Committed to Bettering the Lives of People in Pain

Robert Dworkin, Ph.D.

Robert Dworkin, Ph.D., is a professor of anesthesiology, neurology, oncology and psychiatry, and director of the Anesthesiology Clinical Research Center at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Robert’s research has been funded by the National Institute of Health, the Department of Defense and various pharmaceutical companies. In particular, with funding from the FDA, Robert is examining studies and other efforts to improve the efficacy of analgesic clinical trials with the support of ACTTION public-private partnership, in which he also serves as director. Additionally, Robert is the associate editor of Pain, on the editorial board for both the Journal of Pain and the Current Pain and Headache Reports, and is a professional advisory board member for the American Chronic Pain Association. He is also the recipient of numerous awards such as the Mitchell B. Max Award for Neuropathic Pain by the American Academy of Neurology, the John and Emma Bonica Public Service Award by the American Pain Society and the John J. Bonica Award of the Eastern Pain Association. Robert received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Tony Yaksh, M.D. Ph.D.

Tony Yaksh, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor in anesthesiology and pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego, where he is also vice chairman for research in anesthesiology and co-director of the Pain and Symptom Management Core at the UCSD Regional Cancer Center. His lab has been noted for its achievements in being the first to publish data on the effects of spinal baclofen, conducting the preclinical evaluations of analgesic actions of conopeptides in support of the clinical development of Prialt and for providing the pivotal data lead-in to the IND for Depofoam morphine for epidural use. Tony is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Society of Anesthesiologists Award for Excellence in Research, the Bonica Award from the International Association for the Study of Pain and most recently, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Neuromodulation Society. Tony obtained his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University before serving in the United States Army, working in the biomedical laboratory at Edgewood Arsenal.

Nathaniel Katz, M.D., M.S.

Nathaniel Katz, M.D., M.S., is internationally recognized for his expertise in pain management, analgesic clinical trials, and investigations focusing on opioids and risk management. As president and founder of Analgesic Solutions, Nathaniel established the company with the mission of modernizing the design and conduct of pain clinical trials to advance the scientific quality of pain clinical research and to empower effective treatments for patients. Prior to founding Analgesic Solutions, Nathaniel was a staff neurologist in the Pain Management Center of Brigham & Women’s hospital where he also founded the Pain Trials Center, a clinical analgesic research unit. He also founded the Pain & Symptom Management Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In addition to having served on numerous scientific advisory boards, Nathaniel has served as chairman to the Advisory Committee of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Addition Products Division of the FDA, as well as to the National Initiative on Pain Control. He is currently an adjunct assistant professor of Anesthesia at Tufts University School of Medicine and an active member of IMMPACT (Initiative on Methods, Measurements, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials). Nathaniel completed his neurology residency at Tufts New England Medical Center and later entered a pain management fellowship in the Department of Anesthesia at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and his M.S. in biostatistics from Columbia University.

Steve Cohen, M.D.

Steven Cohen, M.D., is a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, and the director of the Blaustein Pain Treatment Center, Medical Education and Quality Improvement Pain Management Division at Johns Hopkins. He also acts as director of pain research at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Steven’s major contributions to pain research include the development of an FDA approved technique for treating sacroiliac joint pain (lateral branch radiofrequency denervation), inventing the intravenous ketamine test to help guide treatment in patients with chronic pain and performing the first studies evaluating the epidural administration of biological agents for pain. In 2014, Steven was listed as one of the top 10 experts in the world for back pain based on quantitative analysis of publications. In addition to his academic work, Steven is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army. He serves as the Reserve Liaison to the Pain Management Consultants to the U.S. Army and Navy Surgeons General, and previously served as an inaugural member of the U.S. Army Medical Advisory Board. His research was instrumental in the passing of the Military Pain Care Act of 2008. Steven received his medical degree at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, completed an anesthesiology residency at Columbia University and a pain management fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Duncan Lascelles, BVSc, Ph.D.

