Feldan Therapeutics has developed the Feldan Shuttle, a peptide-based technology that enables safe and efficient intracellular delivery of therapeutics. The company develops treatments for unmet medical needs by targeting intracellular components while capitalizing on the efficacy, specificity and safety of peptides and proteins.
Our team is composed of passionate and highly qualified individuals with combined expertise in chemical engineering, biochemistry, cellular biology, microbiology, business and finance.
Chairman
Benoît Cyr serves as the Executive Chairman of Feldan since 2012, as a member of the board at Kalgen Pharmaceutical since 2017 and as an angel investor at Anges Québec since 2012.
Mr. Cyr was the President and Co-Founder of Biogenie Corporation and Biopharmacopae Design International. Biogenie, a company specialized in site remediation and organic waste management was acquired by Englobe in 2006, while Biopharmacopae was involved in discovery and development of new active ingredients derived from plant extracts. Mr. Cyr’s work with Biopharmacopae led to the discovery and development of MMPs and cathepsin inhibitors for the treatment of cancer. He currently holds patents related to the treatment of contaminated soils and active therapeutic ingredients derived from plant extracts.
Through the years, Mr. Cyr invested in more than twenty start-ups specialized in biotechnology, drug development, medical devices (Cadence, Imagia, Incentia, Kalgene, Laurent Pharmaceuticals, Inversago), and additional industries. He also served on many boards of directors across those sectors.
Mr. Cyr obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural and food engineering from Laval University in Quebec City.
Board Member
Dr. Sungyong Won currently serves as VP of Alliance Management of Artiva Biotherapeutics, where he is leading collaboration with GC Holdings & Lab Cell for cell and gene therapy.
Dr. Won has over 10 years of experience in the biotech industry. Before joining Artiva, he was a General Manager at GC Holdings & GC Lab Cell (Korea), where he led investments for biopharmaceutical and healthcare companies as a Strategic Investor. He has also been in charge of R&D Strategy and Planning for Cell & Gene Therapy as a project manager.
Prior to GC, Dr. Won was a Senior Scientist at HealthCare Institute of CJ Cheil-Jedang in Korea where he led Vaccine R&D as Head of the Vaccine Group and was responsible for various human vaccine development programs.
Dr. Won holds a BS in Biology and a MS in Microbiology from Kyung Hee University in Korea, in addition to a PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Dr. Won was a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla.
Board Member
Mr. Hyunki Kim is a Senior Manager at Stonebridge Ventures.
Mr. Kim joined Stonebridge Ventures in March 2018. He worked at the Dong-A Biotech Research Center for 8 years as a scientist for Dong-A Biosimilars and has served as a senior manager on the Global Business Development team at Dong-A for 3 years.
Prior to Stonebridge Ventures, Mr. Kim worked at NS Investment, affiliated with Dong-A, where he was involved in global biotech ventures and now is focusing on investments related to healthcare in Stonebridge Ventures.
Mr. Kim received a B.S. in Biotechnology from Sungkyunkawn University and a M.A. in Biochemical Engineering from Seoul National University. He was also a visiting scholar at the University of Minnesota.
Board Member
Mr. Truex serves as Executive Chairman for LQT Therapeutics.
Before LQT Therapeutics, Mr. Truex recently served as the Executive Chairman, Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Anthera Pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Truex has been involved in over $5 billion in biotech financing and strategic transactions. His recent experience includes initial public offerings for Milestone (Board Member, 2019), Trius (Board Member, 2010), Anthera (CEO, 2010), Peninsula (CEO, 2004), and Versicor (Vice President, 2000). Mr. Truex was Founder, President, and CEO of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson and Forest for more than $700 million.
Mr. Truex began his biotech career at Eli Lilly where his business development experience included the Lilly ICOS joint venture for the development of Cialis®. Mr. Truex is a member of the Board of Milestone (MIST), Cymabay (CBAY), Anthera (ANTH), and Gladius.
