Leadership
Executive Management
Bo Tandrup MSc.(pharm.)
CEO/Co-Founder
Mr. Tandrup is an accomplished pharmaceutical executive and serial entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in managing early-stage Life Science companies.
He started his pharmaceutical career in Sanofi-Aventis in 1998 and in 2006 he 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 category.
Subsequently he has co-founded Vanadis and MedPro Health and served as both technical and business adviser to Quotient Sciences, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and several large and small pharmaceutical companies. Through his own M&A Advisory company, CPH ApS, 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 assisted in the growth of several SME healthcare companies such as CC Pharma, TTS Pharma Ltd. and Kibodan and most recently, Mr. Tandrup served as CEO in 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 professor in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Following his PhD in 2002, which included a secondment at Stanford University, he Joined the CNS-focused, global pharmaceutical company Lundbeck as a medicinal chemist working on the discovery of new ligands for various CNS targets.
In 2003 he returned to academia and from 2005-2015 he was responsible for ligand discovery and development within Center for Integrated Molecular Brain Imaging (Cimbi). There, the PET-imaging agent [11C]-Cimbi36 was taken from bench-to-bedside, which is currently used in clinical research to image the Serotonin 2A receptor.
He has published +100 papers in the scientific literature, of which +30 detail 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.