Duncan Lascelles, BVCs, Ph.D., is a professor of small animal surgery, director of integrated pain management service, director of the Comparative Pain Research Laboratory and the associate director of the Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research at North Carolina State University. His research is focused on developing algometry methods in spontaneous disease animal models and probing tissues from well-phenotyped animals to better understand the neurobiology. The aim of such research is to improve pain control in companion animals and facilitate analgesic development in human medicine. Dr. Lascelles is board certified in small animal surgery by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the European College of Veterinary Surgeons and the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. Dr. Lascelles completed a Ph.D. in aspects of pre-emptive/perioperative analgesic at the University of Bristol, U.K., after graduating from their veterinary program. He went on to complete his surgical residency at the University of Cambridge, U.K., followed by a fellowship in oncological surgery at Colorado State University.

Philip Conaghan, MBBS, Ph.D., FRACP, FRCP

Professor Philip Conaghan MBBS PhD FRACP FRCP is Professor of Musculoskeletal Medicine & Director of the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Leeds. He is a Rheumatologist and Deputy Director of the UK National Institute for Health Research Leeds Biomedical Research Centre for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. He is also Director of an Arthritis Research UK Experimental Osteoarthritis Treatment Centre in Leeds. His research spans early translational studies through large late-phase clinical trials, with major interests in understanding pathogenesis and therapeutic response for common arthritides, especially osteoarthritis. He is an executive member of the international outcomes group OMERACT, was inaugural Chair of the EULAR Standing Committee on Musculoskeletal Imaging and was Chair of UK NICE OA clinical guidance in 2008 and 2014. He is on a number of editorial boards, is co-editor of the most recent Oxford Textbook of Rheumatology and has authored over 500 publications as original research, reviews and book chapters.

Sol Barer, Ph.D.

Chairman

Sol Barer, Ph.D. is a founder and chairman of the board of directors of Centrexion Therapeutics. Sol brings more than 30 years of experience in the biotechnology industry. He is the managing partner of SJBarer Consulting and was a founder of Celgene, a global biopharmaceutical company. From 1987 to 2011, Sol led Celgene in various executive roles, including president, COO and CEO. He also served as the executive chairman and chairman of the company’s board of directors. Sol currently serves as chairman of the board of Teva Pharmaceutricals, Edge Therapeutics, Inc. and Aevi Genomic Medicine. He is also lead director of Contrafect Corp. He is also the Founding Chair of the Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery & Innovation and is associated with Barer & Son LLC which invests in early stage breakthrough biotechnology companies. Sol holds a B.S. from Brooklyn College and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Rutgers University.

Jeffrey B. Kindler

Chief Executive Officer

Jeff Kindler joined Centrexion Therapeutics as the chief executive officer in 2013. He brings more than three decades of business experience and has held leadership positions at some of the world’s most recognized companies. Jeff is also executive chair of vTv Therapeutics, venture partner at Lux Capital, managing director at Starboard Capital and the global chair for the GLG Institute. Prior to joining Centrexion, Jeff was the chairman and CEO of Pfizer, the world’s largest research-based biopharmaceutical company. As CEO, he led Pfizer’s $68 billion merger and acquisition of Wyeth, diversified its product portfolio, improved its research and development pipeline, and reshaped the company’s commercial, innovation and leadership models to drive growth and cultural change. Earlier in his career, Jeff served as the executive vice president and general counsel for McDonald’s Corporation and was the vice president of litigation and legal policy for the General Electric Company. Prior to GE, Jeff practiced civil and criminal litigation as a Partner of William & Connolly. Jeff holds a B.A. from Tufts University and a J.D. from Harvard University.

James N. Campbell, M.D.

President, Chief Scientific Officer

James Campbell, M.D. is a founder, president and chief scientific officer of Centrexion Therapeutics. Jim is Professor Emeritus of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific studies in the field of pain research, which have been recognized through many national honors. In 1996, Jim was president of the American Pain Society. Prior to joining Centrexion, he served as the CEO of Arcion Therapeutics, a biotech company developing topical products for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Earlier in his career, he served as the CEO for Vallinex, Inc. He served as the founder of the American Pain Foundation and was chairman of the board for ten years. He also served as board observer and co-founder of CNS Therapeutics, and was co-founder and on the board of directors of Amplimmune. Jim holds a B.A. in psychology with high honors and high distinction from the University of Michigan, and received his M.D. from Yale University. He received his training in Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery.

