About Us

Evecxia Therapeutics was founded by the late professor Marc Caron, PhD and Jacob Jacobsen, PhD, two neuropharmacologists from Duke University. Dr. Jacobsen’s unique insight was that brain serotonin synthesis amplification by 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) had shown intriguing evidence of clinical efficacy in a range of brain disorders - despite no appropriate 5-HTP drug product being available, and despite 5-HTP being too short-acting and poorly absorbed in the human body to be a practical drug treatment. Dr. Jacobsen hypothesized that 5-HTP’s drug properties would be markedly improved if 5-HTP's duration of action was prolonged and 5-HTP’s absorption improved. Subsequent translational studies in Dr. Caron’s laboratory provided compelling evidence for this hypothesis. The resultant intellectual property and know-how formed the foundation for Evecxia.

 

Evecxia Therapeutics is the first company dedicated to realizing the therapeutic potential of serotonin synthesis amplification to enable people with mental illness lead fuller, more meaningful lives.

Our Values

Serving Patients

Substantial evidence suggests that appropriate 5-HTP-based Rx drugs could improve the lives of millions of patients with mental disorders not helped by current treatments. Working tirelessly to advance our drug candidates to the market is what drive us.

Capital Efficiency

We best serve our stakeholders and mental healthcare by maximizing the funds going towards drug development and by optimizing the value produced per dollar. To that end, we maintain a lean organization, right-size R&D activities, and use diligence in contracting with vendors and partners.

Opportunity

There can be multiple paths to the goal of helping patients and ensuring success for our company and stakeholders. We remain adaptable in meeting the challenges of changing contingencies and vigilant in seeking value-adding opportunities.

Who We Are

Evecxia Therapeutics' leadership team, Board of Directors, Scientific Advisory Board, and its compliment of independent advisors and consultants have unsurpassed CNS drug development experience.

Team

Joseph Patti, PhD

President & CEO, Executive Director

Joseph M. Patti, Ph.D. previously was the President and Chief Executive Officer and director of ZelamBio, Inc. and AgilVax, Inc., and is currently the President of JP Biotech Advisors, Inc., which provides strategic growth and drug development advice to emerging biotechnology companies. Dr. Patti is a director of Armata Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of precisely targeted bacteriophage therapeutics for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections using its proprietary bacteriophage-based technology. From November 2012, Dr. Patti served as Aviragen Therapeutics, Inc.’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy until October 2014, when he was appointed the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer and director. He served in those roles until February 2018, when Aviragen merged with Vaxart, Inc. Prior to joining Aviragen, Dr. Patti co-founded Inhibitex, Inc. in 1994 and served as its Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development from 2007 until it was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in February 2012. He also served as its Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research and Development from 2005 to 2007 and as Vice President, Preclinical Development prior to that. Dr. Patti was a director of Inhibitex from 1998 to 2005. Before co-founding Inhibitex, Dr. Patti was an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M’s Institute of Biosciences and Technology and served on the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Patti received a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh, a M.S.P.H. from the University of Miami, School of Medicine and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Jacob Jacobsen, PhD

Co-Founder

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Jacobsen is the inventor of the 5-hydroxytryptophan sustained-release (5-HTP SR) concept. Prior to joining Evecxia as Chief Scientific Officer, he was a scientist at Duke University and Duke-National University Singapore, where he was the driver of a cross-disciplinary team executing seminal research on the 5-HTP SR therapeutic concept. He was also intimately involved in establishing the intellectual property estate.

Previously, Dr. Jacobsen spent 8 years in pharma-biotech, NeuroSearch and Lundbeck, where he executed various drug discovery and target validation projects. He is well-published, including in the highest ranking journals in the field of Psychiatry, and is an inventor on all 5-HTP SR issued and pending patents.

Dr. Jacobsen received his PhD in Neuropharmacology from the University of Copenhagen.

David Carpenter

PharmD, Executive Director, Clinical Development

Dr. David Carpenter brings more than 35 years of pharmaceutical research and development experience to his role as Executive Director of Clinical Research at Evecxia Therapeutics. The majority of his career has been devoted to the development of new and novel therapies to treat psychiatric and neurologic disorders, including both early and late phase drug development efforts and marketed product support.

Prior to joining Evecxia, Dr. Carpenter held senior leadership positions at GSK, Sanofi, Dart Neuroscience, and Roivant Sciences.

