Albert Cha, M.D., Ph.D., is a Managing Partner who invests in private and public biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Albert draws on his scientific, medical, and operating experience when working with his portfolio companies.
He was an investor in Ceptaris Therapeutics (acquired by Actelion), Neomend (acquired by Bard), Vicept Therapeutics (acquired by Allergan), Bioform Medical (BFRM, acquired by Merz), Biodel (BIOD), and Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ASPV, acquired by Galenica). Albert was also involved in founding NextWave Pharmaceuticals and Prestwick Pharmaceuticals. Other investments include YM Biosciences (YMI), Dynavax Technologies (DVAX), Avanir Pharmaceuticals (AVNR), Acura Pharmaceuticals (ACUR), and AMAG Pharmaceuticals (AMAG). He currently serves on the board of several private biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Albert has also served as co-founder of several portfolio companies. Prior to joining Vivo, Albert worked at Oracle Corporation in pharmaceutical consulting and at the Palo Alto VA Hospital as a biomedical engineer.
Albert received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He subsequently completed the Medical Scientist Training Program at UCLA School of Medicine, where he received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience. During his studies, he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and won the prestigious Outstanding Graduate Student Award. His research in molecular biophysics has been published in highly respected journals such as Nature and Neuron.
John Doux, M.D. obtained a B.S. with distinction and an M.D. from Stanford University, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow performing research in the laboratory of Dr. David Woodley. After an internship at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, he returned to Stanford to complete his residency training in dermatology. He also completed an M.B.A. at the Wharton School of Business where he was a Palmer Scholar. He is board certified in dermatology and maintains an active clinical practice. Since 2004 he has also served as an analyst at Palo Alto Investors, an investment fund specializing in healthcare with $1B in assets under management.
William Ju, M.D. is a board-certified dermatologist who has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including dermatology. Dr. Ju has been president and chief executive officer of Follica, Inc. and chief operating officer at PTC Therapeutics, Inc. In addition, he has held executive positions at Pharmacia Corporation and Merck Research Laboratories in a broad spectrum of product development functions. Dr. Ju served as project leader for SUTENT®, introduced CANCIDAS® into humans, and was part of the registration team for CRIXIVAN®. Dr. Ju began his pharmaceutical career at Hoffmann-La Roche where he was a clinical leader for the development of dermatology compounds. Before entering industry, he was a senior staff fellow in basic research in the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology and was affiliated with the Dermatology Branch at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Ju obtained his M.D. with Alpha Omega Alpha honors at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his A.B. with Phi Beta Kappa honors at Princeton University. He is the president and a trustee of Advancing Innovation in Dermatology.
Dr. Neal Walker is the President & Chief Executive Officer at Aclaris. He is a board certified dermatologist and serial entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to founding Aclaris, he was co-founder, President and CEO of Vicept Therapeutics (acquired by Allergan). Dr. Walker has co-founded and led a number of life science companies: Octagon Research Solutions, a software and services provider to biopharmaceutical companies (acquired by Accenture); Trigenesis Therapeutics, a specialty dermatology company where he served as Chief Medical Officer (acquired by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories); Cutix Inc., a commercial dermatology company that markets PreSun®, a sunscreen brand acquired from Bristol-Myers Squibb. He began his pharmaceutical industry career at Johnson and Johnson. Dr. Walker currently serves as a Director on the Board of Sebacia, Inc. He previously served on the Board of Directors for Octagon. He is also on the Advisory Board of Flexible Medical Systems. Dr. Walker received his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Frederick Beddingfield III, M.D., Ph.D. is a board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon who was appointed CMO of Kythera Biopharmaceuticals in March, 2013. Prior to his appointment at Kythera, he held the role of Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head, Dermatology and Aesthetics at Allergan, Inc. Dr. Beddingfield has experience working on premiere products in the dermatology and aesthetics industry, including Allergan’s BOTOX® Cosmetic, JUVEDERM® and LATISSE®, all market-leading aesthetic treatments in their respective categories. During his tenure at Allergan, Dr. Beddingfield served in several roles, including Chief Medical Officer, Allergan Medical, and Global Team Leader of several brands, including Botox Facial Aesthetics, Botox Hyperhidrosis, Dermal Fillers and Botox Spasticity and was responsible for research programs including acne, rosacea, and hair loss. Earlier in his career, he held a full-time faculty position at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Division of Dermatology, where he continues to maintain a practice and academic appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine. Dr. Beddingfield earned an M.D. degree with honors from the University of North Carolina and a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from RAND Graduate School of Policy Studies.
Seth Orlow, M.D., Ph.D. has over 25 years of experience in medicine, science, and finance. As a faculty member at New York University, Dr. Orlow rose to become Chair of its leading dermatology department. He serves as a Senior Advisor with Pharus Advisors, focused on strategic transactional/investment banking advisory services in the dermatology and personal care sectors. In 1995 he co-founded Anaderm, a dermatologic discovery company backed by Pfizer and OSI Pharmaceuticals. He participated in the sale of Anaderm to Pfizer in 2002. From 2001-2010, he rose from Advisor to Partner with Easton Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on healthcare and consumer products. At Easton, he was involved in the sourcing, diligence, funding, oversight and exit of investments in many healthcare companies such as Acorda, Conor Medsystems, Protez, Salmedix and Transave. Dr. Orlow has licensed technologies to companies ranging from Pfizer to SkinMedica. An author of over 200 medical/scientific publications, he is an internationally sought-after speaker and thought leader. A graduate of Harvard in Biochemical Sciences and with an M.D.-Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Orlow trained in Pediatrics and Dermatology at Mt. Sinai and Yale.
Dr. Philippe Andres is the Director of Early Development at Galderma R&D, a department in charge of drug design support (Early-ADMET), formulation prototypes (Early formulation), non-clinical and clinical evaluation of new concepts (Cutaneous PK and Early Clinical Evaluation) as well as scientific assessment of external opportunities (R&D licensing). He is a board certified dermatologist with 15 years’ experience in pharmaceutical industry.
Prior to coming to Galderma, he was the head of the clinical unit in a phase 1 center located in Lyon, France.
He began his career at Galderma in 2001 as medical expert in R&D, and then became global project leader for the development of several products in the US, in EU and in Japan. In 2006 he created the Early clinical evaluation group, a unit dedicated to clinical proof of concept studies with the objective of accelerating the test of innovative research concepts in Human being and supporting new targets identification.
Dr. Whitcup is the Executive Vice President, R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Allergan. Previously, Dr. Whitcup was Senior Vice President and Head of the Ophthalmology Therapeutic Area at Allergan. He is on the faculty at the Jules Stein Eye Institute/David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and also serves as a Director on the Board of Avanir Pharmaceuticals and Questcor Pharmaceuticals and as a member of the Biology Chair's Council at Caltech.
Dr. Whitcup graduated from Cornell University Medical College and completed residency training both in internal medicine at UCLA Medical Center and in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary-Harvard Medical School. He then received fellowship training in uveitis and ocular immunology at the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to coming to Allergan, Dr. Whitcup was Clinical Director of the National Eye Institute, and also served as head of the Clinical Branch and Director of the uveitis and ocular immunology fellowship program. Dr. Whitcup also served as Chair of the NIH Medical Executive Committee.
Dr. Whitcup currently directs Allergan's drug discovery efforts, medical device research, and the worldwide clinical development programs that include ophthalmology, neurosciences, dermatology, plastic surgery, and urology. He is also in charge of Allergan's global medical affairs organization. Dr. Whitcup is also an author on over 150 scientific articles, book chapters, and a textbook on ocular inflammatory disease.