Colin Hill

Director

Colin Hill is a leading voice in healthcare technology and precision medicine and brings impressive leadership experience in commercializing machine learning technologies in the biopharmaceutical and managed care industries. He co-founded GNS Healthcare, a leading AI-driven precision medicine company, in 2000 and has since served as CEO.  In 2020 the company launched Gemini — The in silico Patient™ a highly accurate computer model of disease.

Colin is a founding board member of TMed (Transforming Medicine: The Elizabeth Kauffman Institute), a non-profit foundation (501c3) dedicated to the advancement of personalized medicine, a founding member of the Board of Directors of AesRx, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of new treatments for sickle cell disease (acquired by Baxter in 2014), and was founding chairman of O’Reilly Media’s Strata Rx in 2012, the first healthcare big data conference in the industry.  In 2016, he was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to the Massachusetts Digital Health Council.

Randall Stevens, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Randall Stevens, M.D. joined Centrexion Therapeutics as the chief medical officer in April 2015. Randall is a board-certified internist and rheumatologist with more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical medicine. Prior to joining Centrexion, he served as the corporate vice president, head of inflammation and immunology clinical development for Celgene Corporation. Earlier in his career, Randall spent 11 years at F. Hoffmann La Roche where he was a global leader in inflammation and immunology clinical research. In total, Randall has played an integral role in bringing five drugs to market. Additionally, he has been a clinical professor of medicine at Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine since 1990 and a board member for Outcome Measures Rheumatic Clinical Trails (OMERACT) since 2007. Randall has authored or co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications. He holds a B.A. in chemistry and Spanish, and a M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Mike Ward

Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operations Officer

Mike Ward joined Centrexion Therapeutics as CFO in 2019. He brings more than 25 years of experience, predominantly as an investment banker focused on life sciences and as both CFO and CBO of public and private life sciences companies. Prior to joining Centrexion, Mike served as CFO and CBO of Bionano Genomics, a NASDAQ-listed life sciences company. Prior to Bionano Genomics, Mike served as Executive Director of the Private Equity team of Lurie Investment Fund with a focus on life sciences investments. As an investment banker, Mike completed over 100 life sciences financings and M&A transactions (including nearly 20 IPOs) at Leerink Partners, Credit Suisse, BMO, Wasserstein and Prudential Securities. Mike has also served on the board of directors of public and private life sciences companies, including Nanosphere, CytoPherx, Aperion Biologics and Impact Health. Mike graduated summa cum laude (highest distinction) from the University of Illinois in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in Finance with a concentration in Accounting.

Colleen Newman

Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Operations

Colleen joined Centrexion in May 2021 as Vice President, Head of Clinical Operations. An experienced Pharmaceutical and Biotech Executive Leader with 30-years in Clinical Research, Colleen has held positions of increasing responsibility from Early Development to Post-Marketing in Clinical Operations, Clinical Science, and Clinical Quality, including extensive global NDA/BLA submission experience resulting in the successful approvals of 11 drugs and 1 cardiac device. Prior to joining Centrexion, Colleen was the Vice President, Head Clinical Operations and Clinical Quality at Editas Medicine. Colleen has also held Clinical Research, Operations, and Quality roles at Celgene Corporation, Merck, Schering-Plough Research Institute, Novartis, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson, incorporating a wide range of therapeutic experience including Oncology, Pain, Inflammation and Immunology, Women’s Health, Infectious Disease, Rare Disease, Gene Therapy, and Cardiac Devices. Colleen is a Registered Nurse and received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Northeastern University.

Jonathan Guerriero

Chief Development Operations Officer

Jonathan joined Centrexion in June 2019 bringing two decades of leadership, program development and clinical operations experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Jonathan has held positions of increasing responsibility leading development programs in early phase through post-approval, starting up and managing clinical operations functions, and working in clinical development. Prior to joining Centrexion, Jonathan served as the Executive Director of Clinical Operations at Akcea Therapeutics where he was responsible for building an infrastructure and managing multiple drug development program clinical trials through registration. Before Akcea, Jonathan held positions at Synageva, Radius Health, and EMD Serono. Jonathan also has been appointed a Visiting Scholar at Boston College’s Connell School of Nursing where he has been teaching clinical research programs since 2006.