Dr. Carpenter is a Registered Pharmacist, with a B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the Albany (NY) College of Pharmacy, an M.S. degree in Neuroscience from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, and a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Carpenter has served as lead author/co-author on numerous clinical research publications/scientific abstracts and is an active member of the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP), the American Society for Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP), and the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials Methodology (ISCTM).

Jennifer Hart, MS

Executive Director, Operations

Ms. Hart serves as Evecxia’s Executive Director of Operations. Prior to Evecxia, she was VP of Cohortias, a Latin American CRO (Clinical Research Organization) where she helped build the quality, sales, training, and operations divisions for phase I-III clinical trials. Ms. Hart previously held the title of Senior Director Business Development for Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) with responsibilities for growth in the CNS space for early phase clinical research through CNS device studies, creation of an EEG coordinating center for global phase III trials, managing CNS projects, and providing the strategic marketing vision for DCRI in the CNS space.

Prior to joining DCRI, Ms. Hart held increasing responsibilities as a HPLC analytical chemist, in quality assurance leading audits for GLP, GCP, GMP regulations, and business development/marketing for various organizations including RTI (Research Triangle Institute), AAI (Applied Analytical), and Clinsys International.

Ms. Hart’s activities in the nonprofit sector include founding in 2008 Women in Science Tomorrow as a nonprofit organization to close the gender gap for girls in scientific careers. In addition to being a member for several years, Ms. Hart has taken on the role of Southeast fundraising lead for the RTP chapter of HBA (HealthCare Businesswomen’s Association).

Ms. Hart received her B.S. in Microbiology and B.A. in Chemistry from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.

Board of Directors

Joseph Patti, PhD

President & CEO, Executive Director

Joseph M. Patti, Ph.D. previously was the President and Chief Executive Officer and director of ZelamBio, Inc. and AgilVax, Inc., and is currently the President of JP Biotech Advisors, Inc., which provides strategic growth and drug development advice to emerging biotechnology companies. Dr. Patti is a director of Armata Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of precisely targeted bacteriophage therapeutics for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections using its proprietary bacteriophage-based technology. From November 2012, Dr. Patti served as Aviragen Therapeutics, Inc.’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy until October 2014, when he was appointed the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer and director. He served in those roles until February 2018, when Aviragen merged with Vaxart, Inc. Prior to joining Aviragen, Dr. Patti co-founded Inhibitex, Inc. in 1994 and served as its Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development from 2007 until it was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in February 2012. He also served as its Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research and Development from 2005 to 2007 and as Vice President, Preclinical Development prior to that. Dr. Patti was a director of Inhibitex from 1998 to 2005. Before co-founding Inhibitex, Dr. Patti was an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M’s Institute of Biosciences and Technology and served on the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Patti received a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh, a M.S.P.H. from the University of Miami, School of Medicine and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Jacob Jacobsen, PhD

Co-Founder

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Jacobsen is the inventor of the 5-hydroxytryptophan sustained-release (5-HTP SR) concept. Prior to joining Evecxia as Chief Scientific Officer, he was a scientist at Duke University and Duke-National University Singapore, where he was the driver of a cross-disciplinary team executing seminal research on the 5-HTP SR therapeutic concept. He was also intimately involved in establishing the intellectual property estate.

Previously, Dr. Jacobsen spent 8 years in pharma-biotech, NeuroSearch and Lundbeck, where he executed various drug discovery and target validation projects. He is well-published, including in the highest ranking journals in the field of Psychiatry, and is an inventor on all 5-HTP SR issued and pending patents.

Dr. Jacobsen received his PhD in Neuropharmacology from the University of Copenhagen.

John Kaiser

Board of Directors

Before joining Evecxia, Mr. Kaiser led Cerecor, Inc., a public, CNS-focused biopharmaceutical company, where he was the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Business Officer. His responsibilities included corporate strategy, strategic marketing, and business development, where he directed the acquisitions of multiple product CNS candidates from Merck and Lilly and led the sale of CERC-501 (aticaprant) to Johnson & Johnson.

Earlier leadership roles also included:
• Vice President of Commercial and Business Development at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. where Mr. Kaiser played the lead role in defining the commercial and life-cycle strategies for pimavanserin (Nuplazid®), a novel treatment for Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis.
• Serving on the Boards of Directors for NH Therapeutics and numerous nonprofit organizations.

