About Us

Mr. Basta has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industry. Mr. Basta served as CEO of SaNOtize, a company that develops and commercializes anti-infective therapies since 2023. SaNOtize has recently launched novel nitric oxide-based topical infection products in the US. Prior to this role, he served as CEO of Mahana Therapeutics, a prescription digital therapeutic company which launched the first FDA-approved digital app treatment for irritable bowel syndrome and developed a novel digital therapy for tinnitus. He previously served as CEO of Menlo Therapeutics (now VYNE Therapeutics), AlterG, BioForm Medical and its successor Merz Aesthetics. During his tenure at BioForm Medical and later Merz Aesthetics Mr. Basta built a leading worldwide medical aesthetics business with industry-leading innovations in product design, new applications, and commercial strategies.

He currently serves on the board of directors of DermBiont, Inc. and VYNE Therapeutics.

Mr. Basta holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Azmi Nabulsi, M.D., is the former Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Global Development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In these roles, he led all global research and development, medical, regulatory, operations, and data analytics functions. In addition, he led research and development portfolio management strategy and planning, focusing on enhancing the company’s pipeline and productivity.

During his 14-year career at Takeda U.S. and Japan, Dr. Nabulsi oversaw global drug development for both early and late-stage product candidates, and he was responsible for bringing the majority of Takeda’s 21 new drugs in multiple therapeutic areas and countries to market. He was also responsible for the design and execution of the company’s major research and development transformation, utilizing industry-leading approaches to drive innovation. Dr. Nabulsi has led or directed partnerships and alliances in gastroenterology, oncology, immunology, cardiovascular medicine, and metabolism. Prior to Takeda, he held leadership positions at Abbott Laboratories, including Head of Immunology and Oncology Ventures. He previously served on the Board of Directors for ReAlta Life Sciences, Inc. from 2020-2023.

Dr. Nabulsi has an M.D. from Ain-Shams University in Cairo and an M.P.H. from the University of Minnesota.

Paul Cocja is the former Vice President, People and Organization for Novartis’ U.S. Pharmaceutical Division and most recently led their U.S. Transformation Office. He has over 35 years of Human Resources (HR) experience, the majority of which has been in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to his time at Novartis, Mr. Cocja served as Vice President, Human Resources at Celgene Corporation, leading HR teams supporting multiple global divisions.

In addition to leading many HR organizations in the U.S. and globally, Mr. Cocja has developed significant expertise in leadership development, organizational effectiveness and culture optimization.

He currently serves on the Board of Community Hope, NJ’s largest non-profit providing social, housing and support services to individuals suffering from mental illness as well as U.S. veterans in need. Mr. Cocja holds a Master’s Degree in Education with a concentration in adult learning theory from Seton Hall University and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Drew University.

Martin Gilligan is the former Corporate Vice President in the Inflammation and Immunology Franchise at Celgene Corporation, where he led marketing, market access and business development.  He held key leadership roles in the launch and growth of OTEZLA^® through its sale to Amgen for $13.4B.  Prior to joining Celgene, Mr. Gilligan has held both global and US sales and marketing roles, spanning 25 years in the biopharmaceutical industry.  Mr. Gilligan holds a bachelor’s degree from Providence College and an M.B.A. from Rutgers University.

Tom Harris is the former Senior Vice President and Head of Global Regulatory Affairs at Takeda, where he was responsible for all global regulatory matters at Takeda while overseeing regulatory personnel in US, Europe, Japan and Singapore from 2012 to 2019.

Previously, Mr. Harris held multiple positions of increasing responsibility over 19 years within Abbott International’s Global Regulatory Affairs function. He held the position as the Global Regulatory Head for the Abbott Immunology franchise, which included oversight and responsibility of the worldwide submissions of HUMIRA® for rheumatology, gastroenterology and dermatology indications. He also served as the Global Project Head leading Humira Global Project Teams in dermatology and new indications in spondyloarthropathies and uveitis. Before joining industry, Mr. Harris was a staff pharmacist at Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, IL.

Mr. Harris earned a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy.

