Michael Stocum

President & CEO

Michael Stocum, President and CEO: In his 25-plus year industry career, Michael has impacted products across several therapeutic areas, holding corporate roles in pharmaceuticals with GlaxoWellcome/GSK, biologics at Organon (now Merck) and molecular diagnostics at Organon Teknika (now bioMerieux) plus three biotech start-ups. He has also operated a life sciences consulting services company he founded in 2004.

A two-time CEO (Inivata and On-Q-ity), his roles have spanned bench research to product, business and commercial development. Throughout his career, he has delivered to market or enhanced the development of numerous medicines in several disease areas including cancer (Onco-TICE BCG, Tykerb/Tyverb and Votrient), infectious diseases (abacavir in multiple fixed-dose drug formulations) and cardiometabolic diseases (Avandia) along with multiple innovative molecular testing products such circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) liquid biopsy, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), HIV-1 RNA and HBV DNA viral load tests. In 2004 Michael founded Personalized Medicine Partners (PMP) to provide global strategic business consulting and operational capabilities for biopharmaceutical, diagnostic and research/clinical services companies, specializing in product development and commercialization of integrated therapeutic and biomarker/companion diagnostic programs. Michael and his network that supports PMP has been instrumental in founding and providing executive management to several companies, including most recently, Inivata, a company spun out of the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2014 that is currently commercializing its lung cancer product in the US market. He is currently exploring opportunities to create a new innovative cancer therapeutic company to transform patient care.

Michael is the founding and past chair of the Personalized Medicine Division of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry and has been dedicated to advancing the field of Personalized Medicine. He has also served or is currently serving on several Company Boards, is an industry advisor to the Professional Sciences Masters in Microbial Biotechnology program at NC State University (NCSU) and recently joined the Center for Innovation Management Studies at NCSU as an Industrial Fellow.

Michael earned dual B.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Microbiology from NCSU, with a minor in Genetics and a Masters in Biotech Management, now a cornerstone of the MBA program in the College of Management that was created in the years following his graduation in 1992.

Matthew Kostura

Chief Scientific Officer

Received his PhD in Biology from the University of Maryland followed with post-doctoral research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. His graduate and post-doctoral research interests were in translational regulation by small molecules and by viral RNA. Dr. Kostura has gained over 25 years of experience in drug discovery and early development from target validation through clinical proof of concept in scientific and management roles in large pharma while at Merck Research Labs and GlaxoSmithKline.

In addition, he has significant experience in more entrepreneurial roles in start-up ventures. While at TransTech Pharma, he served as the SVP of R&D, directing a research team of 35 scientists conducting drug discovery and development research in oncology, immunology and inflammation, metabolic disease and neurodegenerative disorders. That effort resulted in the progression of four compounds into first-in-human studies.

Dr. Kostura possesses an in-depth knowledge of the development and use of high-content, multi-modal, phenotypic screening models that are increasingly being used to discover compound mechanism of action as well as biomarkers useful for compound evaluation from bench to clinic. Currently, Dr. Kostura is the CSO at Inanovate, Inc. a startup venture developing technology to discover and bring to market diagnostic and prognostic tests for breast cancer.

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Glen Weiss is a board-certified medical oncologist and business leader with more than 15 years of experience in comprehensively managing the care of patients with cancer. In addition to his clinical and academic career, he has served as a fractional Chief Medical Officer for a healthtech and several biotech companies, where he has helped shape growth strategies at the intersection of medicine, innovation, and business. He has held leadership positions across the clinic, laboratory, community practice, and at an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center.

He previously served as Director of Phase I Clinical Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. He has authored more than 325 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts in leading journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Cell, and Clinical Cancer Research.

Lori McDermott

Head of Clinical Operations

Lori McDermott is a driven and passionate clinical operations and drug development executive with 25 years of industry experience. Ms. McDermott is the founder and President of SME Clinical Consulting, a company providing Subject Matter Expertise (SME) to emerging biotech/biopharma companies developing assets in the field of oncology. She has successfully overseen submission and clearance of multiple oncology INDs, with none resulting in clinical hold, and managed first-in-human/early phase oncology studies and regulatory activities supporting FDA Fast Track and Orphan Drug designation.

Most recently, Ms. McDermott held the position of Chief Operating Officer of LumaBridge, a growing and cutting-edge Clinical Research Organization specializing in the conduct and execution of clinical trials in oncology. In this role, she led the workforce and business strategies to support growth and profitability of the company while engaging with biotech and pharmaceutical clients to deliver their drug development programs. Her success in this role resulted in a majority share investment by a life-science focused, private equity firm, Summit Partners.

Before joining LumaBridge, Ms. McDermott held the position of Vice President of Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs at Heat Biologics and Pelican Therapeutics (a CPRIT Product Development Grant Awardee), where she was responsible for building out a full clinical operations department to drive forward the development of 4 novel oncology assets. In the years preceding her work there, Ms. McDermott held Director and Management roles across biotech, pharma, and CRO settings and developed expertise in creating and leading high performing teams.

Ms. McDermott began her career in the hospital, providing bedside care as a registered nurse before transitioning into the clinical research industry. Ms. McDermott is PMP® certified and holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Neumann College as well as a Master of Science from Drexel University School of Medicine.

Dr. Andy Anantha

Head of CMC

Dr. Andy Anantha, Head of CMC, is the President of AVA Pharma Consultants and has over 30 years of experience in successfully conducting research and development in bio-pharmaceutical organizations and companies in the CMC space for both NCEs and Generics.

Prior to AVA Pharma Consultants, Dr. Anantha was most recently the Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development & Quality at vTv Therapeutics. In this role, he was responsible for complete CMC development and regulatory filings. Several lead candidates were taken to IND, Phase 1, 2 and Phase 3 stage. Before vTv Therapeutics, Dr. Anantha was the General Manager of Research at Torrent Pharma, India on both NCE and ANDA fronts. Responsibilities included API, formulation and Analytical development activities and Regulatory filings. Dr. Anantha has spent 30 years in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, including serving as a Manager/Principal Scientist at Wyeth Research for 9 and 1/2 years. of In this role, in addition to research and development in Analytical and Quality, he led interdisciplinary team of scientists on projects from CMC side. Other experience includes 7 years in the Generics research and development area at G & W labs.

Dr. Anantha is an author of several peer reviewed publications and was a secretary and is a member at the API manufacturing division of American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Meghan Reynolds

Chief of Staff

Ms. Reynolds has worked in business operations and administrative support roles for over a dozen years. She began her professional career in the financial services industry, as an Investor Relations Associate for long/short hedge fund Indus Capital Partners and later in client services for investment firm Perella Weinberg Partners. Thereafter, she transitioned to the life sciences, serving as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of a small biotechnology start up, which piqued her interest in the drug discovery and development process. Meghan has been with Bantam Pharmaceutical since the inception in 2015. As Chief of Staff, she supports the C-suite and scientific team, oversees business operations and finance, and is involved in the project management of BTM-3566.