Board of Directors

Todd Davis has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2023. He is the founder and has served as the managing partner of RoyaltyRx Capital, LLC, a special opportunities investment firm, since 2018. Since November 2019, he has also served as Chairman and CEO of Benuvia Holdings Inc., a pharmaceutical holding company. From 2006 to 2018, Mr. Davis was a founder and managing partner of Cowen/HealthCare Royalty Partners, a global healthcare investment firm. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Davis was a partner at Paul Capital Partners, where he co-managed its royalty investments as a member of the Royalty Management Committee. From 2001 to 2004, he served as a partner responsible for biopharmaceutical growth equity investments at Apax Partners. Mr. Davis began his business career in sales at Abbott Laboratories where he held several commercial roles of increasing responsibility. He subsequently held general management, business development, and licensing roles at Elan Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Davis is a navy veteran and received a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the board of directors of Palvella Therapeutics Inc., BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc., and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. He is also a board member of the Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association. We believe Mr. Davis is qualified to serve on the board of directors because of his extensive experience within the life sciences industry, including as a founder and managing partner of a special opportunities investment firm.

Ezra Friedberg has served as a member of our board of directors since May 2021. Since September 2011, Mr. Friedberg has served as co-founder and general partner of Multiplier Capital, a fund focused on lending opportunities to sponsor-backed growth companies. He is also a member of the fund’s credit committee. Mr. Friedberg is a seasoned investor with more than twenty years of investing experience in both public and private companies. He invests actively in the biotech space and has served on the board of directors of Humanigen (Nasdaq: HGEN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company which develops monoclonal antibodies. His other investments include private equity, venture capital, and property across the United States, Canada and overseas. Separately, Mr. Friedberg manages and owns other investments and businesses through Liberty Peak Capital, Key Recovery Group, and related companies. Mr. Friedberg is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. He has founded and is an active board member of several community and civic organizations, including a non-profit mentoring agency. Mr. Friedberg serves and has served on several for-profit and non-profit boards. He was selected to serve on our board of directors due to his investment experience and his knowledge of our industry.

Francis Knuettel II has served as our Chief Financial Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Treasurer and Secretary since June 2022. Prior to that, from December 2020 to April 2022, he served as Chief Executive Officer and director of Unrivaled Brands, a California-based operator of cannabis assets in California and Oregon, where he helped grow revenue from an annualized rate of $10 million to $100 million in six quarters by acquiring three companies in the sector. He also served as Chief Financial Officer of ONE Cannabis Group from June 2019 to January 2021 and held various roles at MJardin Group, including Chief Strategy Officer, from August 2018 to January 2019. Prior to Mjardin Group, Mr. Knuettel served as Chief Financial Officer of Aqua Metals in 2018 and held the same position at Marathon Patent Group from 2014 to 2018. During Mr. Knuettel’s career, he has helped raise more than $300 million via venture equity and debt, public equity and debt offerings in the United States and Canada, convertible debt, PIPEs, bridge loans and other instruments. In addition, he has managed more than 15 mergers and acquisition transactions of companies as both buyer and seller and has handled large-scale licensing transactions with fortune 50 companies. Mr. Knuettel also holds numerous board positions at both public and private companies, including 180 Life Sciences (Nasdaq: ATNF) since 2021, ECOM Medical since 2019, and Murphy Canyon Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: MURF) and Relativity Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: RACY) since 2022. Mr. Knuettel received his BA with honors in Economics from Tufts University and holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Richard Malamut has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2023. Dr. Malamut is currently Chief Medical Officer at MedinCell Inc. He was most recently Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President at Collegium Pharmaceuticals from April 2019 to May 2022 and has also served as Chief Medical Officer for Braeburn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2018 to 2019 where he was responsible for the company’s medical affairs, non-clinical and clinical development, clinical operations, research and development quality assurance, and pharmacovigilance functions. Prior to that, Dr. Malamut had similar responsibilities as Chief Medical Officer at Avanir Pharmaceuticals from 2016 to 2018 and was Senior Vice President of Global Clinical Development at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd from 2013 to 2016 where he was responsible for Pain, Neuropsychiatry, Oncology, and New Therapeutic Entities. His experience also includes roles of increasing responsibility focusing on early clinical development and translational medicine in Neurology, Psychiatry and Analgesia at Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca. Dr. Malamut earned his medical degree from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia and completed both a residency in Neurology and a fellowship in Neuromuscular disease. He worked as a board-certified academic and clinical neurologist for 17 years and has more than 50 publications in the fields of pain medicine, neuromuscular disease, autonomic disease, and neurodegenerative disease.

Chia-Lin Simmons is the CEO of LogicMark, Inc. (Nasdaq: LGMK). The company provides health communications devices and technologies to create a Connected Care Platform. Prior to joining LogicMark, Ms. Simmons was the CEO/Co-Founder of LookyLoo, a patent-pending AI social commerce company. She was the former Head of Global Partner Marketing for Google's Google Play Music and Google Play Store; former VP of Marketing & Content for Harman International / Samsung’s Connected Car business; a Senior Business Development executive at Time Warner / AOL, and the former VP of Strategic Alliances at Audible / Amazon.

Ms. Simmons served on the Board of Directors (2017 – 2022) for Servco Pacific, a multi-billion dollar global company where she sat on the Audit Committee. She currently serves on the Investment Board. She is a current Board Member of New Energy Nexus, an international NGO that support clean energy entrepreneurs with funds and accelerators serves on its Nominating Committee. Ms. Simmons graduated Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from U.C. San Diego. She received her MBA from Cornell University, where she was a Park Leadership Fellow and her JD from George Mason University School of Law. She is a licensed New York State attorney.