About

Overview

Cidara is developing long-acting therapeutics designed to improve the standard of care for patients facing serious fungal or viral infections. The Company’s portfolio is comprised of new approaches aimed at transforming existing treatment and prevention paradigms, first with its lead Phase 3 antifungal candidate, rezafungin, in addition to antiviral conjugates (AVCs) targeting influenza and other viral diseases from Cidara’s proprietary Cloudbreak® antiviral platform.

Cidara is headquartered in San Diego, California and is built around the core values of collaboration, integrity, accountability, urgency and courage which foster a unique and award-winning atmosphere. In 2019, Cidara was named a San Diego Metro Area top workplace for the third consecutive year by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Leadership

Management

President and Chief Executive Officer

Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D.

Dr. Stein has been President, CEO and Director of Cidara since January 2014. Previously he was CEO of Trius Therapeutics, Inc. from 2007 until its acquisition by Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in September 2013. During his tenure, Trius developed the antibacterial drug tedizolid, which received marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2014. Tedizolid is now marketed by Merck under the name Sivextro. Dr. Stein currently serves as a Director of Paratek Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PRTK) and Ideaya Biosciences. He is also founding Chairman and President of the Antimicrobials Working Group, an industry leading 501(c)(6) organization. Previously, Dr. Stein was a Venture Partner and Kauffman Fellow with Sofinnova Ventures and opened the firm’s San Diego office in 2005. Prior to joining Sofinnova Ventures, Dr. Stein was co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Quorex Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in 2005. He has also served as a Principal Scientist with Diversa Corporation and the Agouron Institute. Dr. Stein conducted his postdoctoral research as an Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology and his graduate work as a NASA Graduate Student Researcher Fellow at the University of California, San Diego.
Chief Financial Officer

James Levine

Prior to joining Cidara, Levine held senior executive and Board roles at two biotechnology companies, Sapphire Energy and Verenium Corporation, both of which were focused on the development, manufacture and sale of products for the human and animal nutrition markets. Previously, Levine was a managing director in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs & Co. in both New York and London, where he spent 11 years focused on serving clients in the healthcare and energy industries. Levine holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Brandeis University.
Chief Medical Officer

Taylor Sandison, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Sandison has been with Cidara since October 2015. He has extensive experience in anti-infective clinical trials and drug development in both academia and industry. Prior to joining the company, he served as senior medical director at Merck and prior to that held the same position at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Sandison has also held positions at Trius Therapeutics and Novartis Diagnostics, and served as a member of the faculty in the Department of Medicine at both Stanford University and the University of Washington. He received B.S. and B.A. degrees from Dartmouth College, M.D. and M.P.H. degrees from the University of Washington, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He completed internal medicine residency training at the University of Colorado and infectious diseases fellowship training at the University of Washington. Dr. Sandison currently holds board certifications in Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine.
Chief Operating Officer

Paul Daruwala

Mr. Daruwala has over 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and leads multiple facets of Cidara’s operations and strategy, including portfolio and commercial strategy, manufacturing, medical affairs and corporate communications. Prior to joining Cidara in 2014, Mr. Daruwala was at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, where he served as Vice President of the U.S. Viral Hepatitis Franchise and was responsible for leading the U.S. launch in HCV and running the HBV business for BARACLUDE. Prior to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mr. Daruwala served as Vice President Commercial & Strategic Management at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he helped lead the U.S. launch of INCIVEK for HCV. At the time, INCIVEK became the fastest drug launch to achieve blockbuster status. Mr. Daruwala had previously spent 18 years at Merck in U.S. and global commercial leadership roles in antivirals, antifungals, anti-inflammatory products, business development and evaluation in anti-infectives and oncology, managed markets and sales management. Among these, he led the global commercialization efforts for the first approved echinocandin antifungal drug, caspofungin acetate (CANCIDAS). Paul received his degree in pharmacy from the University of Kentucky.
Chief Business Officer

Neil Abdollahian, M.S., M.B.A.

Mr. Abdollahian’s career has been focused on building companies through strategic and transformational transactions totaling over $2 billion in value. Prior to joining Cidara in 2016, Mr. Abdollahian was Managing Director of Clarity Point Partners, a strategic advisory firm focused on providing corporate development initiatives including product acquisitions and licensing for a number of biopharmaceutical companies. From 2008 to 2013, he served as Vice President of Corporate Development at Trius Therapeutics, where he led the corporate partnering initiatives that resulted in the Asia-Pacific and emerging markets strategic partnership with Bayer Healthcare, and ultimately, the acquisition by Cubist Pharmaceuticals in 2013. In 2008, Mr. Abdollahian served as Director of Special Projects in a biopharmaceutical focused investment bank in Sydney, Australia, and from 2001 to 2007, he held various business development positions focused on closing high-value transactions while at Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Isis Pharmaceuticals and Neurogen Corporation. Mr. Abdollahian holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, an M.S. in the biomedical sciences from the University of New Mexico Medical School and a B.S. in biology from the George Washington University.
General Counsel and Secretary

Jessica Oien, J.D.