Mr. Truex obtained his MBA from Indiana University and a BA in Economics from the University of Waterloo.
Board Member
Dr. Robert Wills is the Chairman of Cymabay Therapeutics’ Board of Directors since October 2015 and has been a member of the Board since March, 2015.
Dr. Wills has more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and spent over 25 years at Johnson & Johnson, where he held positions as Senior Vice President of Global Development, Vice President of Alliance Management and member of the R&D Board of Directors. He has been responsible for the R&D pipeline and for managing strategic alliances for the Pharmaceutical Group worldwide, playing an active role in the negotiations of these alliances. Dr. Wills also served on several of the Company Boards and key decision-making committees. He began his career at Hoffmann-LaRoche where he spent 10 years in several roles of scientific responsibility.
Dr. Wills holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and an M.S. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Texas.
Board Member
Dr. Jean De Serres currently serves as Vice President of Scientific Affairs and Operations at Paladin Labs
Dr. De Serres was previously CEO at Héma-Quebec, where he launched the production of stem cells, including the launch of a new plant. He was named Manager of the Year in 2003 for his success in cost efficiency and development. He is a former VP of R&D, Regulatory Affairs and In-Licensing for Jubilant/Draximage/HolisterStier where he led the development and launch of products in imaging, oncology, and immunology.
Dr. De Serres contributed to the founding of various biotech companies, including MedDiscovery SA (2006), a Swiss firm developing new medications against urogenital cancers, as well as Biomilestones Inc. (2008) and Gestion BD, marketing consulting firms for biopharmaceuticals.
Dr. De Serres is a board member of MedDiscovery, Cadens Medical Imaging and has previously served on the board of multiple organizations such as BioQuebec, Montreal InVivo, and the Canadian College of Family Physicians.
From 1999 to 2005, he was Medical Director and General Manager at CSL Behring with sales mostly in hematology and immunology. From 1996 to 1999, he was Director of Public Health in the Ottawa area. He was previously in charge of teaching units at McGill University and a practicing physician in emergency and family medicine.
In addition to his training in medicine, Dr. De Serres has a master’s degree in Community Health and an MBA in Bio-Industry Management from UQAM.
Board Member & Chief Executive Officer
Dr. François-Thomas Michaud serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Feldan Therapeutics and is a co-founder of the company.
Dr. Michaud co-founded and became CEO of Feldan in 2007 while completing his PhD degree in chemical engineering. At the time, the company was mainly active in the production and international distribution of bioreagents. In parallel with sales activities, Dr. Michaud and Feldan’s team worked on a research project that led to the inception of proprietary cell-penetrating technology: the Feldan Shuttle. Over the years, Dr. Michaud’s value-creating vision has shaped the business model of the company, which now focuses exclusively on therapeutic development.
Dr. Michaud is actively engaged in corporate, academic, and entrepreneurial communities of the Province of Quebec and Canada as an administrator, speaker, and mentor. He is also a board member of Bio-Québec, Ag Biocentre and Entrepreneurial Laval.
Drug Delivery Experts
Dr. Chris Rhodes is CEO and founder of Drug Delivery Experts.
Dr. Rhodes is a pharmaceutical scientist with over 25 years of experience in developing complex formulations and delivery systems including long-acting injectables (PLGA (Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) and non-PLGA systems), formulations for peptides, proteins, antibodies, oligonucleotides, and small molecules. He played a key role in the development of various commercial products including Byetta, Lusedra, Bydureon (PLGA microspheres), Myalept, and Afrezza, and was an R&D leader at Amydis Diagnostics, SKS Ocular (PLGA microfabrication platform), Amylin, Guilford (Gliadel wafer PLGA microsphere, and polyphosphoester polymer platform), and Mannkind.
Dr Rhodes was Drug Development Team Leader for a propofol prodrug and an NCE for peripheral neuropathy at Guilford. He led translational research on delivery systems for exenatide, including nasal, pulmonary, and oral administration, as well as transdermal microporation technologies, evaluating several delivery systems in clinical studies.
