Dr. James Yarger is an accomplished scientist and executive with extensive scientific, management, and operational experience. His expertise is in molecular biology, regulatory affairs, API manufacturing, and business. He has more than 30 years of research experience in metabolic engineering and drug discovery and development. In 2006 Dr. Yarger founded ENDECE, invented the company’s proprietary compound library, and made the initial discovery of specific compounds within the library that induce remyelination. Dr. Yarger is responsible for ENDECE’s scientific and business strategies and corporate development, including fundraising and building the respected ENDECE network.

Prior to ENDECE, Dr. Yarger co-founded Cedarburg Pharmaceuticals. As President and CEO he was responsible for the scientific strategy, business development, and FDA and DEA compliance and audits (including FDA inspections) that led to the company’s growth. He raised equity capital (over $15 million) and designed and built the Cedarburg Pharmaceutical laboratories and manufacturing facility.

Dr. Yarger holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Brandeis University and was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard. He is author of 13 scientific publications and 24 published scientific abstracts, and holds 120 issued patents.

Linda M. Pullan, Ph.D. offers biotech and pharmaceutical companies consulting in all aspects of partnering.

Linda has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and a B.S. in Chemistry.

Linda has over 20 years of drug industry experience, beginning in drug discovery at Monsanto/Searle/now Pfizer and ICI/Zeneca/now AstraZeneca. She contributed to and led teams that put the multi-billion dollar antipsychotic Seroquel and other molecules into development.

Her business development experiences began with in-licensing technology and early drug candidates in all therapeutic areas at what is now AstraZeneca, and continued as head of oncology and hematology licensing for Amgen, and Kosan Biosciences as VP of Business Development.

For several years, she has been providing companies help in strategy, presentations and messaging, identification, evaluation, valuation, negotiation for partnering in or out. She has an extensive deal sheet ranging from company acquisitions to Phase III compounds to preclinical candidates to technologies.

She writes a free monthly newsletter Pullan’s Pieces (see back issues on www.PullanConsulting.com ), with tidbits of science and business for thousands of readers.

Lee Rauch has held leadership roles in public and private companies including CEO of Nuon Therapeutics, SVP of Corporate Development at COR Therapeutics, Chief Business Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Chief Business Officer of Global Blood Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical start-up that completed its IPO is in August of 2015. She is also managing director for Cervantes Life Science Partners, LLC, a consulting firm that provides integrated business solutions for life science companies.

Dr. Nye, Vice President of Discovery, directs the drug discovery programs for ENDECE, LLC. Prior to joining Endece, Dr. Nye led the research efforts at PhysioGenix, Assistant Professor in the Max McGee Diabetes Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and was a lead scientist for recombinant antibody expression at Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Nye was a postdoctoral fellow at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. He has been awarded grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop technology platforms for studying complex diseases such as diabetes and alcoholism, along with creating model systems for drug toxicity and cognitive disorders. Dr. Nye holds a Ph.D. in Cell, Molecular and Structural Biology from Northwestern University, along with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin.

Jean Yarger co-founded and serves as Administrative Officer for ENDECE. Her multidisciplinary background and experience includes finance, human resources, document management, project management and establishing corporate structures that facilitate and support scientific research and development.  Jean is a serial entrepreneur. She began her career as business owner and consultant providing decorating and design services for private homes and businesses. She went on to co-found Cedarburg Pharmaceuticals where she established administrative procedures and protocols for finance, shipping and receiving, and human resources, where she initiated hiring and performance assessment practices contributing to the growth of Cedarburg Pharmaceuticals.

Jean is responsible for defining and executing corporate structure and strategy including, finance, public relations, human resources, project management and document control.