Robert Farrell, JD
President and CEO
Mr. Farrell has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device sectors. Mr. Farrell has had primary or significant responsibility for the completion of mergers & acquisitions, corporate partnerships, licensing transactions, and divestitures in both the U.S. and Europe. In addition, Mr. Farrell has many years of operational experience, including responsibility for all financial operations.
Prior to joining Claritas Pharmaceuticals (formerly known as Kalytera) in 2016, Mr. Farrell worked as an executive officer with the Institute for One World Health, an affiliate of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. Farrell has also held senior positions with publicly listed companies, including Titan Pharmaceuticals, where he served as President and CEO from 2008 to 2009 and as Chief Financial Officer from 1996 to 2008. Previously, Mr. Farrell served as Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Group Vice President, and General Counsel at Fresenius USA and Fresenius Medical Care. Mr. Farrell received a law degree (J.D.) from the University of California, and his undergraduate degree (B.A.) from the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Farrell is a member of the California State Bar.
Andrew Salzman, MD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Salzman is a physician, scientist, inventor, and biomedical entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in biomedical drug discovery and development. He studied psychology and English literature at Yale College and medicine at Harvard Medical School. After a pediatric internship and residency at Columbia University (New York, NY), he undertook post-doctoral fellowships in pediatric critical care, neonatal critical care, immunology, epithelial biology, and pediatric infectious disease at the Weizmann Institute of Science in (Rehovot, Israel), Children’s Hospital Medical Center (Boston, MA), the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA), the University of Massachusetts Medical Center (Worcester, MA), and Beth Israel Hospital Medical Center (Brookline, MA). Prior to his entrepreneurial career in biotechnology, he founded and led the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Children’s Hospital Medical Center (Cincinnati, OH), one of the largest pediatric critical care programs in North America.
In 1999, Dr. Salzman left academia to found Inotek Pharmaceuticals, followed by the founding and leadership of a number of biotechnology companies in Israel and the United States, including Radikal Therapeutics, Salzman Capital Ventures, Salzman Lovelace Investments, and Respirometics. Over the past twenty years, Dr. Salzman has received funding for 135 NIH, DARPA, and BARDA grants totaling $160 million. This work has supported research activities resulting in 200 scientific publications and 50 patents, spanning work in ischemia-reperfusion injury, intestinal mucosal biology, pulmonary arterial hypertension, autoimmune disease, and mechanisms of pro-inflammatory gene expression.
His basic scientific discoveries include the identification of:
- the enhancer region of the human inducible nitric oxide synthase gene
- the principal microbial protein (flagellin) that activates inflammation in epithelial cells
- the enzyme in bacteria that detoxifies nitric oxide (flavohemoglobin)
- the first soluble nitric oxide donor that selectively lowers pulmonary hypertension
- the first nitric oxide synthase inhibitor selective for the inducible isoform
- the first ultrapotent selective A1 agonist
- the first nanomolar-potent PARP inhibitor
Yousif Sahly, PhD
Director of Quality Control
Dr. Yousif Sahly received his doctorate in Organic Chemistry in 1988 from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology followed by post-doctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has over 25 years of experience in large and emerging pharmaceutical companies in the USA and Israel. He has worked at Pfizer as a Director of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics and at Merck as a Senior Scientist in the Department of Drug Metabolism.
Dr. Sahly joined Teva in Israel in 2009 where he served as the Senior Director and Head of Analytical Research and Development. There he managed a department comprised of senior and associate scientists responsible for analytical method development and qualification for drug candidates of small molecules, complex mixtures (such as Copaxone), peptides, and oligonucleotides in support of formulation, chemical development and regulatory submissions. Dr. Sahly manages both the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) analytical and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) bioanalytical laboratories.
Gali Guzikevich, PhD
Director of Quality Assurance
Dr. Guzikevich is an organic chemist with more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She earned her doctoral degree in structural biology and chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and has authored three peer-reviewed publications in Nature. Dr. Guzikevich is an expert in Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs, and has a profound knowledge in international pharmaceutical guidelines, including standards of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP).
Dr. Guzikevich has successfully led dozens of FDA, European, Israeli, and other Health Authorities Inspections. She has played leading roles at major pharmaceutical firms, including Quality Assurance of commercial GMP facilities, Quality Control laboratories, development manufacturing plants, and Research & Development laboratories. Gali was the Global GMP QA Senior Director at Teva Pharmaceuticals for 8 years. Prior to that role, she served as the Director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Gali also worked as a Product Manager for Agan Chemical Manufacturers.
Amos Rosenthal, PhD
Head of Chemistry
Dr. Rosenthal earned his Bachelors Degree at the VU University Amsterdam in the laboratory of Professor Koop Lammertsma on the topic of phosphorous chemistry. He then moved to the University of California, Riverside in the laboratory of Professor Guy Bertrand to work on carbene chemistry. He earned his doctoral degree in organometallic chemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in the laboratory of Prof. Hansjörg Grützmacher, where he developed new ligands, coordinated them to various metals, and demonstrated catalytic activities. In his post-doctoral fellowship at Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier in the laboratory of Professor Didier Bourissou, he synthesized new radical phosphino boranes, which show a reversible dimerization, novel for boranes.
Dr. Rosenthal has authored several peer-reviewed publications, including a manuscript in Science. As Head of Chemistry he leads the development of new target molecules from ideas to gram-scale proof-of-concept through to kilogram-scale commercial production.