Leadership

JP Benya
JP Benya
President & CEO

JP brings nearly thirty years of commercial and operational experience across large multinational pharma and small biotech. He has built and run strategies for primary care and specialty products in the US and globally, including the marketing of brands such as Intron®A and Ambien®. He holds a BA from Brown and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Columbia.

  • Lisa Pedicone, PhD
    Lisa Pedicone, PhD
    SVP, Medical

    Lisa spent 16 years at Schering-Plough and Merck across Global Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research, and Global Medical Affairs, where she led a team of 15 regional medical directors. Since 2006 her focus has been liver disease; she is a member of AASLD and has co-authored more than 35 publications in NEJM, Lancet, and Hepatology. She holds a doctorate in neuropharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania.

  • Steve Petruccelli
    Steve Petruccelli
    SVP, Finance & Operations

    Steve has over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biotech new-product planning, business intelligence, finance, product launch, and global marketing. He led new-product and lifecycle planning teams at Schering-Plough and Daiichi-Sankyo, and continues to assess licensing opportunities across gastroenterology and hepatology. Steve is a CPA and earned his MBA in Finance from Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

  • Paul Ursino
    Paul Ursino
    VP, Product Development

    Paul has 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry at Vinchem, Inc., where he acts as the sales agent for foreign manufacturers of APIs and finished dosage forms from Europe, India, and China. He has developed and licensed products for Paragraph IV and 505(b)(2) filings and was a founding member of a virtual pharmaceutical development and marketing start-up. He holds a BS from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Seton Hall University.

  • Catherine Coffey Ross
    Catherine Coffey Ross
    VP, Corporate Development

    Catherine has over 25 years across pharma and biotech, focused on early-stage development and commercial strategy. She served as VP of Commercial Development at Arbutus Bio and VP of Medical Affairs at Antios Therapeutics. During 17 years at Abbott and AbbVie she helped advance HCV products including VIEKIRA and MAVYRET from preclinical through FDA approval and U.S. launch. Earlier roles include Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck.

Clinical Advisors

  • Brooks Cash, MD
    Brooks Cash, MD
    Medical Director, Functional Bowel Center
    Baylor College of Medicine
  • Ken Cusi, MD
    Ken Cusi, MD
    Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism, Department of Medicine
    University of Florida
  • Kris V. Kowdley, MD
    Kris V. Kowdley, MD
    Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University
    Liver Institute Northwest

Get in touch

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