MICHAEL T. FLAVIN, PH.D.
Managing Director
Michael T. Flavin is a Managing Director of Flavin Ventures, a venture incubator focused on starting, financing and developing biotechnology companies. He has served as CEO of Shamrock Structures, a drug discovery services company founded in 2003 to provide pharmaceutical researchers with access to technologies and expertise to accelerate their lead compound discovery programs. He has also been Chairman & CEO of Advanced Life Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of new drugs to fight infection, inflammation and cancer. Founded in 1999, Advanced Life Sciences completed a $35M IPO in 2005 and several follow-on financings to advance drugs through clinical trials, including Restanza (cethromycin), a novel once-a-day oral antibiotic in NDA-stage development for the treatment of respiratory tract infections including pneumonia. In 1987, Dr. Flavin founded MediChem Life Sciences. He established MediChem as a premier drug discovery and development company for the pharmaceutical industry. Over 14 years, MediChem grew from a two-person operation to more than 240 employees, serving over 90 clients in drug discovery, including most of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and many leading biotechnology firms. In 2000, he oversaw the acquisition and integration of ThermoGen, a protein expression company, and Emerald Biostructures, a structural biology company, as MediChem subsidiaries. In 2000, MediChem completed a $54M IPO. MediChem was acquired in 2002 by deCODE genetics to build a complete “gene map to drug” business model. Dr. Flavin has 45 publications in scientific journals and 20 U.S. patents in the fields of organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry and biochemistry. Dr. Flavin is a frequent lecturer on topics related to scientific entrepreneurship at universities such as Notre Dame, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Flavin received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Notre Dame and his Ph.D. degree in medicinal chemistry from University of Illinois at Chicago. After completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Baxter prior to founding MediChem.
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JOHN L. FLAVIN, MBA
Managing Director
John Flavin is a Managing Director of Flavin Ventures, LLC. He is also CEO of Portal Innovations. He was Chief Financial Officer at Endotronix and, prior to that, he was Associate Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago. He was formerly the President and Chief Financial Officer of Advanced Life Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of infection, cancer and respiratory diseases. Prior to that, Mr. Flavin was the Chief Operating Officer and a director of MediChem Life Sciences, a chemistry-based drug discovery company. At MediChem, he was responsible for developing and managing the business and scientific operations and was the Chief Executive Officer of its protein engineering and proteomics subsidiaries, Emerald BioStructures, ThermoGen and AXAS. In addition, he led each of Advanced Life Sciences' and MediChem's capital financings totaling over $220 million, including 2 IPOs. Mr. Flavin also led the establishment of MediChem's IT / financial reporting functions and project management systems. Mr. Flavin holds a BS in Business Administration from Marquette University and an MBA from Lewis University.
PATRICK W. FLAVIN, JD
Principal
Mr Flavin has 20 years of experience in the life sciences field focused on legal and governmental affairs and business development. He has served as the chief legal executive to two public companies and has been instrumental in securing non-dilutive funding for company growth. Mr Flavin served as Chief Legal Counsel to Advanced Life Sciences, where, in addition to supporting capital raises and managing corporate governance, he led the company’s efforts to gain government funding through biodefense contracts with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Mr. Flavin has been a frequent speaker at biodefense conferences and is a recognized leader in the field of advocating on behalf of biodefense funding for anti-infectives as well as governmental incentives for antibiotic development on Capitol Hill. He earned his B.A. from Providence College and received his J.D. from DePaul University College of Law.
ZE-QI XU, PH.D.
Principal
In addition to an advisory role with Flavin Ventures, Dr. Xu is an executive of a privately held start-up biopharmaceutical company in Chicagoland focused on the development and commercialization of novel nanomedicines for oncology treatment. Dr Xu has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences field with unique expertise in medicinal chemistry, preclinical research, clinical development, manufacturing and regulatory affairs. In his past work experience, he has discovered and advanced drug candidates from R&D through IND to NDA for treatments of infectious diseases, cancers and respiratory distress syndrome. Dr. Xu oversaw the successful Phase III development of the antibiotic cethromycin through NDA submission and subsequent Infectious Disease Advisory Committee meeting. He acted as the primary scientific interface with FDA and other regulatory agencies to support the various development programs, including regulatory submissions and meetings with the Agency. In addition, Dr. Xu built and led a team of scientists in the design and synthesis of novel antibody-drug conjugates with highly potent payloads and linker molecules for targeted release. He holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, an M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry from the Shanghai Medical University and a B.S. in Chemistry from Jiangxi Normal University. Dr. Xu carried out post-doctoral fellowships at Clemson University and the Michigan Cancer Foundation and was a Guest Research Associate at Argonne National Laboratory. He has been awarded 5 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants from NIH, has published 66 papers in peer-reviewed journals, holds 22 issued patents, has written 2 book chapters and has given 61 presentations at national and international conferences.
David A. Eiznhamer, Ph.D., MBA
Principal
Dr. Eiznhamer is currently Vice President, Clinical Sciences at Kadmon Corporation, LLC. In this position he is responsible for providing leadership and direction for clinical programs in oncology and autoimmune disease indications. Previously, Dr. Eiznhamer was Executive Vice President of Clinical Development, Advanced Life Sciences, Inc. In this role, he was responsible for the scientific and operational direction of the development of cethromycin, a ketolide antibiotic. Following the successful completion of the clinical program, Dr. Eiznhamer served as the conceptual leader for the submission of the new drug application for cethromycin and acted as the primary point of contact for all regulatory interactions pertaining to the
submission. Over a five year period, Dr. Eiznhamer played a pivotal role in the raising of over $100M dollars in the capital markets. In earlier positions with MediChem Life Sciences and deCODE genetics, Dr. Eiznhamer held leadership positions in regulatory affairs, pre-clinical drug development, and drug discovery. He has authored several publications and made numerous presentations at national and international meetings. Dr.
Eiznhamer received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Loyola University of Chicago and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
NANCY A. TYRRELL
Principal
Nancy is a Principal of Flavin Ventures, LLC and Associate Director, Translational Activities at the Chicago Biomedical Consortium. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Business Development at Shamrock Structures, a protein crystallography research company that was founded by Flavin Ventures in 2003. Nancy has over 25 years of experience in business development in the life sciences field and has worked with several of the Flavin Ventures’ portfolio companies, including MediChem Life Sciences, Advanced Life Sciences and Shamrock Structures, to develop successful partnerships and collaborations with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the world.