Our best-in-class teams transition late stage development drugs to high value therapeutics.
Our best-in-class teams transition late stage development drugs to high value therapeutics.
Our teams coordinate best-in-class investigational, regulatory, intellectual property and commercialization strategies to move promising development stage drugs through regulatory approval with fresh new patents.
We target therapies in late stage pre-clinical or early clinical development at research organizations, universities and university spin-out companies who lack commercialization experience.
We leverage patent family development strategies with best-in-class formulation and clinical research organizations to bring high value therapeutics to market.
We target high value therapeutics that harness the body's natural regenerative pathways to reduce harmful inflammation and promote tissue regeneration with a robust safety profile.
We target therapies that stimulate the patient's immune system, activating the body's natural defense mechanisms to fight malignancies and to protect normal cells.
We target interventions in myocardial regeneration including endogenous modulators of stem cells and angiogenic factors.
Founding Member, Manager & CEO
Ms. Hicks is a proven biotech executive with a strong track record of driving company growth, value creation, and successful exits. She brings deep leadership and transactional experience across public and private life science companies, spanning strategy, operations, business development, sales and marketing and fundraising.
As VP of Business Development & Strategic Planning at LifeCell Corporation, Ms. Hicks led multiple financings, including a successful IPO, and executed key strategic partnerships including a license agreement with Medtronic. She was instrumental in launching the AlloDerm® regenerative tissue product and building its global distribution network, helping position the company for its $2.9 billion acquisition by Allergan (now AbbVie).
Ms. HIcks has previously held senior roles at Pfizer and served as Acceleration Director at the Houston Technology Center’s NASA Office, where she assisted early-stage tech ventures forge pathways from product concept to commercialization and secure critical funding. She also launched and directed the Acceleration Program at Expanding Frontiers, a space-tech innovation hub in Brownsville, TX, and serves on its Board of Directors as well as that of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
Ms. Hicks holds a bachelor's degree with honors from UNC Greensboro and completed all academic requirements with the exception of a dissertation for a PhD (ABD) in Immunology at UNC Chapel Hill. She is the principal architect behind Affirmed Pharma’s NIH grant strategy and successful non-dilutive funding to date.
Head, Preclinical Research
Dr. Andley is an award-winning scientist, internationally recognized for her pioneering contributions to ocular research. As a Professor of Ophthalmology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, she led groundbreaking studies on disease pathology and developed innovative model systems that integrate proteomic, metabolomic, and RNA sequencing approaches. These systems have uncovered key metabolic pathways underlying cataract formation. Her extensive innovative therapeutic research holds promise for future clinical applications of ocular TP508 formulations.
With over four decades of experience as an independent research scientist and principal investigator on multiple NIH grants, Dr. Andley has made lasting contributions to vision science. Her laboratory was the first to develop the patented human lens epithelial HLE B-3 cell line, which has been distributed globally and used in numerous investigations. She has also made extensive contributions to the understanding of crystallin biology and chaperone function in the lens, elucidating mechanisms that are thought to delay cataract formation.
Dr. Andley has extensive expertise in photobiology, having authored a chapter in Photobiology for the 21st Century, a comprehensive review on the Photobiology of the Eye, and another major review on photodamage associated with clinical phototherapeutic procedures. She was the principal investigator on a multi-year NIH-funded research grant titled Photobiology of the Lens and has published extensively on radiation-induced ocular damage. In addition to her academic accomplishments, Dr. Andley has served as a member of Scientific and Medical Advisory Boards and has held licensing agreements with several pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Andley earned her PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, and did her postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, where she later served on the faculty as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/usha-andley-0a27574/
Head, Medicinal Chemistry & IP
Dr. Swain is a licensed US/Canadian patent agent with more than 25 years experience as a scientist/inventor and intellectual property specialist. He helps independent inventors and businesses, from start-ups to large companies, universities and government departments, protect and profit from their intellectual property (IP) assets. He helps business leaders optimize their mission and maximize their growth by increasing value and obtaining a return on investment.
In his prior role as Medicinal Chemist Group Leader at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation, Waltham, MA, Dr. Swain created and managed the company’s first medicinal chemistry laboratory and department. He earned his PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Salford, UK and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego, CA and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, TX.
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These forward looking statements and projections should not be relied upon, but are provided only to show a theoretical outcome. Actual results may be materially different. We cannot and do not warrant the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the information contained therein. The statements in this document are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties; actual results may differ from the forward-looking statements. Sentences or phrases that use such words as “pro-forma”, “projection”, “anticipates”, “attempt”, “target”, “develop”, “working to”, “working toward” and others indicate forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement.
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Email: info@affirmedpharma.com
