Our management team is comprised of experienced executives with long track records of success in the development of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology drugs and medial affairs.
Dr. Samuel Waksal is the Founder, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Équilibre Biopharmaceuticals Corp. Prior to founding Équilibre, Dr. Waksal founded ImClone Systems – the developer of Erbitux, as well as Cyramza, the first anti-VEGFR-2 antibody – serving as its Chief Executive Officer and President. ImClone Systems was acquired by Eli Lilly & Company in 2008. Dr. Waksal is responsible for four cancer-field antibodies available on the global market, as well as many others currently in clinical trials.
In 2015, Dr. Waksal founded MeiraGTx (NYSE: MGTX), a London- and New York-based company, which focused on gene regulation, ocular gene therapy, xerostomia, and neurodegeneration. He was also a founding director of Medicis Pharmaceuticals, a dermatology company, acquired by Valeant in 2013. Dr. Waksal founded Kadmon Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: KDMN) in 2010 – a publicly traded New York City-based biopharmaceutical company focused on pioneering medicines in the areas of oncology, infectious diseases, immunology and metabolic diseases – serving as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He also founded Merlin (a core part of Somatix), one of the earliest gene-therapy companies.
Dr. Waksal spent the first half of his career in academic medicine. He was a professor of pathology and the director of the Division of Immunotherapy at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He also served as visiting investigator at the National Cancer Institute, Immunology Branch, a research associate in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University Medical School, an assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, and a senior scientist at the Tufts Cancer Research Center. Dr. Waksal was a scholar of the Leukemia Society of America, has been a visiting professor at the Pasteur Institute in France, as well as the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He was also a member of the Board of Advisors of Rockefeller University. Dr. Waksal serves as a Visiting Fellow in Neuroscience at Weil Cornell Medical College, Feil Family Brain & Mind Research Institute in New York.
Dr. Waksal has published over 60 papers in such journals as Cell and Nature, as well as authoring chapters in biological texts. He is the recipient of numerous patents globally in the areas of cancer and immunology. For almost 15 years, Dr. Waksal served as the Chairman of the New York State Council for the Humanities at the behest of the Governor of New York State. Dr. Waksal has served as a board member for several public and private companies. He is also a regular guest host on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Mr. Gordon is Équilibre BioPharmaceuticals Corp.’s Chief Operating Officer; Chief Legal and Compliance Officer; and Corporate Secretary. Prior to joining Équilibre, Mr. Gordon co-founded Kadmon Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: KDMN) and served as its Executive Vice President; General Counsel; Chief Administrative, Legal and Compliance Officer; and Corporate Secretary.
Mr. Gordon worked as an Assistant District Attorney for the City of New York (Bronx County) before working at several NYC law firms and founding his own firm, which handled complex litigation for a broad spectrum of individual and corporate clients.
Mr. Gordon earned his B.A. in Economics and Business Administration from Bar Ilan University, and his J.D. from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. He is admitted to practice law before the state bars of New York and New Jersey, the District of Columbia, the United States Supreme Court and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Mr. Thorn is Chief Accounting Officer of Équilibre Biopharmaceuticals Corp where he leads the company’s financial reporting, accounting, and related internal controls functions. Prior to Équilibre, Mr. Thorn served as Corporate Controller for Dragados USA Inc., a leading construction brand of the ACS Group. Previously, Mr. Thorn served as Controller of Turing Pharmaceuticals and Vice-President and Controller of Kadmon, both biopharmaceutical organizations with commercial and research operations. Mr. Thorn began his career with KPMG in the audit practice, serving clients in the consumer and industrial markets.
Mr. Thorn received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master’s of Business Administration in Public Accounting from St. John’s University and is a certified public accountant in the State of New York.
Debra L. Maierhofer is Vice President of Pharmacovigilance and Medical Affairs at Équilibre Biopharmaceutical Corp. Prior to joining Équilibre, Ms. Maierhofer founded, built and developed the Pharmacovigilance and Medical Affairs departments for Kadmon Corporation, LLC.
In addition to leading the Pharmacovigilance and Medical Affairs departments, at Équilibre, Ms. Maierhofer collaborates with management to develop the leading quality management systems, including the development of vendor qualification, procedural documents and the implementation of validated quality systems.
