Management
Wendye Robbins, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Wendye Robbins has distinguished herself as an innovator, entrepreneur, scientist, team builder, leader, and educator. She is a frequent advisor and lecturer to pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and mentor to entrepreneurs. Dr. Robbins holds an ongoing appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Robbins was scientific founder of NeurogesX, Inc. (NASD:NGSX), a biopharmaceutical company developing pain management therapies, where she held the positions of President, Chief Medical Officer and Vice Chairman of the Board. Dr. Robbins received her BS from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business and her MD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She completed post graduate training in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and in anesthesiology and pain medicine at the Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions. She is board certified in anesthesiology.
Ving Lee, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Ving J. Lee has broad expertise gained from both research and executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry as well as academic appointments. After post-doctoral appointments at the University of Illinois and Harvard (NIH), he held leadership positions at Lederle Laboratories (Cyanamid), Microcide Pharmaceuticals, Iconix Pharmaceuticals (Iconix Biosciences) and Anacor Pharmaceuticals.
From 2002 to 2004, Dr. Lee was Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President, Discovery Research at Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he directed research on boron-based therapeutics with support from a $22.6 million Defense Advance Research Projects Agency contract. Previously, Dr. Lee held various positions at Microcide Pharmaceuticals including Vice President, Chemistry and Pre-clinical Research; Research Operations and Technology Assessment; and Senior Research Advisor responsible for research in beta-lactams for problematic gram-positive pathogens, uridyl-peptide antibiotics, and inhibitors of bacterial efflux pumps. While at Lederle, he was responsible for the discovery of new anti-infectives, including the glycylcyclines, carbapenems, enhanced third-generation cephalosporins, beta-lactamase inhibitors, and new oncolytic agents.
Dr. Lee received his BA and MS-PhD from Ohio State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, respectively. Concurrent to his position as Senior Vice President, Research at Limerick BioPharma, Dr. Lee is also Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Adesis, Inc., a contract research organization. He is also advisor for several private and public biotech companies.
Michael Chang, PhD
Vice President, Research and Development
Michael Chang joined Limerick BioPharma as Vice President of Project Management in 2009. He brings 17 years of industry experience in small molecule drug development. Prior to joining Limerick, Dr. Chang was Vice President of Manufacturing and Project Management at CV Therapeutics, Inc., where he was responsible for managing the company’s key partnership to commercialize Ranexa® overseas. He also held responsibility for commercial manufacturing, lifecycle planning, portfolio analysis, alliance management, and project management. Before joining CV Therapeutics, Dr. Chang managed drug development teams at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he served as Project Manager for the development and registration of Viracept®.
Dr. Chang received his BS and PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of California at Los Angeles and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of California at San Francisco. He holds an MBA from San Diego State University.
Karl G. Trass
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
Karl Trass joined Limerick BioPharma as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs in 2010. He brings 16 years of regulatory experience across all phases of clinical development as it relates to biologics, small molecules, gene therapy agents, and diagnostics. Prior to joining Limerick, Mr. Trass was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Neurobiological Technologies, Inc., where he was responsible for regulatory, quality, and CMC. Mr. Trass also served as Director, Regulatory Affairs at Sangamo Biosciences and Gilead Sciences. In addition, Mr. Trass was Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs at Tularik, Inc. and Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs at Genentech where he was responsible for the filing and FDA review of Herceptin® (Trastuzumab) for metastatic breast cancer.
Mr. Trass received his BA in chemistry from Indiana University.
Bill Nelson, PhD
Vice President, Product Development
Bill Nelson joined Limerick BioPharma, Inc. as Vice President of Product Development in 2007. He has more than 20 years of CMC experience in-small molecule drug development. Most recently, Dr. Nelson was Vice President of Product and Process Development at Cerexa, where he was an integral part of the senior management team that negotiated the acquisition of Cerexa by Forest Labs in early 2007.
At Cerexa (which was spun out of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals when it was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2005), Dr. Nelson was responsible for all CMC activities, including contract manufacturing and supply agreement negotiations for Ceftaroline, an anti-MRSA cephalosporin hospital antibiotic now in Phase 3 clinical trials. He was also involved in accessing license opportunities and negotiation of license agreements. Before joining Peninsula as a Senior Director‚ Dr. Nelson held positions of increasing responsibility at Salutar‚ Nycomed‚ Roche Palo Alto and Sugen. While at Sugen he led the CMC technology transfer to commercial plants for Sutent®, a multi–targeted protein kinase inhibitor successfully launched by Pfizer in 2005. At Salutar and Nycomed he was involved in the research‚ development and successful product launches of the MRI contrast agents OmniScan® and TeslaScan®.
