Chief Executive Officer
Lawrence C. Fritz
Lawrence C. Fritz is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the industry. Prior to joining Auspex he was Founder, President and CEO of Covella Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on inflammatory diseases. Covella was acquired in 2010 by Santarus, Inc. Prior to Covella, he founded Conforma Therapeutics and served as its President and CEO from inception through its acquisition by Biogen Idec in 2006. Conforma focused on the discovery and development of novel small-molecule drugs for cancer therapy. Dr. Fritz was also a founder and Director of Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharma cancer company spun-out from Conforma; Cabrellis was subsequently acquired by Pharmion Corporation. Prior to Conforma, Dr. Fritz co-founded both Athena Neurosciences, now wholly-owned by Elan Corporation, and Idun Pharmaceuticals, subsequently acquired by Pfizer. In addition to his work in private biotechnology companies, Dr.
Chief Operating Officer
Andreas Sommer
Andreas Sommer, PhD joined the company following a successful 20-year career as a senior executive within both public and private biotechnology firms where he provided both executive operational and research leadership. Employed by Celtrix Pharmaceuticals, initially as senior Vice President Research and then as that company’s President and CEO, Dr. Sommer led a successful merger with Insmed, Inc. in association with an $80 million financing, leading to a multi-product company which saw its valuation increase from $300 million to over $900 million. Following the merger, as Chief Scientific Officer of Insmed, Dr. Sommer oversaw the NDA submission of Celtrix’s novel and complex recombinant protein Iplex to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, resulting in its subsequent marketing approval, as well as four successful new orphan drug applications to the FDA and EMEA. He began his industry career as Vice President, Research and Development for BioGrowth, Inc. Dr.
Director
Pratik Shah
Pratik joined Thomas, McNerney & Partners in 2004 and is currently a board member of Auspex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cebix Incorporated, Ocera Therapeutics, Inc. (OCRX) and SGB, Inc. He was also a board member at CNS Therapeutics, Inc.
Prior to joining the firm, he was the Chief Business Officer and co-founder of Kalypsys, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and clinical development of new medicines for cancer, inflammation and metabolic disease using its proprietary automation technologies.
Before co-founding Kalypsys, Pratik was at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on biotechnology and venture capital projects. He was formerly co-founder and VP of Operations at NephRx Corporation, a start-up company focused on the discovery of therapeutic proteins for renal disease.
Chief Financial Officer
R. Gary Gilmore
David A. Stamler
Dr. David A. Stamler joined Auspex after more than 15 years of drug development experience and executive leadership within the pharmaceutical industry. Before joining Auspex, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Xenoport, Inc., where he led clinical development activities for the portfolio of CNS compounds. Prior to Xenoport, Dr. Stamler was Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Drug Development for Prestwick Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he led clinical and non-clinical development activities and was responsible for the FDA approval of Xenazine. Prior to Prestwick, Dr. Stamler held positions of increasing responsibility with Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Company, the most recent of which were Senior Global Project Leader for CNS Diseases and Vice President of Research and Development, Medical Sciences for their U.S. subsidiary, Fujisawa Healthcare, Inc. Dr.