Ms. Maierhofer graduated from Gannon University which she earned her B.S.B.A.; Management and Marketing. She later continued her education to pursue a career as a Registered Nurse, advancing into Management. Ms. Maierhofer has been working in the field of Pharmacovigilance for over 20 years for pharmacovigilance organizations (GlaxoSmithKline and Kadmon Corporation) and Clinical Research Organization, PPD.
Dr. Mandel-Portnoy is Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations and Data Management at Équilibre Biopharmaceuticals Corp. Prior to this role, Dr. Mandel-Portnoy founded Cardea Sciences, a Mount Sinai company, that developed novel technologies to risk-stratify Atrial Fibrillation patients and served as aspecial forces paramedic in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for four years.
Dr. Mandel-Portnoy is an expert in Cardiac Physiology and Electrophysiology with research interest and vast experience in Heart Rate Variability, Heart Rate Volatility and other cardiac-related physiological phenomenon to risk stratify cardiac patients. Presently, Dr. Mandel-Portnoy holds a faculty appointment and serves as adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Mandel-Portnoy holds a Ph.D. degree from the Clinical Research Ph.D. program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, a Master’s degree in Physiology and Biophysics from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Emergency Medicine from Ben-Gurion University.
Dr. Melsaether is Senior Vice President of Clinical Research at Équilibre Biopharmaceuticals Corp. Prior to joining Équilibre, Dr. Melsaether served as faculty in the Departments of Radiology at Mount Sinai Hospital from 2018-2021 and at NYU from 2010-2018 as an Associate Professor. In these roles, she designed and led clinical research, published extensively, and cultivated a national and international speaking record.
Dr. Melsaether graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with her B.S. in biochemistry, molecular biology, and English, completed medical school at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, was awarded an NIH/Howard Hughes research fellowship, and completed residency and fellowship at NYU and Northwestern University, respectively.
Dr. Stebbing is a research translational professor at Imperial College, London, Editor of Oncogene and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He has published over 600 papers and during the Covid-19 pandemic his work starting with artificial intelligence led to an FDA EUA for baricitinib. Dr. Stebbing has combined his medical career with healthcare investing and has worked with Atticus capital, Lansdowne and Vitruvian partners as well as previously chairing the board of BB Healthcare Trust.
Dr. Stebbing originally gained a first-class medical degree from Trinity College Oxford prior to a residency at Johns Hopkins hospital.
Dr. Rui Wu is Senior Vice President of Preclinical Research and Operations at Équilibre Biopharmaceuticals Corp. Prior to joining Équilibre and during her graduate studies at Loyola University, Dr. Wu was part of the team led by Dr. Richard Silverman that developed second-generation Lyrica, CPP-115, an anti-epilepsy drug acquired by Pfizer, where it is now in clinical development. Dr. Wu was also part of the team led by Dr. Dimitri Krainc and Dr. Peter Lansbury which explored the use of activators targeting-glucocerebrosidase in the treatment of Gauche disease and Parkinson's disease, which led to the establishment of Vanqua Bio.
As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Gregory Petsko, Director of the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer's Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College, Dr. Wu developed a novel method that allows high-throughput screening of small molecules for non-enzymatic targets, a method that was acquired by MeiraGTx, where she heads the small-molecule drug discovery division.
Dr. Zanin-Zhorov is Senior Vice President of Translational Medicine at Équilibre Biopharmaceutical Corp. Prior to joining Équilibre, Dr. Zanin-Zhorov was a Vice President, Head of Immunology at KadmonHoldings, Inc.,where she established a new research group and managed activities across research, clinical, regulatory, and business development. Dr. Zanin-Zhorov led the successful bench-to-bedside development of the selective ROCK2 inhibitor, REZUROCK, for a variety of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases including Psoriasis, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and significant contributed to the REZUROCK FDA approval for patients with chronic Graft Versus Host Disease.
Prior to Kadmon, Dr. Zanin-Zhorov was a postdoctoral fellow at NYU School of Medicine where she led research efforts in defining signaling pathways that control immune cell function during disease state. Over her research career in both academic and industrial settings, Dr. Zanin-Zhorov published more than 30 scientific papers in high-profile journals including Science, PNAS, JCO and she is a co-inventor on 13 patents.
Dr. Zanin-Zhorov holds a Ph.D. degree in Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Master’s degree in Tumor Immunology and B.Sc. degree from Life Sciences Faculty at Tel-Aviv University in Israel.