Management

Chairman and CEO Roberto Rosenkranz, Ph.D., M.B.A, co-founded ROXRO PHARMA. Dr. Rosenkranz’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry spans 28 years, encompassing both science and business. He held positions in pharmacology, new product development, market research, sales, managed care, and business development at Syntex Corporation; then served as Director of Business Operations for Roche Laboratories. Most recently he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Scios Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company. Dr. Rosenkranz has served on the board of directors of both public and private companies, including Gemini Genomics plc, prior to its merger with Sequenom, Inc., and CombiMatrix Corporation. He currently serves on the board of directors of Pherin Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Rosenkranz holds a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University, a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of California at Davis, and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University. He is the author of over 70 scientific papers and abstracts, and holds six patents.

President and Chief Scientific Officer Roger Whiting, Ph.D., co-founded ROXRO PHARMA. Dr. Whiting has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years, initially at Beecham Research Laboratories in England, then at Syntex Research in Scotland. In 1985 he transferred to Syntex in Palo Alto, where he led both basic research and early development and defined the company’s fledgling program in pain. Following acquisition of Syntex by Roche, Dr. Whiting was instrumental in creating Roche Bioscience – a novel approach to R & D in the pharmaceutical industry. Here he established and led the Neurobiology Business Unit – managing comprehensive programs in pain and urology through to clinical proof of concept. Dr. Whiting earned his B.Sc. from the University of Bradford and his graduate degree under the tutorship of Dr. M.D. Day from Aston University. He has authored over 100 articles, and is an inventor on 15 patents. Dr. Whiting serves on the board of directors and scientific advisory boards of several biotechnology companies.

EVP, Business Operations Gayle Mills, M.B.A., joined ROXRO in 2006. Ms. Mills has a broad ranging background in pharmaceutical sales, marketing and business development. During her business development career she consummated a large number of significant research alliances, in-licensing and out-licensing transactions with top-tier biotech and pharmaceutical firms. She started her career at Sandoz Corporation (later acquired by Novartis) where she held managerial positions in marketing research, project management and pharmaceutical sales. Subsequently Ms. Mills held the positions of Director of Marketing at Quidel Corporation, Director of Business Development at Affymax, N.V., Director of Business Development at Syntex Corporation, and Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Marketing at Roche Bioscience. Most recently she held the position of Senior Vice President, Business Development at Abgenix, Inc. with responsibility for the business development, corporate development, strategic marketing and project management functions for this successful biotechnology firm. Ms. Mills holds a B.S. degree from Notre Dame de Namur University, and a MBA from Santa Clara University.

Vice President for Pharmaceutical Sciences Ramachandran R. Thirucote, Ph.D., brings over 25 years of pharmaceutical development expertise to ROXRO. Previously he was Director, Department of Pharmaceutical Formulation Design at SRI International, where he was responsible for building the pharmaceutical development operations. Dr. Thirucote serves on several scientific advisory boards of Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies.