About us
Advisors
Carlos Garcia-Echeverria
Dr. Carlos Garcia-Echeverria is an accomplished drug discovery scientist and executive, focused on bringing new therapies to patients in need.
Carlos has provided scientific leadership to drug discovery and early clinical development teams across different modalities and diseases most recently at Sanofi as Chief Operating Officer of Research and at Novartis as Executive Director, Oncology Drug Discovery Head. Carlos has also broad experience in managing research partnerships. His research accomplishments are documented by 190 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and review papers, and 45 granted patents.
Carlos holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Barcelona and received the Leonidas Zerwas Award from the European Peptide Society in recognition of his outstanding contributions to peptide science. Carlos is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of several biotech companies.
Volker Geiss
Dr. Volker Geiss, DVM is an experienced toxicologic pathologist and toxicologist with about 30 years of experience in preclinical safety and drug development.
He is currently working as an independent expert consultant to Pharma and Biotech. Volker built a successful career at Bayer AG taking roles of increasing responsibility to become Head of Experimental Toxicology. He has broad experience with Health Authority interactions and has been instrumental in helping to define the toxicology and regulatory strategy of many pre-clinical programs at Entry-into-Human and clinical programs seeking Marketing Authorization.
Volker has worked across a range of different indications but has significant depth of expertise with cardiovascular drugs with successful approvals of Xarelto® and Adempas®. Volker is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine with a Specialization in Veterinary Pathology from The University of Giessen, Germany.
Ivor Elrifi
Dr. Ivor Elrifi is the chair of Cooley’s global patent counselling and prosecution practice group.
He advises pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life sciences and medical device companies, research institutions, universities, hospitals and governments throughout the world, particularly in the US and Europe. His practice includes patent prosecution, litigation, arbitration, licensing and transactional work with a focus on novel therapeutic treatments, biotechnology, genetics, diagnostics, biomarkers, drug formulations and medical devices.