antitumor Chemistry. He worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 27 years ending his career as an Executive Director with responsibilities for anti-tumor chemistry, natural products chemistry and computational chemistry. Previously he had also had extensive managerial experience in microbiology, immunology, experimental therapeutics, molecular biology and in project management. His group was involved in the development of Taxol® and Etopofos and in the discovery and/or development of six other compounds presently in development at Bristol-Myers Squibb. He is the holder of 51 U.S. patents for anti-infective, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor agents and an author of over 175 published research articles, review articles and abstracts related to cancer chemotherapy.
In late 1993 he took advantage of an early retirement offer from BMS and helped found Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc. as head of Research and Development. The clinical development of, TriapineTM, CloretazineTM, and VNP40541 are in progress. In addition -L-FD4C has been outlicensed to Achillion. It is in development for the treatment of HBV and AIDS.
Since December of 2002 he has served on the scientific advisory board of GeminX Biotechnologies Inc as a consultant. He was involved with the development of their pan Bcl inhibitor GX15.70 and their p53 program lead agent GX14.91. He has also been a consultant in the areas of Medicinal Chemistry and for the SBIR program at NIH.
In 2006 he retired from both Vion and GeminX and is now a consultant.