Management Team

Henry H. Hsu, M.D. Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Hsu is a co-founder and currently serves as the CEO and a Director on the Altheos Board.

Dr. Hsu has extensive experience leading drug development teams ranging from translational research and pre-clinical development through clinical development and approval as well as post-approval medical affairs and label expansion.

From 2005 to 2009, Dr. Hsu served as Chief Medical Officer of CoMentis, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on neurologic and ophthalmic diseases. While at CoMentis, Dr. Hsu was a key member of the team responsible for a licensing agreement with Astellas Pharma worth $760M. Previously, Dr. Hsu was Vice President, Clinical Research, at CoTherix, where his clinical team obtained US approval of inhaled iloprost (Ventavis®) for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Prior to CoTherix, he was Vice President, Clinical Research, at InterMune, where he was responsible for clinical development for a number of products. From 1995 to 1999, Dr. Hsu served in various senior positions at Chiron Corporation within both the vaccines and biopharmaceutical divisions.

Dr. Hsu received an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, and a B.S. in biology from Johns Hopkins University. He obtained internal medicine training at the University of California, Davis, where he served as Chief Medical Resident, and went on to a research fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center. While at Stanford, he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and carried out studies in molecular virology.

M. (Ken) Kengatharan, Ph.D., M.B.A. President & Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. M. (Ken) Kengatharan is a co-founder and President and CSO of Altheos, Inc.
 
During the last 10 years, Dr. Kengatharan has been critical to the development of multiple drug candidates (NCEs and re-purposed drugs) from concept to Phase II. Since setting-up his first company in the late 1990s, Dr. Kengatharan has been key in raising more than $130 MM in private equity for four start-up companies.

In 2004, Dr. Kengatharan co-founded Athenagen, Inc. (re-named CoMentis, Inc.). He later joined the company as its Vice-President of Pre-Clinical Research and Development and then became Vice-President of Translational Research and Scientific Affairs. His responsibilities included overseeing discovery research and pre-clinical drug development in cognition enhancement, inflammation, and angiogenesis, in addition to managing pre-clinical R&D operations in South San Francisco. Prior to joining CoMentis, he was a staff scientist in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University, where he continues his affiliation as a visiting scientist. Dr. Kengatharan has also served as Director of Corporate Development, and later, Vice President of Pre-Clinical R&D at OxoN Medica Inc., where he spearheaded pre-clinical drug development as well as R&D operations.

He is currently a member of the board of directors at Armetheon, Inc., and a board observer at CoMentis, Inc., and Altheos, Inc. He has also served on the boards of EPi3, Athenagen, Inc., and Altheos, Inc., and as a member of the advisory board of Cardinal Free Clinics at Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition, he is currently an advisor to Stanford’s SPARK program, a technology translation project for biotech ideas.

Dr. Kengatharan is an author of several research articles and reviews in the vascular biology, inflammation, and ocular pharmacology areas, and has been invited to present at local and international scientific meetings covering topics in angiogenesis, inflammation, ocular drug delivery and biotech financing and start-ups.

Dr. Kengatharan obtained his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of London at the William Harvey Research Institute with Nobel laureate Sir John Vane and his M.B.A. (with Distinction) from Durham University in England, where he focused on Biotech Finance and Entrepreneurship. Thereafter, he held a post-doctoral position at the same institute as a recipient of a British Heart Foundation Fellowship.

Barbara Wirostko, M.D. Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Wirostko joined Altheos as Chief Medical Officer in 2011.

Dr. Wirostko, a board certified ophthalmologist with glaucoma subspecialty training, has spent the last 15 years focused on glaucoma drug development. She has experience and expertise in the area of glaucoma drug development, both internal and external to the pharmaceutical industry, from translational research through successful regulatory submissions.

Prior to joining Altheos, she was senior medical director and the glaucoma medical team lead at Pfizer Inc., where she was responsible for pipeline strategy in glaucoma and for overseeing the global medical affairs program and the development and EMA approval of the pediatric program for the Xalatan franchise. Prior to joining Pfizer, she was chief ophthalmologist, specializing in glaucoma, at the Huntington Medical Group PC in Huntington, NY. During her 10 years in practice, she was a clinical investigator for a number of pivotal glaucoma clinical trials.
 
Dr. Wirostko maintains a clinical glaucoma practice and currently holds an academic affiliation with the Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, as a clinical adjunct associate professor in ophthalmology. At the University of Utah, she remains actively involved in translational research, basic bench research and advising students in clinical research protocols. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and a member of the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology, Women in Ophthalmology, the American Glaucoma Society, and the National Association of Professional Women. She serves on grant review working groups, is on the Scientific Advisor Board for the Glaucoma Research Foundation, is actively involved with the Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholars at the University of Utah, and is on the editorial board of Acta Ophthalmologica. She serves as chairperson and moderator for the annual Ocular Diseases & Drug Discovery conference.

Andrew Lam, Executive Director, Product Development

Andrew Lam joined Altheos in 2010 as Executive Director of Product Development, where he leads all activities related to chemistry and manufacturing.

Mr. Lam has over 23 years of experience in pharmaceutical development, with a primary focus in the development of controlled release products. Mr. Lam was most recently Executive Director of Formulation Development, CMC, at Exelixis, where he advanced numerous discovery compounds in late stage optimization to first-in-human clinical studies. Prior to Exelixis, Mr. Lam served as Senior Director of Liquid OROS Technology Development at ALZA, a Johnson and Johnson company, where he developed the liquid delivery technology for poorly soluble compounds and advanced a number of new molecular entities to human studies. During his tenure at ALZA, Mr. Lam held numerous positions in pharmaceutics research, formulation, process development, and manufacturing, and served as project team leader for the development of three commercialized products from early compound development to product launch. Mr. Lam received the 2002 Johnson Medal, the highest Johnson and Johnson distinguished award, for development of CONCERTA®, a multi-billion dollar product for attention deficit hyperactive disorder. As CMC leader, Mr. Lam filed 28 INDs, 3 NDAs, 2 MAAs and 1 JNDA, and managed the post-approval changes of marketed products.

Mr. Lam is an inventor on 19 issued US patents and 5 additional US published patent applications. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of California, Davis.