Molly Henderson is the former Chief Financial Officer of UroGen Pharma, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on building novel treatments for specialty cancers and urologic disease. She has over 20 years of extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Previously, Ms. Henderson served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Advaxis, Inc., Chief Financial Officer of Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (formerly Lion Biotechnologies, Inc.), and prior to then, the Chief Business and Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of VirtualScopics, Inc. Additionally, she served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Audit Committee of Calliditas Therapeutics AB.

Ms. Henderson earned her MBA and MS in Accounting from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Dr. Leifke is the former Chief Medical Officer at Omeros. Prior to Omeros, he held executive roles at Sanofi, including Global Head/Vice President of Early Project & External Opportunities – Cardiovascular and Metabolism and Global Head/Vice President of Late Stage Development – Diabetes.

Dr. Leifke has built global teams at pharmaceutical companies including Bayer and Takeda and led the global development of multiple early- and late-stage small molecule and biologic drug candidates to successful marketing authorizations worldwide.

Dr. Leifke holds an M.D. from the University of Freiburg, Germany and is board-certified in internal medicine and endocrinology.

Mike Cola previously served as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors at Avalo Therapeutics, Inc.

Prior to joining Avalo, Mr. Cola served as President and CEO of Aevi Genomic Medicine since September 2013.  Prior to joining Aevi, he served as President, Specialty Pharmaceuticals at Shire plc. Previously, Mr. Cola served as President of the life sciences group for Safeguard Scientifics, where he also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clarient and Chairman of Laureate Pharma. In addition, Mr. Cola has held senior positions at AstraMerck and AstraZeneca where he played a key role in the development and commercialization of both PRILOSEC® and NEXIUM®.

Mr. Cola received a B.A. in biology and physics from Ursinus College and an M.S. in biomedical science from Drexel University. He also serves on the Board of Directors at Sage Therapeutics and Vanda Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Basta has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industry. Mr. Basta served as CEO of SaNOtize, a company that develops and commercializes anti-infective therapies since 2023. SaNOtize has recently launched novel nitric oxide-based topical infection products in the US. Prior to this role, he served as CEO of Mahana Therapeutics, a prescription digital therapeutic company which launched the first FDA-approved digital app treatment for irritable bowel syndrome and developed a novel digital therapy for tinnitus. He previously served as CEO of Menlo Therapeutics (now VYNE Therapeutics), AlterG, BioForm Medical and its successor Merz Aesthetics. During his tenure at BioForm Medical and later Merz Aesthetics Mr. Basta built a leading worldwide medical aesthetics business with industry-leading innovations in product design, new applications, and commercial strategies.

He currently serves on the board of directors of DermBiont, Inc. and VYNE Therapeutics.

Mr. Basta holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

David Socks is a Managing Partner at Mountainfield Venture Partners. Previously he was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of HilleVax, Inc. Mr. Socks is also a co-founder of Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and has served as a member of the board of directors since January 2018.

Mr. Socks previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Phathom Pharmaceuticals from January 2018 until his appointment as interim Chief Financial Officer, a position he held from December 2019 until July 2020. Since July 2020, Mr. Socks has served as a Strategic Advisor to Phathom Pharmaceuticals.

From August 2014 to September 2021, Mr. Socks was a Venture Partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners. In this capacity, he co-founded Arcutis, HilleVax, Passage Bio, Phathom Pharmaceuticals, and multiple private companies for which he served as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Frazier, Mr. Socks co-founded Incline Therapeutics, Inc. in 2010 and served as its President and Chief Operating Officer from 2010 until its sale to The Medicines Company in 2013. He also co-founded Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2004 and served as its Vice President of Business Development and then as its Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy from 2004 until 2010. From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Socks was a Venture Partner at Windamere Venture Partners, a venture capital firm founded and invested in early-stage life science companies, where he co-founded multiple biopharmaceutical companies.

Mr. Socks holds a B.S. from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Frank Karbe has over twenty-five years of financial and life-sciences expertise and currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Cidara Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CDTX), a biopharmaceutical company using its proprietary immunotherapy platform to develop an antiviral influenza prophylaxis. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Better Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: BTTX), President and Chief Financial Officer of Myovant Sciences (NYSE:MYOV) and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Exelixis, Inc., (NASDAQ: EXEL).

