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About

Velcura Senior Management Team

Since opening in late 2002, Velcura has recruited a management team that has raised $11 million for operational expenses and identified, acquired and brought a bone-building therapy to the point of human clinical trials.

Velcura’s management has also negotiated an exclusive license for its intellectual property from the University of Michigan, and an exclusive license from Nippon Chemiphar, Tokyo, Japan, for world-wide rights to a family of compounds that stimulate human bone formation.

Velcura has submitted its first IND and is actively planning a series of clinical trials for 2008. Velcura’s senior management team has considerable experience in science, drug R&D, business development and regulatory affairs. Taken as a whole, Velcura’s management has all the necessary experience to execute drug development, including commercialization and product roll-out.

Michael Long, Ph.D., President and CEO

Dr. Long has extensive biopharmaceutical sector experience, having served as an advisor for startup and leading biotechnology firms as well as major pharmaceutical firms. Exemplifying this, he worked with a later-stage biotechnology company to improve its scientific presentations in preparation for an IPO and played a key role in the company’s subsequent acquisition — valued in excess of $500 million. Dr. Long has raised over $20 million in non-dilutive capital for Velcura since its inception.

Dr. Long’s organizational management experience includes the direction of large, for-profit clinical laboratories as well as research laboratories. He holds a certificate in negotiation from Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and has broad experience in equity-based licensing and intellectual property agreements. He also oversees the joint steering committee for the Nippon Chemiphar / Velcura Strategic Alliance.

Dr. Long also has 29 years of experience with the $300 million non-profit Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This includes serving as a Director since 1997, and six years on its Executive Operating Committee. He currently chairs the Society’s Therapy Acceleration program that invests in for-profit and non-profit enterprises developing therapies for blood disease. This association has provided experience in corporate oversight, fundraising, strategic planning, investment and due diligence, and legal affairs.

Dr. Long has worked in the area of cell and molecular biology for more than three decades and received more than $32 million in funding for his research, much of which was directed towards drug discovery and product development. During his career, Dr. Long has served on multiple national grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health and has reviewed grant applications for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, American Cancer Society and other national organizations. He has been a reviewer for Science, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, and over two dozen other scientific publications. He is often invited to speak at national scientific conferences and is the author of over 70 scientific publications.

Richard D. Dyer, Ph.D., Executive Vice President Product Development

Dr. Dyer has over 27 years of research in pharmaceutical discovery experience. Prior to joining Velcura, Dr. Dyer was Vice President of Scientific Affairs and Development at TCH Pharmaceuticals, where he planned and coordinated the development of novel inhibitors of NF-kB processing.

Before TCH, he was at Pfizer Global Research and Development (formerly Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research Division, Warner-Lambert Company) where he served in a number of leadership positions. As Director of Inflammation Molecular Sciences and Technologies, his administrative role in Pharmaceutical Discovery carried both line management and discovery research responsibilities. In the area of Line Management, Dr. Dyer coordinated and managed the establishment of the Inflammation Molecular Sciences Department. He also managed the establishment of a Biochemistry Department focused on mechanistic research overlapping multiple drug discovery strategies and initiated in-house molecular virology research and high capacity robotics screening.

Jeffery Fellows, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs

Mr. Fellows has 20 years' experience in Regulatory Affairs. Most recently, Mr. Fellows was at Cell Therapeutics, Inc. where he was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. He headed the global regulatory affairs function for the oncology-focused company and developed global corporate regulatory development strategies.

Prior to CTI, he was the Director of Regulatory Affairs (Global Regulatory Team Leader) at Amgen Inc. Mr Fellows was also a member of Amgen’s Corporate Global Product Strategy Teams for early and late stage development compounds (Endocrine, Inflammation, Neurology), as well as the Lead Global Regulatory Teams (US, Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan). Functionally, these teams developed global product development strategies and implemented regional registration strategies. During his time at Amgen, Mr. Fellows led numerous new product approvals and line extensions and had overall responsibility for all of Amgen’s regulatory submissions and was responsible for overall staff and department development. He was responsible for day-to-day running and planning of the Regulatory Affairs department and led the team responsible for designing and implementing a major department reorganization in support of a corporate focus on global commercialization. He also led the Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Safety integration team for a major acquisition. Prior to Amgen, he was at Synergen, Inc. and NeoRx., Inc.

Daniel Chagnovich, Ph.D., Vice President Corporate Development and Acting Director of Research

Dr. Chagnovich has over a decade of research and pharmaceutical industry experience. He directs Velcura research operations and is the product development team leader for VEL-0230. He is responsible for Velcura’s strategic research planning. His oversight of Research Operations includes managing Velcura’s research laboratories, information technology infrastructure, and hiring and managing their personnel. Dr. Chagnovich is also the Project Manager for Velcura’s Clinical Trials Program. This involves management and oversight on all of the outsourced components of this operation (e.g., trial site, analytical service providers, etc.), as well as regulatory responsibilities in the science components of our FDA filings.

Prior to joining Velcura, he was in the Drug Discovery Program at Pfizer Global Research and Development in the Molecular Sciences & Technologies Division. While at Pfizer, he was Team Leader and Bioinformatics Lead for target discovery in Cardiovascular Disease. He also was Co-leader on Pfizer’s genome annotation database, a global genomics tool.

Previous to Pfizer, Dr. Chagnovich was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Associate at the Skirball Institute in New York, where he had completed his post-doctoral training. Dr. Chagnovich is an MBA candidate with a focus on Entrepreneurial Studies and Corporate Strategy at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He is also a Health Care Fellow with the Frankel Commercialization Fund, a student-led early-stage investment fund.

Linda Thompson, Director of Finance

Ms. Thompson has more than 20 years experience in leading businesses in their accounting, administrative and operations functions. She has extensive experience in assisting startup and high-growth companies to build their financial infrastructure, including implementation and support of all financial reporting requirements.

Previously, she was at Vector Research, an information technology services company, where she served as the company’s controller. During her tenure there, she was an integral part of Vector's annual budget preparations, tracking and reporting programs. Prior to Vector, Ms. Thompson was a senior auditor at the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

Ms. Thompson is a Certified Public Accountant and received her bachelors in business administration from Eastern Michigan University.