Management Team
Kinex was founded by and is managed by a highly qualified team of experienced
professionals that bring a diversity of skills to the company.
| Dr. Johnson Y.N. Lau Chief Executive Officer, Chairman |
Dr. Allen Barnett President Emeritus |
Dr. Rudolf Kwan Chief Medical Officer |
|
| Dr. David Hangauer Chief Scientific Officer |
Dr. Lyn Dyster Senior Vice President, Operations |
Dr. Johnson Y.N. Lau
Chief Executive Officer, Chairman
Dr. Lau is a successful pharmaceutical executive who has had extensive leadership experience in both scientific and business management. As Chairman and CEO of Ribapharm, he launched the second largest biotech IPO in US history ($300 million). During his tenure at Ribapharm, he met or exceeded Wall Street expectations each and every quarter. Prior to Ribapharm, he served as the Head of Worldwide Research and Development for ICN Pharmaceuticals. He played a key role in raising $525 million in convertible bonds that facilitated the restructuring of ICN and the partial spin-off of Ribapharm. Dr. Lau has established an excellent working relationship with a number of prominent investment banks and has extensive experience in establishing strategic partnerships and in negotiating licensing deals including key agreements with Hoffman-La Roche, Anadys, Schering-Plough and Metabasis. Dr. Lau served as the Senior Director of Antiviral Therapy at Schering-Plough from 1997-2000 where he played a significant role in the FDA approval of Ribavirin/Interferon and Pegylated interferon alpha-2b. Dr. Lau has more than 250 scientific publications in peer reviewed scientific journals, more than 50 editorials/reviews/chapters and has edited three books. He was a Managing Director at Roth Capital Partners at its headquarters in Newport Beach, California and is also a Director of the Board of Chelsea Therapeutics (CHTP) and other privately held companies.
Dr. Allen Barnett
President Emeritus
Dr. Barnett is a successful drug development executive who brought four drugs to the marketplace during his tenure at Schering-Plough (SP), two of which are blockbusters. He led the effort that resulted in the discovery of Claritin (and Clarinex), a non-sedating antihistamine that is Schering-Plough’s leading product and was the fifth leading drug, based on sales, in the world. He also managed the discovery program that led to Zetia, a novel cholesterol-lowering agent that was introduced to the market in November 2002. In 1994, Dr. Barnett assumed the duties of Vice President of Technology Acquisition and External Collaborations and was involved with the in-licensing of new technology and the structuring of academic collaborations for SP. Collaborations included Cephalon, Pharmacopeia, Neurogen, Genome Therapeutics, Human Genome Sciences, Chiroscience, Synteni/Incyte, Navicyte, Terragen, Biosearch Italia, Transgene, Myriad Genetics and Genzyme. Significant academic collaborations included The Whitehead Institute, Duke University, Stanford University, University of Toronto, Harvard University, Aaron Diamond Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Columbia University, Penn State University, SUNY at Buffalo and N.Y.U. Dr. Barnett elected to retire from SP in 1998 and continued to provide consulting services to SPRI and other companies as a consultant until assuming his current role with Kinex Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Barnett received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University at Buffalo (UB), School of Medicine and is active on an advisory board for the School of Pharmacy at UB.
Dr. Rudolf Kwan
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Kwan has had a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry and brings to Kinex over twenty years of experience in clinical operations. Most recently, he served dual roles at Schering-Plough (SP) as Vice President and Regional Head of Asia Pacific Global Clinical Operations and Vice President of Global Clinical Development, CNS.
In the clinical operations position, Dr. Kwan successfully recruited Heads of Clinical Operations for China, South East Asia, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea and set up the infrastructure to conduct global clinical trials in Asia Pacific for Schering-Plough. As Vice President of Global Clinical Development, CNS, he was responsible for the clinical development of all SP central nervous system drugs, globally. Major achievements included developing and executing a bioequivalence registration strategy for a new formulation of Temodol, for glioblastoma, which led to a simultaneous global registration. He also designed and executed multiple phase 2 development programs. Earlier at Schering-Plough, Dr. Kwan held various clinical operation positions with increasing responsibility. He held similar positions at Chiron Corporation and at Smith Kline Beecham. Dr. Kwan obtained his MD degree in Hong Kong and did subsequent training in England. He has served as Chair of the Data Monitoring and Safety Board for the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders for trials on celecoxib as an adjunct to surgery for Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis. Currently, he is a member and Chair of the Data Monitoring and Safety Board and Protocol Review Board for the Clinical Trial Network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institute of Health. He is also a member of several advisory panels and grant review panels for NIDA.
Dr. David Hangauer
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Hangauer is a leader in the field of structure based drug design. Following doctoral studies in chemistry at the University at Buffalo, he spent ten years at Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories where he directed a variety of drug discovery projects. In 1989, he returned to academia and joined the chemistry faculty at SUNY at Buffalo where he has had a productive career that has focused on developing protein kinase inhibitors.
Dr. Hangauer’s expertise has been sought by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide, including Lederle /Wyeth-Ayerst Research Laboratories, New Medical Technologies, Sphinx/Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals Inc., Yuhan Corporation, Periodontix, Inc., ICAgen, Inc., ARPIDA, Scientific Advisory Board & Founding Scientist and Signal Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. Most notably he led the chemistry effort at Hypnion, Inc., that resulted in the discovery and development of an insomnia drug. The Company was sold to Eli Lilly in 2009 for more than $300 million and its major asset was the insomnia drug that was designed and discovered under the leadership of Dr. Hangauer.
Dr. Lyn Dyster
Senior Vice President, Operations
Dr. Dyster, a scientist/entrepreneur, is a co-founder of Kinex. She is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College and later earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University at Buffalo. Following post-doctoral studies at the University at Buffalo, she spent several years in the biotechnology field at Cellular Products Inc. (Buffalo, New York) and was responsible for the development of a number of products relating to the molecular diagnosis of infectious disease agents. She began her research career in cancer biology as a co-investigator on a gene discovery project that led to the discovery of a novel chemokine that formed the basis for a breast cancer diagnostic and therapeutic research program. Dr. Dyster has had nearly 20 years of experience in the area of molecular biology and translational research.
At Kinex, Dr. Dyster has been responsible for all internal operations. She managed the IND submission for KX01 and established an internal GMP process for the KX01 Phase 1 drug product. She is managing the clinical development activities for KX01 and KX02.