Leadership
MAXONA Pharmaceuticals expert leadership team is focused on delivering against the company’s commitment to leveraging innovation to address patient’s unmet medical needs.
With deep experience in all areas of clinical development and commercialization, our leadership team is well-equipped to realize MAXONA’s vision to help patients maximize life.
Shawn Fatholahi
President & CEO
Mr. Fatholahi brings more than 20 years of pharmaceutical senior leadership experience to his current role as President & CEO, MAXONA Pharmaceuticals. Prior to founding MAXONA, Mr. Fatholahi was Vice President of Sales and Marketing, for Impax Laboratories, where he built the Impax commercial brand business from the ground up and grew it to more than $245 million in profitable revenues through a combination of organic growth and business development. Mr. Fatholahi has a record of success across a range of therapeutic areas including Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders and has extensive experience in asset identification, integration, product development, and commercialization including launches of blockbuster, specialty, orphan-designated, oral and injectable products.
Richard Brand
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Brand has more than 30 years of experience in senior financial roles across all aspects of the financial sector. Notably, as chief financial officer of Beyond Spring, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative immuno-oncology therapies, Mr. Brand generated a nine times return in two years for investors. Under Mr. Brand’s financial leadership, the company was recognized as the best performing biotech for much of its vintage year.
Roy Freeman, M.D.
Senior Medical Advisor
Dr. Freeman is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and a world-renowned authority on neuropathic pain, neuropathic pain clinical trial design, and peripheral nervous system disorders. Dr. Freeman has been providing MAXONA with key scientific, medical, and clinical development guidance since the company’s inception and is the founder and current Chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). currently serving as Chairman. Dr. Freeman serves on the Executive Committee and the Steering Committee of the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks (ACTTION), a public-private partnership with the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Rob Rubens, M.D.
Clinical Development
Dr. Rubens is a board-certified neurologist and recognized as an expert in all facets of clinical development, clinical trial design and execution. Dr. Rubens has directly overseen multiple development programs leading to several regulatory filings (INDs, NDAs) and successful product approvals.
Gary Maier, Ph.D.
Pharmacokinetics
Dr. Maier is an accomplished executive and key opinion leader in clinical pharmacology. In Dr. Maier’s former roles in clinical pharmacology and clinical bioanalytical/ADME, he was a key developer of novel methods and responsible for ground-up development of model-based pharmacokinetic responses.
Jim Hinson
Regulatory Affairs
Mr. Hinson has over 30 years of experience in drug development and regulatory affairs including over 50 Investigational New Drug (IND) and 16 New Drug Application (NDA) submissions.
Bruce Rehlaender, Ph.D.
Formulation Development/CMC
Dr. Rehlaender has more than 30 years of experience in formulation, drug delivery technologies, and drug product manufacturing and is considered an expert in deploying computer models to analyse PK data and predict ideal drug characteristics as well as managing manufacture of clinical trial materials and regulatory submissions.
Paul Tarantino, Ph.D.
Pre-clinical Development (consulting)
Dr. Tarantino is a highly recognized pharmaceutical development consultant with over 25 years of experience in nonclinical support of drug discovery and development organizations. Dr. Tarantino is a specialist in therapeutic development for CNS, oncology, and rare diseases with extensive experience in interfacing with US FDA and international regulatory authorities.
Efficacy. Safety. Trust.
MAXONA Pharmaceuticals is committed to applying its intellectual property and unique expertise to develop patient-centric therapies that are efficacious, safe, trusted and clinically proven.