Our team is made up of cancer drug development professionals with years of experience and expertise in the life sciences industry. Together with our academic collaborators and advisors, we share a common dedication to world-class research aimed at commercializing new therapies that improve survival outcomes and quality of life for cancer patients.
Dr. Brown has been involved in cancer drug discovery and development for more than 35 years. Initially at Stanford University in collaboration with SRI International where he was involved in drug-screening activities sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Dr. Brown has founded or co-founded multiple companies including Matrix Pharmaceutical, Inc. (acquired by Chiron Corp. in 2002), ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Cephalon/Teva in 2011) and Kintara Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTRA, formerly DelMar Pharmaceuticals, Inc.).
During his career, Dr. Brown has been involved in the discovery and development of multiple FDA-approved cancer therapies. He currently serves as a member of the National Brain Tumor Society Research Roundtable, as a consultant to DelMar Pharmaceuticals, as Chairman of Mountain View Pharmaceutical’s Board of Directors and is the President of Valent Technologies LLC, which has been involved in the discovery of Edison Oncology’s drug candidates.
He also previously served as an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard University Medical School and as a Research Associate in Radiology at Stanford University Medical School. He received his B.A. in Biology and Chemistry (1971), M.S. in Cell Biology (1975) and Ph.D. in Radiation and Cancer Biology (1979), all from New York University. Dr. Brown is an inventor of more than 40 issued U.S. patents and applications, many with foreign counterparts.
Mr. Bacha has been involved in pharmaceutical research and corporate development for more than 25 years as a member of the executive leadership team for multiple companies.
Mr. Bacha co-founded DelMar Pharmaceuticals (now, Kintara Therapeutics, Inc. NASDAQ: KTRA) with Dr. Dennis Brown and served as Chairman and CEO during the company’s growth including the advancement of its lead product candidate to pivotal Phase III clinical trials and NASDAQ listing.
Prior to founding DelMar, Mr. Bacha served as president and founding CFO of XBiotech, Inc. (NASDAQ: XBIT), founding CEO of Inimex Pharmaceuticals and Vice President, Corporate Development at Inflazyme Corp. Programs advanced by Inimex and Inflazyme have become foundational in Soligenix, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNGX) and Aquinox Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AQXP).
He is a member of the National Brain Tumor Society Research Roundtable and the Board of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of Canada. Mr. Bacha currently serves as a consultant to Valent Technologies LLC, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Sernova Corp. (TSX-V: SVA). Prior to taking on his operating roles, Mr. Bacha served Senior Manager and Director of KPMG Health Ventures, acting as an advisor to numerous public and private life sciences companies.
Mr. Bacha holds an M.B.A (Hons) from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University (1995) and a degree in BioPhysics from the University of California, San Diego (1991). Mr. Bacha is the inventor or co-inventor on multiple issued U.S. patents and applications, many with foreign counterparts.
Mr. Praill is an accomplished financial professional with considerable experience in the biopharma industry. Since 1999 he has served in various capacities, including as a consultant and Chief Financial Officer for several clinical stage, publicly traded, pharmaceutical companies. Scott is knowledgeable in all aspects of financial reporting, forecasting, budgeting, cash management, and SEC/NASDAQ compliance.
Scott obtained his Chartered Professional Accountant designation in 1996 and his Certified Public Accountant (Illinois) License in 2001. He received a Financial Management Diploma (Honors), from British Columbia Institute of Technology in 1993, and a Bachelor of Science from Simon Fraser University in 1989. Scott began his career with Price Waterhouse.
Mr. Diamond has 30+ years of leadership experience in biopharma and finance, he joined the Edison Oncology team in 2023 and is focused on pre-commercial activities.
Prior to Edison, Mark was the Chief Commercial Officer for Functional Fluidics (FF), serving the BioPharma industry with its blood-based biomarkers, focused on red blood cell health. Prior to FF he was the Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President of Commercialization at Emmaus Life Sciences from 2016 – 2021. Prior to Emmaus, Mark was the Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Targeted Medical Pharma. Mr. Diamond spent the first 15 years of his Pharmaceutical career with Sanofi in various financial and commercial leadership roles. He has successfully built top performing commercial teams in the BioPharma industry.
