Text Box: Travis C. Mickle, Ph.D. President, Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Mickle earned his Ph.D. at the University of Iowa in Bio-Organic Chemistry under one of the leading anti-viral researchers, Dr. Vasu Nair.  While at Iowa, he published several papers on anti-viral nucleoside chemistry as well as giving several presentations.  This work included discovering a novel method for predicting anti-viral activity with computational models.   After graduation, Dr. Mickle began work as a senior research scientist for New River Pharmaceuticals in Blacksburg, Virginia.  From March 2001-July 2002, he worked on various classes of drugs including antivirals, antibiotics, and analgesics by applying current drug discovery techniques to develop a novel drug delivery platform.  In addition, Dr. Mickle was involved in creating several in vitro and in vivo studies to prescreen compounds he had made.   In July 2002, Dr. Mickle was promoted to Director of Chemistry where he now supervised the research activities of several senior research scientists and research associates in three different therapeutic areas.  Dr. Mickle was put to the task of developing goals and timelines, preparing patents, and managing his research staff by tracking progress reports and designing research plans for them to follow.  Not only did Dr. Mickle manage a team of scientists, but he also remained active in the lab by producing a number of novel drug conjugates with peptides, carbohydrates, and nucleosides.    In January 2003, Dr. Mickle was promoted again to Director of Drug Discovery and Chemical Development.  Adding to his duties, Dr. Mickle was required to participate in all regulatory aspects of bringing compounds up for FDA approval.  Not only did he supervise all drug discovery efforts including medicinal chemistry, analytical development, and biological testing, but he also supervised commercial process transfer, process optimization, cGMP synthesis, and manufacturing of several drugs.  Under Dr. Mickle’s supervision, two compounds are now in clinical studies (NRP290 and NRP409), one is in preclinical studies (NRP369), and one has been approved by the FDA (NRP104: lisdexamfetamine dimesylate).   Also among Dr. Mickle’s accomplishments are over 38 U.S. and international patent applications in which he has authored, as well as, one issued patent for an approved drug for which he was the primary inventor.  He is also the primary inventor on several other patent applications for the three afore mentioned drugs.   During his tenure at New River Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Mickle was an active participant in F.D.A. and D.E.A. meetings representing the company’s discovery/chemistry group.  He was also called in as a critical scientific resource during NRP’s initial public offering and a subsequent multi-million dollar deal with Shire Pharmaceuticals.  Dr. Mickle was a vital part of realizing the capitalization of New River from the early start-up phase to a company worth $1.8 billion in a period of about 5 years. Todd Johnson, PH.D. Chief executive officer Dr. Johnson joined KemPharm after a very productive sales and management career at various companies. Prior to KemPharm, Dr. Johnson was a Manager of Business Development and Sales for Cambrex Pharmaceutical Services and Products (CBM). At Cambrex, Dr. Johnson was responsible for the account management and sales for the chemical manufacturing division of Cambrex at two US and one ex-US site. During his time there, he was one of the top sales performers, negotiated large supply contracts, and managed to sign a number of first time customers to Cambrex. In addition, Dr. Johnson is currently a board of directors member for Tjaden Biosciences, LLC. Dr. Johnson was also the Vice President of Pharmaceutical Business Development for ABC Pharma Services. At ABC, Dr. Johnson was responsible for the management and business development of a contract research organization working with external clients on analytical, synthetic and preclinical testing aspects of drug development. Under Dr. Johnson’s guidance, ABC grew rapidly and added Cambrex Corporation as an investor and business partner. Dr. Johnson was a Cambrex scientific advisory board member during this time. Prior to ABC Pharma Services, Dr. Johnson was the Sr. Director of Development at Metaphore Pharmaceuticals. His main duties included developing Metaphore’s lead drugs for the treatment of cancer and pain. During this time, Dr. Johnson met with the FDA and managed a number of analytical and manufacturing related projects. Dr. Johnson was also involved with seeking external investment and went through the due diligence process with various venture capital groups. In addition to his many business accomplishments, Dr. Johnson was quite productive as a scientist early in his career. Prior to Metaphore, Dr. Johnson had his first tenure with ABC as the Director of CMC Business Unit and was also a scientist at Monsanto. Dr. Johnson is also the first inventor on a number of patents and patent applications along with having a number of research publications. Christal M.M. Mickle, M.A. Vice President, Group Leader Mrs. Mickle obtained her Master of Arts in chemistry at the University of Virginia.  There she worked under Dr. Timothy Macdonald in studying the structure-activity-relationship of lysophospholipids and the Edg family of G-protein coupled receptors.  The goal of the study was to derive the receptor-site characteristics of the proteins through molecular modeling.    Prior to her work at UVA, Mrs. Mickle worked at New River Pharmaceuticals for three years as a research associate.  In those three years, she worked in several therapeutic areas including analgesics, antivirals, and ADHD.  Due to her strong chemistry background and work ethic, Mrs. Mickle was given projects to work on that required her to supervise other research associates and work closely with scientists in other disciplines.   Not only did Mrs. Mickle excel as a bench chemist, she was also part of a poster presentation at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting.  She is also inventor on six pending U.S. and international patent applications.

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