Earlier in his career, Mr. Karbe worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs & Co. focusing on corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions in the life sciences industry. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of Aduro Biotech, Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, and Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Mr. Karbe holds a Diplom-Kaufmann (MBA) from the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Koblenz, Germany.

Heidi Kunz retired as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Blue Shield of California.

She previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Gap, Inc., Chief Financial Officer of ITT Industries, Inc., and Treasurer of General Motors.

Ms. Kunz holds a B.S. from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. She also serves on the board of Agilent Technologies and Avanos Medical.

Dr. Parikh, M.D., Ph.D., is the President and Chief Executive Officer of MOMA Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company discovering the next generation of precision medicines by targeting molecular machines that underlie human disease.

Previously, Dr. Parikh served as senior vice president and head of the Gastrointestinal Therapeutic Area at Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Parikh earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry and his M.D. from Vanderbilt University, and was a resident in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He then completed subspecialty training in gastroenterology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, with postdoctoral work in cancer biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also remains actively engaged in the practice of gastroenterology and internal medicine as a part-time coverage staff physician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Mr. Schroeder served as Chief Executive Officer of Nabriva Therapeutics from 2018 to 2023 and as a director until March 2025, following Nabriva’s acquisition of Zavante Therapeutics, where he was co-founder, President, and CEO. Prior to that, he co-founded Cadence Pharmaceuticals and served as President and CEO until its $1.4 billion acquisition by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Dura Pharmaceuticals, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Mr. Schroeder currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cidara Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CDTX) and has previously served on the boards of several public and private life sciences companies, including Otonomy, Collegium Pharmaceutical, Hyperion Therapeutics, Incline Therapeutics, and Trius Therapeutics. He is also a former Chairman of Biocom California and the Antimicrobials Working Group. In 2014, he was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the San Diego region and was recognized as a national finalist.

He holds a B.S. in Management from Rutgers University

Mr. Stenhouse has over thirty years of biopharma industry experience and currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Prometheus Biosciences, a biotechnology company focused on GI diseases. Prior to joining Prometheus Biosciences, Mr. Stenhouse served as General Manager of the Screening Business Unit at Exact Sciences where he led the Cologuard^® commercial functions including sales, marketing, market access, commercial operations, and medical affairs.

Prior to Exact Sciences, Mr. Stenhouse spent nearly thirty years at Abbott Laboratories/AbbVie, most recently as Vice President, U.S. Immunology. In this role, he led the U.S. sales and marketing teams responsible for HUMIRA^®. While at Abbott Laboratories/AbbVie, he held various sales and marketing roles of increasing responsibility, many relating to gastroenterology. Mr. Stenhouse holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the College of Charleston.

Jamie is a Managing Partner at Frazier Life Sciences and has led many of the firm’s successful investments, including Acerta Pharma BV (sold to AstraZeneca), Amunix Pharmaceuticals (sold to Sanofi), Calistoga Pharmaceuticals (co-founder, sold to Gilead Sciences), Mavupharma (sold to AbbVie), and Portola Pharmaceuticals (co-founder, sold to Alexion). In addition to Phathom, he currently represents Frazier on the boards of Alpine Immune Sciences (NASDAQ: ALPN), AnaptysBio (NASDAQ: ANAB), Enlaza Therapeutics, Lassen Therapeutics, and Seraxis. Jamie also serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Frazier Lifesciences Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ: FLAC). In addition, he is a board observer for Alcresta Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Frazier, Jamie was the head of cardiovascular R&D at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and ran Millennium San Francisco (formerly COR Therapeutics). Before the merger of COR and Millennium, he served as the Vice President of Biology at COR and was responsible for all research activities. He served on the medical school faculties at Stanford and Harvard Medical School prior to joining COR.

Jamie received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford and holds a B.S. from the University of Michigan. He did his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has authored over 50 publications and was the recipient of a Howard Hughes Scholars Award while on the faculty at Stanford.