Dr. Nelson received his BS from the University of Wisconsin and his PhD in chemistry from the University of British Columbia, after which he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Los Alamos National Lab.
Michael Taylor, PhD
Vice President, Preclinical Drug Safety
Michael Taylor has more than 20 years of R&D experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has served on various executive teams. Prior to joining Limerick, he served as Vice President, Preclinical Development at Alexza Pharmaceuticals from August 2006 until February 2009 specializing in the development of inhalation products. From January 2005 to August 2006, Dr. Taylor was Sr. Director, Preclinical and Clinical Development Sciences for Protein Design Labs, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. From April 2000 to January 2005, he served as Vice President, Non-Clinical Research and Development and Executive Director, Drug Safety and Evaluation for DURECT Corporation, a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Taylor was Toxicology Department Head for the Urology and CNS Division of Roche Biosciences. Dr. Taylor is a board certified toxicologist and holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in toxicology from Utah State University.
Asha Rajagopal
Chief Financial Officer
Asha Rajagopal directs the finance operations at Limerick BioPharma, Inc. as its Chief Financial Officer. She has 20 years of experience in public accounting and private industry working for small companies and large corporations. Her biopharmaceutical industry experience includes heading the finance function at Genesoft Pharmaceuticals, where she participated in directing the reverse merger with Oscient Pharmaceuticals (NASD:OSCI) in 2004. Ms. Rajagopal also held senior finance positions at Cygent, Cambridge Management Consulting, Abbott Laboratories and Price Waterhouse. Her expertise is small and large business finance and accounting processes, IPO support and accounting for merger and acquisitions.
Ms. Rajagopal received her BSBA in Accounting from the University of Texas and is a licensed CPA in California.
Peter Butera
Senior Director, Clinical Operations
Peter Butera joined Limerick BioPharma as Senior Director of Clinical Operations in 2010. He brings 22 years of industry experience in drug development. Prior to joining Limerick, Mr. Butera was Vice President of Clinical Operations at Pain Therapeutics, Inc., where he was responsible for managing the company’s clinical development programs for 10 years. Before joining Pain Therapeutics, Mr. Butera held various management and senior staff positions at IntraBiotics Pharmaceuticals, PharmaNet, Covance and Astra Zeneca.
Mr. Butera received his BS in biology from Saint Joseph’s University.
May D. Lee, PhD
Senior Director, Translational Biology
May D. Lee joined Limerick BioPharma in 2007 as Senior Director of Bioanalytical Chemistry and has been instrumental in the development of Limerick’s Metabolic Disorder Program. She assumed the responsibility of translational biology in 2009.
Dr. Lee distinguished herself in the field of natural product chemistry when she isolated and elucidated the chemical structures of calicheamicins (active moiety of the oncology drug, Mylotarg®) in the late eighties. The unusual chemical structure of calicheamicin y1| inspired numerous total synthesis and mechanistic studies from well-established academic laboratories. After leaving Lederle Laboratories in 1994, she migrated her career into biology. At Microcide (1994-2001), she was involved in industrial microbiology, high throughput screening, robotics, biological assay designs and developed expertise in research information management. At Iconix Biosciences (2001-2006), she developed expertise in therapeutic targets, off target effects, and clinical PK/PD of a broad range of pharmaceuticals. Through curating and constructing pathway maps suitable for interpreting gene expression microarray data derived from tissues of drug-treated rats, she developed a strong understanding in the regulation and interplay of carbohydrate, fat and cholesterol metabolism/catabolism at the molecular level, and the molecular mechanisms of diseases and symptoms caused by disturbing and over-stressing the body’s attempts at homeostasis.
Dr. Lee received her BSc from the University of British Columbia, PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University.
Julie Yang, PhD
Senior Director, Intellectual Property
Julie Yang (a.k.a. Junrui Yang) has over 20 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, previously in research and management, and recently in IP management. She is licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Prior to joining Limerick, Dr. Yang was responsible for Genelabs’ entire patent and trademark portfolios. Her responsibilities included developing a world-wide patent strategy, prosecuting US and international patents, and managing the Company’s collaboration patent portfolios with Gilead and with Novartis. She was an integral part of the due diligence team during the licensing transactions between Genelabs-Gilead and between Genelabs-Novartis. She was also involved in the due diligence of the recent acquisition of Genelabs by GlaxoSmithKline. Before joining Genelabs, Dr. Yang was with Silicon Valley Patent Agency consulting clients on IP strategy and patent prosecution. Previously, Dr. Yang held positions with increasing responsibility in research and management at Covalent Associates, Inc.
Dr. Yang received her B.S. in chemistry from Shanghai University of Science and Technology and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Northeastern University.