Dr Rhodes is a founder of Sensulin, CASS Pharmaceuticals, and Baywind Bioventures, companies developing drug-delivery-enabled pharmaceutical assets.
He has a PhD in Chemistry (UCLA), a BS in cChemistry (NYU), and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale.
Kodikaz
Dr. Jean-Michel Gries is the Chief Research and Development Officer at Kodikaz.
Dr. Gries is an accomplished drug development executive. Starting as a director of clinical pharmacology at Aventis (and predecessor companies), he then became the Head of Clinical Pharmacology for Hoffmann-La Roche. He joined Alcon as the Head of R&D for the Pharmaceutical Products Division, in which capacity he led the transformation of the organization to support a more innovative mechanism of actions for the treatment of ocular diseases, leading all activities from research to registration. His successes in the drug development space cover both early stage (with over 275 INDs) and late stage (15+ NDAs, 7 ANDAs).
As a business executive, Dr. Gries helped create 9 companies (2 of which are now public) via 26 asset acquisitions and led them early on, in a venture capital company specialized in the creation and incubation of biotechnology startups. He has extensive licensing experience from both Roche (member of the licensing committee) and Aventis (oncology and CNS licensing committee) and Alcon (Board level). Dr. Gries also served on private companies and not-for-profit boards of directors.
Dr. Gries has had exposure over a broad set of disease areas: oncology, inflammation and pain, the central nervous system, metabolism, cardio-renal syndrome, anti-infectives (including HIV and HCV), dermatology, ophthalmology, genito-urinary, gastro-enterology. Dr. Gries joined Covance in 2012 as the General Manager for Early Clinical Development. This organization is dedicated to helping companies reach major clinical and investment decisions through efficient proofs of concept or in-patient studies. In 2016, Dr. Gries joined Parexel International as the General Manager and Strategic Business Unit Leader of its early phase organization (a.k.a. the translational medicine arm of Parexel) in order to lead its transformation.
Dr. Gries has a PharmD, and a PhD in pharmacokinetics from Rene Descartes University in Paris, a master’s in Statistics and a doctoral degree in Analytical Chemistry. He also completed an MBA with a Major in Finance and concentration in Entrepreneurial Leadership from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Cymabay Therapeutics
Dr. Robert Wills is the Chairman of Cymabay Therapeutics’ Board of Directors since October 2015 and has been a member of the Board since March, 2015.
Dr. Wills has more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and spent over 25 years at Johnson & Johnson, where he held positions as Senior Vice President of Global Development, Vice President of Alliance Management and member of the R&D Board of Directors. He has been responsible for the R&D pipeline and for managing strategic alliances for the Pharmaceutical Group worldwide, playing an active role in the negotiations of these alliances. Dr. Wills also served on several of the Company Boards and key decision-making committees. He began his career at Hoffmann-LaRoche where he spent 10 years in several roles of scientific responsibility.
Dr. Wills holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and an M.S. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Texas.
EUPRAXIA PHARMACEUTICALS
Dr. Webb is the Vice President, Translational Science at Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Webb has over 25 years of drug discovery and development experience in both industrial and academic settings, with a focus on the conduct and management of translational preclinical studies supporting the entry of novel drugs into clinical trials. This expertise includes an extensive background in vivo efficacy, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetic studies, ADME/biodistribution studies, non-GLP and GLP toxicology studies, drug combination studies and natural products. Dr. Webb also has expertise in the regulatory requirements for novel oncology in clinical testing and has initiated and managed Phase I and II cancer clinical trials. Collectively, Dr. Webb has more than 90 published research articles, including 32 patents (seven granted) and is the co-inventor of Marqibo®, FDA approved for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, plus five novel drugs in advanced preclinical and clinical testing by three different US-based companies.
We are owners of Feldan’s future. We stake our reputation on the excellence of our work and take ownership of everything we do to meet our business needs, improve our systems and help others grow. We are Feldan!