Mark also spent many years as a healthcare Investment Banker in New York, NY. He is a graduate of the City University of New York with a BA in Accounting and Information Systems.
Dr. Sankar received his training in clinical research and tumor biology from NCI Bethesda, Maryland and since has held clinical development positions within leading Biotech/Pharma including Genentech, Medimmune, Pharmacyclis, Fiveprime, Otsuka, Portola, CBT Pharmaceuticals, LSK biopharma and Rhizen Pharmaceuticals.
As an expert in providing global clinical development and regulatory strategies for therapeutic drugs, Dr. Sankar has acted as the clinical lead in numerous phase I, II and III clinical trials. He is and was instrumental in filing the New Drug Applications for the antibody-drug conjugate Kadcyla and the B cell receptor signaling kinase inhibitor Ibrutinib.
He has extensive experience in the application of U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations and the Good Clinical Practice guidelines set forth by the International Council on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use. Dr. Sankar is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the European Hematology Association (EHA , Drug information association (DIA) , European society of clinical oncology (ESMO), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Enterprising Pharmaceutical Professionals from the Indian Sub-Continent (EPPIC GLOBAL), Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS), and TiE Silicon Valley.
Neil Sankar received his M.D. degree from Bangalore University and internal medicine residency from University of West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica and trained in the UK and the Caribbean’s. He also holds a postgraduate degree in Public Health from Queensland University in Australia.
Dr. Kanekal is a board-certified regulatory professional and a board-certified toxicologist with 25-years of pharmacology and toxicology industry experience. He is a veterinarian and holds a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of California, Davis and has conducted post-doctoral research at the College of Pharmacy, University of Texas at Austin. He is an industry veteran in regulatory strategy and safety assessment of small molecules and biologics, of both new molecular entities and reformulated drugs.
Dr. Kanekal has a track record of advancing drugs through their entire life cycle from preclinical to clinical proof-of-concept, clinical development, and regulatory filings. He has managed regulatory and non-clinical safety programs for several small molecule drugs and biologics and was responsible for over 40 IND/NDA/BLA approvals. His successes include over 15 marketed cancer drugs such as tositumomab (Bexxarâ) (anti-CD20 Ab), bendamustine (Treandaâ), omacetaxine mepesuccinate (Synriboâ) for various indications. Dr. Kanekal held leadership positions with Novartis (Chiron), GlaxoSmithKlein (Corixa), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (Cephalon, Salmedix, ChemGenex), Astex Pharmaceuticals (SuperGen), Absorption Systems and Reviva.
John K. Bell serves as lead independent director and chair of the audit committee.
Mr. Bell is the founder of Shred-Tech Ltd. and Polymer Technologies, Inc., John K. Bell is a businessperson who has been the head of 15 different companies and presently is Chairman at CrossChasm Technologies, Inc., Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Onbelay Investment Corp., Chairman for Stack Capital Group, Inc., lead independent director of Edison Oncology Holding Corp., and Director & Governor at Stratford Festival. He is also on the board of Stratford Shakespearean Festival of America.
Mr. Bell was a founding investor of Research in Motion (Blackberry) and previously held the position of Director at Canopy Growth Corp. and Chairman of Canopy Rivers Corp. (a subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corp.), Chairman of Waterloo Regional Police Service, Chairman of Prosperity Council of Waterloo Region, Director at RIV Capital, Inc., Chief Executive Officer & Director at ATS Corp., Chief Executive Officer & Owner at Shred-Tech Ltd., Director at BSM Technologies, Inc., Director at BSM Technologies Ltd., Chairman of HEXO Corp., President & Chief Executive Officer of Polymer Technologies, Inc., Chairman of Cambridge Memorial Hospital, Member of Institute of Corporate Directors and Secretary & Director at Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada.
John K. Bell received an undergraduate degree from Richard Ivey School of Business.
