Board of Directors
Simon Pedder, Ph.D.
Executive Chairman
Simon has a career of over 30 years in drug development and commercialization. He was recently Chief Executive Officer of Nirogy. Prior he had leadership roles as; Chief Business and Strategy Officer for Athenex; President and CEO of Cellectar Biosciences; President and CEO of Chelsea Therapeutics; Global Vice President of Oncology Pharma Business and Executive Officer at Hoffmann-LaRoche. Previous positions at Roche included Life Cycle Leader and Global Project Leader of Pegasys/IFN and Head of Hepatitis Franchise. Prior, he was Clinical Leader for a number of development compounds at Roche. He has been on a number of both private and public Boards.
Early in his career he was a faculty in the Department of Pharmacology in College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology. During his longstanding career in pharmaceutical development, Simon had played key roles in the successful development and commercial of multiple proprietary pharmaceutical products including Tasmar®, Pegasys®, Copegus®, Northera® and Klisyri®. In addition to his Ph.D., Simon obtained a Master of Science in Toxicology from Concordia University, a Joint Honors Bachelor degree in Environmental Studies/Biology from the University of Waterloo, and he completed the Roche-sponsored Pharmaceutical Executive Management Program at Columbia Business School.
Michael J. Roberts, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and CEO
Dr. Roberts has 25+ years of pharmaceutical research, development, corporate development, and executive experience. He is co-founder and CEO of Centaur Bio. Prior to Centaur he was co-founder and Acting CEO of Corino Therapeutics. Dr. Roberts led and ran all activities related to Corino and the development of CRX-1008 in ATTR. He is a pharmaceutical and biotech consultant and owner of MAC B Consulting. Prior to Corino, Dr. Roberts was VP, Business Development and Corporate Officer of publicly traded Chelsea Therapeutics, Inc. He was responsible for business development efforts focused primarily on licensing and M&A with consideration to pipeline management. He led the sale of Chelsea Therapeutics to H. Lundbeck A/S in 2014 for $658M. Prior to Chelsea Therapeutics, Dr. Roberts was Director of Business Development for their Nektar Therapeutics’ Molecule Engineering technology and completed a number of transactions with large and specialty pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Roberts has completed pharmaceutical transactions valued at over $1B. Prior to this he was Manager of Biopharmaceutical Research at Shearwater Corporation where he led and was successful in the development of preclinical drug candidates from initial stages of research through Phase I clinical study, including inventing the product Movantik™, a treatment for opioid-induced constipation, subsequently licensed to AstraZeneca in a billion-dollar deal. Shearwater was sold to Inhale Therapeutic Systems (ie. Nektar Therapeutics) in 2001 for $200M.
Dr. Roberts obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Alabama and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.
Anthony Zook
Fmr. CEO AstraZeneca NA
Mr. Zook was executive vice president of global commercial operations of AstraZeneca Plc from 2010 until 2012. He also served as president and chief executive officer of the North American division of AstraZeneca Plc from 2006 until 2009, and president of Medimmune, the company’s wholly-owned biologics division from 2009 until 2010. Mr. Zook has served as a director of BioSig Technologies, Inc (Nasdaq: BSGM) since July 2020, and had previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of AltheRx from 2013-2014, InHibikase in 2014, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals in 2009, the National Pharmaceutical Council from 2007-2009, PhRMA from 2011-2012, the Pennsylvania Division of the American Cancer Society from 2005-2007 and his alma mater, Frostburg State University from 2016-2018 and re-joined in 2021, where he earned a B.S. degree. Mr. Zook also earned an A.A. degree in chemical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Mr. Zook brings extensive commercialization experience and expertise in executive leadership, making him a valuable resource on the Board.