Having fun and enjoying our work bring out the best of us, which is essential to our mission. We celebrate successes and gather as a team to make Feldan a great place to work.
We work as a team to promote optimal efficiency and performance in all our activities. We take pride in having a highly diverse team of people whose complementary backgrounds make us a unique and innovative company.
Feldan Therapeutics is supported by a group of firms that contribute to the success of our mission.
Chairman at Feldan Therapeutics
Chairman – Feldan Therapeutics
Angel (Biotech specialist)
President – Biopharmacopae Design Int. – 2000-2005
President – Biogenie – 1986-2006
Master’s degree – Biology – 1984-1986
General Manager at GreenCross Holdings
CEO
VP - Scientific affairs and Operaitions at Paladin Labs
Chief R&D Officer at Kodikaz Therapeutic Solutions
Jean-Michel is an accomplished drug development executive. Starting as a director of clinical pharmacology at Aventis (and predecessor companies), and he then became the Head of Clinical Pharmacology for Hoffmann-La Roche. He joined Alcon as the Head of R&D for the Pharmaceutical Products Division, in which capacity he led the transformation of the organization to support more innovative mechanism of actions for the treatment of ocular diseases, leading all activities from research to registration. His successes in the drug development space cover both early stage (with over 275 INDs) and late stage (15+ NDAs, 7 ANDAs) and are a testament both of his strong scientific education, and his focus on driving projects forward. Most recently Jean-Michel Gries led the Early Phase organization aka the translational medicine arm of PAREXEL.
As a business executive, Dr, Gries helped create 9 companies (2 of which are now public) via 26 assets acquisition and led them early on, in a Venture Capital company specialized in the creation and incubation of Biotechnology startups. He has extensive licensing experience from both Roche (member of the licensing committee) and Aventis (Oncology and CNS licensing committee) and Alcon (Board level). Dr. Gries also served on private companies and Not For Profits Boards of Directors.
Dr. Gries has had exposure over a broad set of disease area, Oncology, Inflammation & Pain, CNS, Metabolism, Cardio-Renal, Anti-Infectives (including HIV and HCV), Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Genito-Urinary, GastroEnterology. Dr. Gries joined Covance in 2012 as the General Manager for Early Clinical Development, an organization dedicated to help companies achieve their major clinical and investment decision through efficient Proof of Concept or in patient studies. He built and grew this organization to a very successful business, winning 3 Business Unit of the Year Award. In 2016, Dr Gries joined PAREXEL International to lead the transformation of its Early Phase Organization which grew 26%.
Dr. Jean-Michel Gries has a PharmD, and a PhD in pharmacokinetics from Rene Descartes University in Paris, a Master in Statistics and a doctoral degree in Analytical Chemistry. He is a Clinical Pharmacology fellow with numerous assignments both in adult and pediatric medicine and a post-doctoral fellowship from UC San Francisco. He also completed a MBA with a Major in Finance and concentration in entrepreneurial Leadership from the Wharton School.
Dr. Gries is the author of more than 30 papers and communications. He has been a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology since 2001, served on its Finance Committee and on its Board of Regents, and is a reviewer for JCP. He is also a long time member of ASCPT and a Member of its Board of Director. Jean-Michel is also a member of ASCO.
Executive Chairman of the Board at Anthera
Mr. Truex currently serves as the Executive Chairman of the Board. He served as Director and Chief Executive Officer since the inception of Anthera in 2004 through 2016. He was responsible for negotiating Anthera’s product licenses for both blisibimod, our anti-BAFF peptibody program from Amgen, and recently, Sollpura™(liprotamase), a novel enzyme replacement product, from Eli Lilly and Company. During his career Mr. Truex has been involved with over $500 million in private, public and debt financings and over $1 billion in various strategic in-licensing, out-licensing and merger/acquisition transactions including initial public offerings for Trius Therapeutics (Board Member, 2010), Anthera (CEO, 2010), Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (2004), and Versicor (Vice President, 2000).
