Leadership

Executive Management

Bo Tandrup MSc.(pharm.)

CEO/Co-Founder

Mr. Tandrup is a distinguished pharmaceutical executive and serial entrepreneur with 15 years of experience managing early-stage life science companies. 

He began his pharmaceutical career at Sanofi-Aventis in 1998 and, in 2006, founded his first company, Alkalon, a successful VC-backed global nicotine gum business, which was the first to challenge a worldwide duopoly in the smoking cessation market. 

Subsequently, he co-founded Vanadis and Atrivita and has served as both a technical and business adviser to Quotient Sciences, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and several large and small pharmaceutical companies. Through his M&A advisory company, he acted as Financial Adviser to Gelmedic in the sale of its nicotine assets to Perrigo in 2020.

As a board member, Mr. Tandrup has contributed to the growth of several SME healthcare companies, including CC Pharma GmbH, TTS Pharma Ltd., and Kibodan A/S. Most recently, he served as CEO of the Norwegian cannabis company Balancial. Mr. Tandrup holds a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from UCPH and has received executive training from CBS and Harvard Business School.

Jesper L. Kristensen Prof. PhD

CSO/Co-Founder

Jesper Kristensen is a professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Following his PhD in 2002, which included a secondment at Stanford University, he joined Lundbeck, a global pharmaceutical company focused on CNS, as a medicinal chemist working on the discovery of new ligands for various CNS targets.

In 2003, he returned to academia, and from 2005 to 2015, he was responsible for ligand discovery and development within the Center for Integrated Molecular Brain Imaging (Cimbi). During his tenure, the PET-imaging agent [11C]-Cimbi36 was taken from bench to bedside and is currently used in clinical research to image the Serotonin 2A receptor.

Jesper has published over 100 papers in the scientific literature, with more than 30 detailing the discovery, synthesis, pharmacological characterization, radiolabeling, development, and application of new ligands targeting the Serotonin 2A receptor.

Board of Directors

Ian Laquian

Chair of the Board

Entrepreneur in residence at Novo Seeds, with +15 years of experience in building companies, franchises, portfolios, and products within the CNS area. Head of Takeda’s CNS strategy and served as Global Program Lead and Brand Lead responsible for the development and marketing of the antidepressant drug Brintellix.

Don deBethizy PhD

Member of the Board

President of Custom Coaching and White City Consulting providing coaching to executives. 30+ years working in life sciences, as a biotech entrepreneur and previously Chair or Director of numerous biotech boards. Director of Proterris Inc and Vice-Chair of the Argenx NV board.

Key team members

Emil Märcher-Rørsted PhD

Director of Drug Design and Dev./Co-Founder

Emil is a Medicinal Chemist with a PhD degree from Copenhagen University. Emils academic research has primarily been focused on developing new selective 5-HT2AR agonists around the classic phenethylamine scaffold, having developed the chemistry leading to the synthesis and characterization of several conformationally contrained phenethylamine and NBOMe inspired agonists of the 5-HT2AR. With a background in organic synthesis and expert knowledge of the 5-HT2AR SAR Emil is Responsible for the hands-on development of the LOPHORA compounds series.

Mikael Thomsen PhD

Drug Development Specialist, Consultant

+20 years of experience with pre-clinical pharmacology/toxicology and drug development. Mikael has unique experience in advancing drug discovery programs to Phase I and II from big and small pharma and as a consultant for numerous biotech companies.

Tim Haines

Advisor

Chairman & Managing Partner, Abingworth. Former CEO of Astex Therapeutics, Datascope Corp and Thackray Inc., General Manager at Baxter UK etc.

Anders A. Jensen Prof. PhD

Professor/CO-FOUNDER

Professor in Molecular Pharmacology at University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Following his PhD in 2001 and the establishment of his own research group at the university in 2006, his research has been focused on the development of novel modulators for various neurotransmitter receptors, investigations into the molecular basis for receptor function and modulation, and studies into the physiological functions and therapeutic potential of these receptors.

Anders has published +160 papers in the scientific literature, including several focused on the Serotonin 2A receptor.