About Us
Roger S. Newton, PhD, FAHA, FACN, Founder and Chairman of the Board
Roger Newton, is Founder and board member of Esperion Therapeutics (ESPR) , and is a fellow of the American Heart Association. Prior to founding Esperion in 2008, Roger was Senior Vice President, Pfizer Global R&D from 2004 to 2008. Previously, Roger was Co-founder, President & CEO of the original Esperion from July 1998 until its acquisition by Pfizer in 2004 for $1.3 B. Prior to founding the original Esperion, he was Chairman of the Atherosclerosis Drug Discovery Team at Warner Lambert from 1981 to 1993, during which he co-discovered and was the product champion of Lipitor. From 1994 to 1998, he was a Distinguished Research Fellow, during which time he was actively involved in the preparation of the Lipitor NDA and the eventual worldwide product launch.
Roger has been director of a number of life science companies including Juventas Therapeutics, Inc. and Rubicon Genomics, Inc. In addition, he is also a member of the National Advisory Boards for the Life Science Institute and Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan. Roger earned a Ph.D. in Nutrition from the University of California, Davis, an M.S. in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of Connecticut, and a B.S. in Biology from Lafayette Colleg
Eli L. Thomssen, Board Member
Eli is a founder and board member for notable companies such as ProNAi, Axenic, Armune, Vestaron, and most recently Adlore. Armune’s technology utilized autoantibodies created by the body’s own immune system to detect cancer and was sold in 2017 to Exact Sciences (NASDAQ: EXAS). Afmedica was sold to Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (ANPIQ), and ProNAi went public (now Sierra Oncology, NASDAQ: SRRA). Eli is also the founding member of the angel investment groups, Ka-Zoo Angels, which is affiliated with the Grand Angels (Grand Rapids, MI) and Apjohn.
Eli spent most of his career working in the animal health division of The Upjohn Company where he was the VP of Business of Business Development and Strategic Planning. Eli also served as a senior consultant at Brakke Consulting until 2001 before becoming the founding principal of the Apjohn Group. Eli has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from Western Michigan University
David Peralta, Executive Board Consultant
Dave Peralta is currently Managing Director of RDP Business Advisors, a management consulting firm for emerging technology companies. He was previously Chief Executive Officer at BlueWillow Biologics, a ventured-backed biopharmaceutical company using nanotechnology to develop next-generation treatments for allergy and infectious disease. During his tenure, BlueWillow raised over $80 million in equity financing and $90 million in research grants which led to the ongoing development of several product candidates and the commercial launch of NanoBio® Protect, a novel nasal antiseptic for the prevention of respiratory infection. Prior to BlueWillow, Dave served for three years as Chief Executive Officer at NanoBio Corporation, where he directed the company’s strategic transformation from its focus on dermatology therapies to the broadened product portfolio held by BlueWillow today.
David O'Hagan Ph.D., Founder, President, and CEO
David earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine and Genetics developing microarray technology for Genomic Solutions, that then turned into his own spin-off (Streamline Proteomics, Sloan Ventures) using microspheres to capture and analyze genomic and proteomic data. He completed his post doctoral work at the Burnham Institute (La Jolla, Ca), finally returning to Michigan to develop a novel cancer therapy for melanoma at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. David also developed several products as product manager for Stratagene (La Jolla, CA), followed by a position in sales for Sigma-Aldrich (Saint Louis MO)
Savita Nikam Ph.D. Founder and Chief Science Officer
Dr. Nikam has more than 20 years of research experience in academia and with biotechnology companies. Her expertise includes molecular biology, protein biochemistry and expression of products from mammalian, yeast and bacterial expression systems. Dr. Nikam gained extensive experience at Molecular Imaging Research (Charles River Company) in manipulating different cancer cell lines and generating reporter models for in vivo imaging of apoptosis following new cancer drug treatment. Her Ph.D. research included development of a potent viral vaccine against Japanese Encephalitis from primary chick embryo cell cultures. Dr. Nikam received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from National Institute of Virology, Pune University, India. She completed her postdoctoral research on mechanism of HIV reverse transcriptase fidelity and the kinetic basis of drug resistance at the University of Michigan.