Ms. Oien brings a breadth of legal experience to Cidara having served in senior legal roles across all aspects of biotech business, with significant expertise assisting companies emerging from clinical development to commercialization. Prior to joining Cidara, Ms. Oien served as Vice President, Compliance at Otonomy, Inc., where she developed and oversaw the commercial compliance program and was the legal lead for the commercial business. Ms. Oien served in similar roles as Vice President, Compliance for Pernix Therapeutics, Vice President, Legal Affairs & Compliance for Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Senior Director, Legal Affairs for Verus Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Oien provided legal consulting services for a robust clientele of early stage biotech companies providing legal support for numerous collaborations, and other research and development programs. Ms. Oien also served as Senior Director, Legal Affairs at Elan Corporation. Ms. Oien began her legal career as outside corporate counsel at national law firms including tenures at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. Ms. Oien received her J.D. from Loyola Law School and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from North Dakota State University.
Executive Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance

Carmen Betancourt, M.B.A.

Ms. Betancourt has brought over 40 years of development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to Cidara Therapeutics since 2014, leading the Regulatory Affairs strategy and overseeing the Quality Assurance function. Ms. Betancourt brings a broad regulatory expertise in drug development across multiple therapeutic areas, principally including indications focused on anti-infectives, metabolic, oncology, cardiovascular, and pulmonary, as well as broad range of product types including genetically engineered and naturally derived biological proteins, small molecules, vaccines and drug/device combination products. Prior to joining Cidara, she was the managing member and senior regulatory advisor to the pharmaceutical industry, advising clients in regulatory strategy and implementation of development programs from pre-IND through Phase 3, as well as preparation and submission U.S. and international investigational and marketing applications. Ms. Betancourt began her career in the pharmaceutical industry in 1977 where she served for 15 years at Bayer AG (Cutter Biologicals), focused primarily on international regulatory affairs with responsibility for maintaining registrations for Bayer’s commercial plasma product portfolio. She left Bayer in 1992 to take a position in international regulatory affairs at Genentech, where she was responsible for managing the international regulatory programs for PULMOZYME, HERCEPTIN and RITUXAN. She joined Coulter Pharmaceutical in 1997 and led the regulatory strategy for development and BLA filing for BEXXAR, and went on to serve as Vice President of Regulatory at Titan Pharmaceuticals, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Cerexa Inc., and Sangart. She also served as a senior regulatory advisor to BioMarin Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Betancourt holds an MBA in International Corporate Management from Golden Gate University, and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California at Davis.
Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations

Laura Navalta

Ms. Navalta has over 30 years of extensive experience in the clinical operations arena and heads Cidara Therapeutics’ clinical trials team. Prior to joining Cidara, she was responsible for leading clinical, regulatory and project management functions, while serving as Chief Operating Officer at C3 Jian Therapeutics and Novalar Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Navalta also served as Executive Director of Clinical Operations at Vical, Inc. and was responsible for all clinical trials in the oncology and infectious disease programs. She has also held management positions at Baxter Healthcare Corporation where she was the Senior Director of Global Clinical Operations, BioScience Division, overseeing the company’s global clinical studies involving coagulation disorders, biosurgery and critical care areas. Ms. Navalta has served in clinical operations senior advisory roles across multiple therapeutic areas and all phases of drug development. Ms. Navalta received her B.A. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Southern California.
Senior Vice President, Research

Les Tari, Ph.D.

Dr. Tari has over 19 years of experience in early stage drug discovery in both industry and academia. He has led a number of discovery programs and is an author or inventor on over 50 publications and patents. Previous to Cidara, Dr. Tari held positions of increasing responsibility at Trius Therapeutics from 2007 until its acquisition by Cubist Pharmaceuticals in 2013. At Trius, Dr. Tari led the efforts to generate and advance a novel class of dual-targeting broad spectrum antibacterial agents. Prior to Trius, Dr. Tari was a co-founder and Director of Structural Biology from 2003 to 2007 at ActiveSight Inc., where he led all research efforts in inflammation and oncology. From 2001 until 2003, Dr. Tari was a member of the scientific staff during the start-up phase of Syrrx Inc., where he participated in the design and development of the first industrial high-throughput structural genomics platform that aided in the discovery of Alogliptin, subsequently approved for the treatment of type II diabetes. Previous to his career in industry, Dr. Tari held an academic position as an Alberta Heritage Foundation Scholar for Medical Research at the University of Calgary, where he conducted research focused on antibiotic discovery. Dr. Tari holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Structural Biology from the University of Manitoba.

Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board

Dan Burgess

Mr. Burgess has more than 20 years of executive level experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Mr. Burgess is currently a venture partner at SV Health Investors, and serves as the Acting President, Chief Executive Officer, and a director of Therini Bio, Inc., a private vascular biology company.In 2011, he was one of the founding members of Rempex, which was subsequently acquired by The Medicines Co. in 2013 for $140M upfront, with a total potential deal value of $474M. Prior to Rempex, Mr. Burgess was President and Chief Executive Officer of Mpex Pharmaceuticals, which he joined in 2007. During his tenure as Chief Executive Officer, Mpex advanced its lead product Aeroquin from Phase 1 into Phase 3 clinical trials, raised substantial venture capital funding and ultimately achieved a successful exit in 2011 with its acquisition by Aptalis. The transaction with Aptalis was named by Scrip magazine as a finalist for “Deal of the Year”. Before joining Mpex, Mr. Burgess was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on biodefense, infectious disease and immune system disorders. Previously, he spent ten years at Gensia Sicor, Inc., which is a specialty pharmaceutical firmand was acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, where he held a variety of executive level positions with responsibility for overall finance for the company as well as a number of different operating units. Mr. Burgess received his B.A.in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Burgess was a member of the Board of Directors of Santarus, Inc. until its acquisition by Salix for $2.6B in 2013.

Timothy Franson, M.D.

Dr. Franson currently serves as a Principal in the Health and FDA Practice for Faegre Drinker Consulting. From 2014 until 2019, he served as the Chief Medical Officer of YourEncore, an advisory firm focused on global life sciences and consumer health companies. From 2009 until 2014, he was a Principal of FaegreBD Consulting, a clinical and regulatory pharmaceutical development consulting firm, which merged into Faegre Drinker in 2020. In 2008, Dr. Franson founded and served as President of Franson Pharma Advisors LLC, a clinical and regulatory pharmaceutical development consulting firm. Between 1986 and 2008, Dr. Franson held various senior leadership positions at Eli Lilly and Company. At the time of his retirement, he served as Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at Lilly Research Laboratories, an Eli Lilly subsidiary. Dr. Franson is integrally involved in global public health initiatives through the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), currently serving as the immediate past President of this organization and on the USP Board of Trustees since 2010. He serves on the Board of Directors of Paratek Pharmaceuticals and as the Board Chair for the Critical Path Institute, which collaborates with FDA and industry in innovation advances. Dr. Franson has authored more than 50 articles in the fields of infectious disease, epidemiology, pharmacoeconomics and antibiotic utilization. He holds a B.S. in Pharmacy from Drake University and an M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.

David Gollaher, Ph.D.

Dr. Gollaher is currently Head of Policy and Government Affairsat Vir Biotechnology, Inc., a role he has held since May 2019. Previously, Dr. Gollaher served as the Vice President of Global Government Affairs and Policy for Gilead Sciences from early 2014 to mid-2018, a period during
which the company launched a breakthrough cure for hepatitis C (HCV) and tripled revenues from $10 billion to $30 billion. In addition to the introduction of three novel drugs for HCV, building on Gilead’s strength in virology, he was involved in the launch of a new generation of medicines for HIV/AIDS. Before joining Gilead, Dr. Gollaher was Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officerof the California Healthcare Institute (CHI). From 1993 to 2013,he built CHI into the nation’s premier state-based life sciences policy research and advocacy association, with offices in La Jolla, Washington D.C. and Sacramento, representing some 370 biopharma, medical device and diagnostics companies, along with leading academic institutions, venture capital and professional services firms. In 2018, Dr. Gollaherwas appointed Quintiles Senior Fellow at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California. In addition, he serves on the Board of Overseers for Scripps Research. Earlier in his career, Dr. Gollaher was Vice President at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, responsible for managed care, strategy and corporate affairs. He earned his B.A. from UCSB and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees, concentrating in the History of Science and Medicine, from Harvard University.

