People

Senior Management

Scott Thacher, PhD, CEO and Director, founded Orphagen in 2001, raised its grant funding, hired key personnel, and developed initial screening programs. He has 30 years of experience in life sciences research and pharmaceutical R&D. From 1993-2001, he directed programs in acne, psoriasis, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes at Allergan and served on management teams for strategic collaborations in dermatology and diabetes. Scott was previously on the biochemistry faculty as the Texas A&M College of Medicine (1986-1993) and holds a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University and a B.S. in physics (Stanford).

Paul Crowe, Ph.D., Director of Biology, was previously Senior Director of Pharmacology and Lead Discovery at Neurocrine Biosciences (San Diego, CA) where he managed internal drug discovery programs in CNS, autoimmunity, and metabolic disease. While at Neurocrine, Dr. Crowe led a joint research collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals to discover and develop corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) receptor antagonists for depression and other mood disorders. He joined Orphagen in 2008 and holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Therapeutics from the University of South Florida.

Board of Directors

Len Post, Ph.D., Director, was Vice President of Discovery Research at Parke-Davis and later Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Onyx. He led the Onyx team that developed Nexavar®, a treatment for advanced kidney cancer, in collaboration with Bayer AG. Most recently he was Chief Scientific Officer of LEAD Therapeutics, based in Burlingame, CA. He is head of the Scientific Advisory Board of Metastatix, based in Atlanta. Dr. Post received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of 55 publications.

Tim Scott, J.D., Director, is co-founder and President of Pharmatek Laboratories, a pharmaceutical development company. He is also a co-founder of Diakron Pharmaceuticals and serves as president of the Board of Trustees for The Children's School in La Jolla, California. He earned a B.A. in biochemistry from UCSD and a J.D. from the University of San Diego. He is a member of the California Bar.

Bob Shopes, Ph.D., Director, is founder and CEO of TeraBiotechnology Corp. Bob was a co-founder of Favrille Inc and served as President of Favrille from 2000 to 2002 and on the Board of Directors from 2000 to 2003. Prior to foundingFavrille, Bob was the Director of Antibody Research at StratacyteCorp. (a subsidiary of Stratagene). He holds a PhD in Biophysics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and did postdoctoral work at Stanford University Medical Center.

Marvin Rosenthale, Ph.D., Director, serves on the Board of Directors of several private and public pharmaceutical companies. He is also an advisor to several venture capital funds. Previously, Marvin was President and CEO of Allergan Ligand Retinoid Therapeutics and Vice President Drug Discovery Worldwide at the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Institute of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). He received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, and an M.Sc. in Pharmacology and a B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.