ABOUT US
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Leading the fight for breath
Respira develops unique inhaled therapeutic products to address significant unmet patient needs.
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Respira applies industry-leading experience and expertise to develop pulmonary products that we believe have a high probability of technical and clinical success. Our initial focus is on 505(b)(2) products that we believe may improve the standard of care. We selectively partner with companies that have unique pulmonary delivery challenges.
We have developed a novel, easy-to-use, and reliable dry-powder inhalation device (AOS™ DPI) and apply advanced particle engineering formulation technologies to create products that may provide substantial new therapeutic benefits for patients.
Our product pipeline includes wholly owned development candidates. Our lead product candidate, RT234, is in clinical testing for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and the first of its kind for use on an “as-needed” basis (PRN).
We anticipate launching additional product development programs into our pipeline in 2023
Leadership Team
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John Kollins
Chief Executive Officer
- 35 years of experience – including CEO, Board, new product development, commercialization & business / corporate development roles
- Formerly CEO & co-founder of Satsuma Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:STSA) which developed a drug-device combination product for the treatment of migraine. Closed sale of Satsuma in June 2023
- BSE, Duke University and MBA, UVA Darden School
Brian Dowd
Chief Financial Officer
- Over 30 years financial operations experience with companies ranging from startups to publicly-traded companies
- LS Associates, formerly Aligos Therapeutics, Alios BioPharma, Second Genome, Codexis
Peter Staehr
Chief Medical Officer
- Over 20 years of global clinical development leadership experience in pharma/biotech, drug-device combinations & orphan diseases
- Approval of CV Therapeutics’ Lexiscan® (regadenoson) and Abbott’s Absorb™ bioresorbable stent
- Formerly ChemoCentryx/Amgen, Abbott Vascular, CV Therapeutics/ Gilead, ALZA/JNJ
- Specialty – Internal Medicine and Cardiology
- MD, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz; post-doc Stanford University
Ed Parsley
Medical Consultant
- 17+ years experience in clinical drug development in pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis, heart failure and rare hematologic diseases
- Specialties include internal, pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine
- Former faculty – University of Texas, Houston
Raj Kewalramani
SVP, Product Dev & Manufacturing
- 28+ years experience in Scale-up, Tech transfer, CDMO/Supply Chain, Manufacturing and Process Validation
- Formulation, process and optimization experience in solid and liquid sterile/parenteral dosages and drug/device combination products
- Expertise in NanoCrystal drug delivery platforms to improve API solubility and bioavailability
- Former executive – Elan Drug Delivery, Apotex, Kala, and Kashiv Bio
Kathy Feldkircher
Vice President, Clinical Operations
- 20+ years clinical operations leadership, focused on the development of therapies for pulmonary diseases
- Former companies include InterMune, CoTherix, Actelion
- Extensive background in PAH – Sponsor founder and partner for REVEAL
- PhD in Behavioral Neuropsychology
Our Board
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William Fairey
Chairman
- 30+ years experience, broad P&L, commercial & medical expertise
- Formerly President, Actelion US; Chief Commercial Officer, MyoKardia
Mike Dybbs
Partner at Samsara BioCapital
- Board member, Enara Bio, lONpath, Levo Therapeutics, Nkarta Therapeutics, Sutro
- Formerly New Leaf Venture Partners
- PhD in molecular biology, UC Berkeley
John Kollins
Chief Executive Officer
- 35 years of experience – including CEO, Board, new product development, commercialization & business / corporate development roles
- Formerly CEO & co-founder of Satsuma Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:STSA) which developed a drug-device combination product for the treatment of migraine. Closed sale of Satsuma in June 2023
- BSE, Duke University and MBA, UVA Darden School
Roger Zhang
Senior Associate at Samsara BioCapital
- Board Member, Spyglass Pharma
- Prior Board observer roles include Mineralys and Cargo Therapeutics
- PhD Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Stanford
Bob Curtis
Independent Consultant
- 35+ years CEO experience in Medtech, Diagnostics, and Drug Delivery industries
- Former SVP Pfizer Hospital Products
- Former CEO of Shiley, Urosystems, Aerogen, Cardiopulmonics, Medtech Ventures, HemoSense, Artemis Medical, CS Fluids, MyoScience, and Respira
- BS Ch.E., MS ME/Bioengineering – UC Berkeley
Michael Riebe
Independent Consultant
- Formerly VP, Inhalation Product Development at AstraZeneca
- 30+ years experience in pharmaceutical development at AZ, Pearl Therapeutics, iCeutica, Merck, GSK
- PhD in Analytical Chemistry, Univ Wisconsin – Madison
Respira is developing
next-generation talent
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Become part of our hybrid work team.
If you are interested in an employment opportunity with Respira, please visit our official Jobs page on LinkedIn.*