Chrysa Mineo

Ms. Mineo led corporate development at Receptos, Inc., from 2009 to 2015, where strategic partnering efforts for Phase 3 immunology candidate ozanimod resulted in the company’s acquisition by Celgene for $7.2 billion. During her tenure,she played a key role in the Receptos initial public offering (IPO) and established product and technology collaborations with AbbVie, Ono, Lilly and Janssen. Prior to Receptos, Ms. Mineo held roles of increasing business development responsibilityat Neurocrine Biosciences from 1997 to 2009, where she led or played a primary role in negotiating and closing more than 25 transactions, including worldwide or regional product candidate collaborations from Phase 1 to registration and product in-licensing transactions. Prior to Neurocrine, Ms. Mineo served in various capacities in research, marketing and business development for such companies as Amgen, DNAX Research Institute, Schering Plough and Baxter Biotech. Ms. Mineo holds a B.S. in Zoology from theUniversity of California, Davis and received her MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Additionally, Ms. Mineo is a Co-Founder of Alume Biosciences, a member of the Director’s Council at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Ted Schroeder

Mr. Schroeder is currently Chief Executive Officer and a director of Nabriva Pharmaceuticals, a role he has held subsequent to the 2018 acquisition of Zavante Therapeutics,a company that he co-founded and served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to that,he was one of Cadence Pharmaceutical’s co-founders and served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Board of Director’s member since its inception in May 2004 until its acquisition by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals for $1.4billionin 2014. From August 2002 to February 2004, he served as Senior Vice President of North America Sales and Marketing of Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a neuroscience-based pharmaceutical company. From February 2001 to August 2002, Mr. Schroeder served as General Manager of the Hospital Products Business Unit at Elan, a position he also held at Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty respiratory pharmaceutical and pulmonary drug delivery company, from May 1999 to November 2000 until its acquisition by Elan. Prior to joining Dura, Mr. Schroeder held a number of hospital-related sales and marketing positions with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, a global
pharmaceutical company. Mr. Schroeder is the former Chairman of Biocom, a regional life science trade association. Mr. Schroeder is also a current director of Otonomy, Inc.and Collegium Pharmaceutical. Previously Mr. Schroeder served on the boards of Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Incline Therapeutics, Hyperion Therapeutics and Trius Therapeutics until their respective acquisitions. Mr. Schroeder holds a B.S. in Management from Rutgers University.

Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D.

Dr. Stein has been President, CEO and Director of Cidara since January 2014. Previously he was CEO of Trius Therapeutics, Inc. from 2007 until its acquisition by Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in September 2013. During his tenure, Trius developed the antibacterial drug tedizolid, which received marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2014. Tedizolid is now marketed by Merck under the name Sivextro. Dr. Stein currently serves as a Director of Paratek Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PRTK) and Ideaya Biosciences. He is also founding Chairman and President of the Antimicrobials Working Group, an industry leading 501(c)(6) organization. Previously, Dr. Stein was a Venture Partner and Kauffman Fellow with Sofinnova Ventures and opened the firm’s San Diego office in 2005. Prior to joining Sofinnova Ventures, Dr. Stein was co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Quorex Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in 2005. He has also served as a Principal Scientist with Diversa Corporation and the Agouron Institute. Dr. Stein conducted his postdoctoral research as an Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology and his graduate work as a NASA Graduate Student Researcher Fellow at the University of California, San Diego.

Scientific Advisors

Frederick G. Hayden, M.D., FACP

Stuart S. Richardson Professor Emeritus of Clinical Virology

University of Virginia School of Medicine

Professor Emeritus of Medicine

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

Michael G. Ison, M.D., MS, FIDSA, FAST

Professor, Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Organ Transplantation

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Medical Director, Transplant & Immunocompromised Host Infectious Diseases Service

Northwestern University Comprehensive Transplant Center, Chicago, USA

Johan A. Maertens, M.D., Ph.D., FECCM

Professor of Internal Medicine and Hematology, Acute Leukemia and Transplantation Unit

University Hospitals Leuven

Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation

KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Kieren Marr, M.D., M.B.A.

Professor of Medicine and Oncology

Director, Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases Program

Vice Chair for Innovation in Healthcare Implementation, Dept of Medicine

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA

Partnerships

Cidara and Mundipharma have a strategic partnership to develop and commercialize rezafungin for the treatment and prevention of invasive fungal disease in all markets outside of the U.S. and Japan, which are retained by Cidara.

Mundipharma is a global network of privately-owned independent associated companies whose purpose is to move medicine forward. Mundipharma strives for innovation and commercial excellence to create value for patients, payers, and the wider healthcare systems across important therapeutic areas.

Inquiries

Cidara welcomes inquiries regarding potential opportunities for collaboration across discovery, development and commercialization. For more details, please fill out the form below or email:
info@cidara.com.