Prior to founding Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Truex served as a Founder, Director, President and CEO of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals. During that time Mr. Truex negotiated both of Peninsula’s product agreements with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (Doribax®, doripenem) and Takeda Chemical Industries (Teflaro®, ceftaroline). Peninsula was acquired by Johnson and Johnson for $245 million in an all cash transaction. The remaining entity, Cerexa was subsequently acquired in $480 million in cash.
Prior to Peninsula, Mr. Truex was Vice President of Commercial Development for Versicor Incorporated (acquired by Pfizer) where he directed early commercial efforts for their infectious disease portfolio and participated in the company’s successful $55 million initial public offering.
Prior to joining Versicor, Mr. Truex worked at Eli Lilly and Company where he served in various marketing and sales roles during the launch of three different products for the primary care physician market (Actos®’ Evista®’ and Humalog 75/25®). His business development experience includes the Lilly ICOS LLC joint venture for the development of Cialis® two major product divestitures (anidulafungin, Eraxis® and loracarbef, Lorabid®) and and numerous research collaborations.
Mr. Truex obtained his Masters of Business Administration in Marketing and Finance from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Waterloo. Mr. Truex sits on the Indiana University West Coast Advisory Board for the Johnson Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, is a member of the Board of Directors of Milestone Pharmaceuticals Limited (Chairman) and involved as an advisor to a number of early stage ventures in multiple industries. His past board appointments include Peninsula Pharmaceuticals, Trius Therapeutics, and Protagonist Therapeutics.
Dr. Rhodes is a pharmaceutical technologist with experience in product development of complex formulations and delivery systems including sustained release injectable, pulmonary inhalation aerosol, nasal spray, transdermal patch, and oral formulations for biopharmaceutical products and small molecules. He played a key role in the development of commercial products Byetta, Lusedra, Bydureon, Myalept, and Afrezza and was leader of product development at Amydis Diagnostics, SKS Ocular, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Guilford Pharmaceuticals, and Mannkind Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Rhodes is President & CEO of Drug Delivery Experts, a company he founded in 2014 to develop biologics delivery systems through contract R&D and in-house programs. Dr. Rhodes has a PhD in physical organic chemistry from UCLA, a BS in chemistry from NYU, and was a Post Doc at Yale University.
Consultant in Drug Development
Luc Vachon, Ph.D. has over 30 years of experience in drug development, covering all phases and including translating preclinical research into first-in-humans Phase I and early proof-of-concept Phase II studies in patients, large multicentre Phase III and registration trials. His scientific, clinical, regulatory and corporate experience has been acquired through programs conducted in Canada, USA and Europe, encompassing various therapeutic areas such as neurology, endocrinology, pulmonology, inflammatory bowel diseases, mitochondrial disorders as well as oncology. He worked in two multinational pharmaceutical organizations (now Novartis and Sanofi), a public biotechnology company (Theratechnologies), a start-up company (Asmacure), two CROs (Cato Research, NEOMED LABS), as well as with numerous private and academic Canadian, American or European clients as independent consultant. He has held positions such as Manager of Clinical Research, Global Product Team Leader, Executive VP of R&D, Managing Director, President and CEO. He has also been active in the “biopharmaceutical” sector as member or chairman of boards of directors as well as of scientific and clinical advisory boards. He has given lectures in the academia and a number of corporate forums in Canada, USA Europe and China, and has served on several review committees and panels in Canada and USA. He has also participated in raising private and public funding for early stage companies and academic organizations. He obtained his B.Sc. from University of Sherbrooke, his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine of Laval University (Quebec City, Canada), and conducted post-doctoral training in neuropharmacology at the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (Germany) and in neurophysiology at the Centre for Research in Neurological Sciences, University of Montreal (Canada). He is author or co-author of more than 75 publications or communications in basic or clinical research.
2666, Boul. du Parc Technologique Suite 290
Quebec, Qc, Canada,
G1P 4S6
Phone: 1-418-872-7277
Email: info@feldan.com