Arnie Oronsky, Ph.D.

Director

Arnie Oronsky, Ph.D. was a founder and board member of Centrexion Therapeutics. Arnie served as a general partner and managing director at InterWest Partners LLC, a venture capital firm. Earlier in his career, Arnie led pharmaceutical research as vice president for discovery research for the Lederle Laboratories division of American Cyanamid Company. He was a board member of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation, Drais Pharmaceuticals, Dynavax Technologies, EpicentRx, Integrated Diagnostics, PMV Pharma, Potenza Therapeutics, Sera Prognostics, TESARO and Tizona Therapeutics. Arnie held a B.A. degree from New York University, a Ph.D. in Immunology from Columbia University and was a senior lecturer at Johns Hopkins Medical School.

Joseph R. Swedish

Director

Joseph R. Swedish is the former Chairman, President and CEO of Anthem, Inc, (currently Elevance Health) a Fortune 22 company and the nation’s leading health benefits provider. This became the foundation for Elevance Health today serving nearly 47.3 million members – or one in seven Americans – through its affiliated health plans, and over 117 million individuals across 33 states through its broad portfolio of health insurance and service subsidiaries.

He served as the Chairman, President and CEO from 2013 to 2018. Subsequently he served as a Strategic Advisor from 2018 to 2020. During his tenure Anthem’s membership grew by four million, or 11 percent, the average share price nearly quadrupled, and operating revenue increased 39 percent to over $89 billion. Core strategic imperatives included improving medical costs, working with physicians and health care organizations to improve quality and access, and improving the consumer experience.

As a business executive, conservationist, and philanthropist, Joe serves on the board of directors for CDW, Mesoblast – as Chairman, Centrexion Therapeutics, Accelus and Navitus Health Solutions. Most recently, he served on the board of directors for IBM, as chairman of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and chairman of the Catholic Health Association. He currently serves as a board member for The Nature Conservancy (Colorado). He has also held board and advisory positions with American Hospital Association, Coventry Health Care, Inc., RehabCare Group, Inc., Cross Country, National Quality Forum, the National Center for Healthcare Leadership, and Loyola University Chicago. He is also a member and past chairman of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Board of Visitors.

Prior to joining Anthem, Joe served as CEO for several major integrated health care delivery systems, including president and CEO of Trinity Health, an 18-state integrated health care delivery system. He also held CEO and senior leadership positions with the Hospital Corporation of America, Colorado’s Centura Health, and integrated health systems in Florida, Virginia, and the Carolinas.

In 2018, he continued to apply his expertise leveraging his extensive health care experience as co-founder of Concord Health Partners, a private equity firm investing in data analytics, provider enablement services and consumer engagement enterprises. He is now Partner Emeritus having recently departed active status.

More broadly, he has built a reputation as a trend-setter by leveraging value-creating assets through high-performing governance, creative strategies, consumer marketing, clinical innovations, and mergers/acquisitions – all efforts focused on organization renewal and growth.

For 12 years in a row, Modern Healthcare named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, ranking in the top 20 of the health sector’s most senior-level executives, high-level government administrators, elected officials, academics, and thought-leaders for five consecutive years.

He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and his master’s degree in health administration from Duke University.

Shawn Tomasello

Director

Shawn Tomasello joined the Centrexion Therapeutics board of directors in 2017. With over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Shawn currently serves as chief commercial officer of Kite Pharma. Prior to her role at Kite Pharma, Shawn served as chief commercial officer at Pharmacyclics, Inc., preceding its acquisition by AbbVie, Inc. She also held various senior leadership roles at Celgene Corporation, including president of the Americas, hematology and oncology. Earlier in her career, Shawn held positions at Genentech, Pfizer Laboratories, Miles Pharmaceuticals and Procter & Gamble. She currently serves on the board of Oxford BioTherapeutics and Diplomat Rx. Shawn received her B.S. in marketing from the University of Cincinnati and her MBA from Murray State University.