June 1945 – August 2021

Dr. Yamada was a renowned pioneer in drug and vaccine development and an extremely accomplished leader in the gastrointestinal space. The team at Phathom would not be here without Dr. Yamada, and Phathom is proud to continue his legacy through our work to change the landscape of GI treatment.

Dr. Yamada served as a Venture Partner with Frazier Healthcare Partners and served as a Director of Agilent Technologies, CSL, and a number of private life sciences companies. As a member of the Frazier Life Sciences team, Dr. Yamada focused on both creating companies as well as providing strategic guidance to existing portfolio companies.

Prior to his role at Frazier Healthcare Partners, Dr. Yamada served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and was a member of the company’s Board of Directors. In this role, Dr. Yamada was responsible for all of Takeda’s research and development activities and a budget of nearly $4 billion. Prior to Takeda, Dr. Yamada was President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program in Seattle, where he oversaw over $9 billion in grants for applying technologies to address major health challenges of the developing world.

Before joining the Gates Foundation, he was Chairman of Research and Development at GlaxoSmithKline and a member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Yamada was the Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and the Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Dr. Yamada earned his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine and a B.A. in History from Stanford University. He authored more than 150 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and was the editor of The Textbook of Gastroenterology.

David Socks is a Managing Partner at Mountainfield Venture Partners. Previously he was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of HilleVax, Inc. Mr. Socks is also a co-founder of Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and has served as a member of the board of directors since January 2018.

Mr. Socks previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Phathom Pharmaceuticals from January 2018 until his appointment as interim Chief Financial Officer, a position he held from December 2019 until July 2020. Since July 2020, Mr. Socks has served as a Strategic Advisor to Phathom Pharmaceuticals.

From August 2014 to September 2021, Mr. Socks was a Venture Partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners. In this capacity, he co-founded Arcutis, HilleVax, Passage Bio, Phathom Pharmaceuticals, and multiple private companies for which he served as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Frazier, Mr. Socks co-founded Incline Therapeutics, Inc. in 2010 and served as its President and Chief Operating Officer from 2010 until its sale to The Medicines Company in 2013. He also co-founded Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2004 and served as its Vice President of Business Development and then as its Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy from 2004 until 2010. From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Socks was a Venture Partner at Windamere Venture Partners, a venture capital firm founded and invested in early-stage life science companies, where he co-founded multiple biopharmaceutical companies.

Mr. Socks holds a B.S. from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Azmi Nabulsi, M.D., is a Phathom co-founder and currently serves as Chief Operating Officer.

Dr. Nabulsi is the former Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Global Development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In these roles, he led all global research and development, medical, regulatory, operations, and data analytics functions. In addition, he led research and development portfolio management strategy and planning, focusing on enhancing the company’s pipeline and productivity.

During his 14-year career at Takeda U.S. and Japan, Dr. Nabulsi oversaw global drug development for both early and late-stage product candidates, and he was responsible for bringing the majority of Takeda’s 21 new drugs in multiple therapeutic areas and countries to market. He was also responsible for the design and execution of the company’s major research and development transformation, utilizing industry-leading approaches to drive innovation. Dr. Nabulsi has led or directed partnerships and alliances in gastroenterology, oncology, immunology, cardiovascular medicine, and metabolism. Prior to Takeda, he held leadership positions at Abbott Laboratories, including Head of Immunology and Oncology Ventures. He previously served on the Board of Directors for ReAlta Life Sciences, Inc. from 2020-2023.

Dr. Nabulsi has an M.D. from Ain-Shams University in Cairo and an M.P.H. from the University of Minnesota.

Aditya Kohli, Ph.D., is a Venture Partner with Frazier Healthcare Partners, where he focuses on company creation. Since joining Frazier in 2016, he has co-founded Phathom, HilleVax, and Scout Bio, and helped launch Passage Bio. Currently, Dr. Kohli serves Chief Business Officer of HilleVax, and as a board member of Scout Bio.

Prior to Frazier, Dr. Kohli was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company, where he served biopharmaceutical companies on business development, research and development, and marketing and sales strategy.

Dr. Kohli received his Ph.D. from the UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco joint graduate program in bioengineering and holds B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in biological engineering from MIT.