Mr. Kaiser came into these leadership positions after holding various positions of increasing responsibility in CNS for more than 25 years at Eli Lilly and Company. Company experience includes leading the global commercialization efforts of many of Lilly’s multi-billion dollar CNS brands including Prozac®, the global strategic marketing efforts for Cymbalta®, and the commercial success of Zyprexa® internationally. Additionally, he co-led the development and execution of the company’s CNS strategy and was responsible for the commercial efforts associated with the CNS pipeline.

Mr. Kaiser received his BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati.

Thomas H. Aasen

Mr. Aasen has served on Evecxia’s Board Of Directors since October 2020. He has over 30 years of professional finance, accounting and management experience focused primarily on the life sciences industry. Mr. Aasen served as a senior executive at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from 1998 until his retirement in 2014, most recently as its Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer. He was an integral member of the executive team that advanced ACADIA from an early-stage private company into a multi-billion dollar publicly held biopharmaceutical company. At ACADIA, Mr. Aasen played a lead role in overseeing its IPO and closing several private and public financings, raising over $700 million. He also served as a member of the Board Of Directors of Cerecor from 2016 through 2017. Earlier in his career, Mr. Aasen held financial management positions at several publicly traded life sciences companies, including Axys Pharmaceuticals, formally Sequana Therapeutics, Genta and Gen-Probe, and various positions at KPMG Peat Marwick, including Audit Manager.

Mr. Aasen received his B.S. in Business Administration (Accounting) from San Diego State University and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (inactive status) in the State of California.

David Zaccardelli, PharmD

Investor

Dr. Zaccardelli has served on Evecxia’s board of directors since February 2016. Since February 2020, Dr. Zaccardelli has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Verona Pharma and as a member of its board of directors. From December 2018 until its acquisition by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum in November 2019, Dr Zaccardelli served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Dova Pharmaceuticals, a US company developing therapeutics for rare diseases. Previously, he was Acting Chief Executive Officer of Cempra, from December 2016 until the company’s merger with Melinta Therapeutics in November 2017. From 2004 until 2016, Dr. Zaccardelli served in several senior management roles at United Therapeutics Corporation, including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Manufacturing Officer and Executive Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development and Operations. Prior to United Therapeutics, he founded and led a start-up company focused on contract research positions and held a variety of clinical research positions at Burroughs Wellcome & Co, Glaxo Wellcome, and Bausch & Lomb Pharmaceutical. Dr. Zaccardelli currently serves on the Board of Directors of CoreRx, Inc., a privately held company. Dr. Zaccardelli received a PharmD from the University of Michigan.

Scientific Advisory Board

Maurizio Fava, MD

• Director, Division of Clinical Research of the Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Executive Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry
• Executive Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Clinical Trials Network & Institute (CTNI)
• Associate Dean for Clinical & Translational Research, Slater Family Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Andrew Krystal, MS, MD

• Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco
• Director of the Dolby Family Center for Mood Disorders
• Director of the UCSF Interventional Psychiatry Program and Co-Director of the TMS & Neuromodulation Clinic

John Rush, MD

• Professor Emeritus, Duke-NUS
• Adjunctive Professor, Duke University Medical School & Texas Tech University

Richard Shelton, MD

• Professor, Vice Chair for Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Alabama

Partnerships

Duke University

In December 2015, Evecxia Therapeutics and Duke University School of Medicine entered into a worldwide license agreement granting Evecxia the exclusive right to develop and commercialize certain issued patents and pending patent applications involving 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). In April 2018, the above-mentioned license agreement was expanded to include pending patent applications involving 5-HTP in combination with other pharmacological agents.

Tempus

In June 2020, Evecxia Therapeutics announced that it is working with Tempus, a technology company advancing precision medicine through the practical application of artificial intelligence in healthcare, to integrate genetic, metabolomics, biochemical, and clinical data for deeper analysis. Tempus and Evecxia share a mission to improve the lives of patients suffering from mental illness. Given discreet pharmacology and the availability of serotonin-related biomarkers across multiple clinical dimensions, Evecxia’s 5-HTP-based drug candidates are ideally suited for precision medicine approaches. The collaboration will apply a data-driven approach to Evecxia’s upcoming clinical trials, with the goal of matching the right patient to the right treatment.

New Partnerships

With Evecxia Therapeutics’ unsurpassed knowledge and experience with 5-HTP, serving as a hub for additional scientific exploration and development into multiple complimentary areas of unmet need, we seek value-added partnerships and collaborations with academic and corporate partners across therapeutic areas. We want you to work with us to help people with mental illness lead fuller and more meaningful lives.