Management

Justin Murdock

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Murdock is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of the Board of NovaRx. He is also senior vice president of investments for both Castle & Cooke and the Dole Food Company. He serves on the executive boards of both companies, as well as their audit and finance committees.

Habib Fakhrai, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Fakhrai is the co-founder of NovaRx, Executive Vice Chairman of the Board, Chief Scientific Officer, and is the inventor of the Company's core technology. Dr. Fakhrai was the first in the world to recognize the importance of blocking immunosuppression in cancer vaccine therapy. He was also the lead scientist in treating a glioma patient for the first time in the world with immunogene therapy.  

Daniel Shawler

Senior Vice President of Operations

Mr. Shawler is co-developer of the company's technology. He is an immunologist and biologist with more than 25 years of experience in clinical investigation. He is listed as an author on more than 50 scientific papers relating to cancer therapy, and has held research positions at institutions such as the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Scripps Research Institute, and UCSD. Mr. Shawler is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, and the American Society of Gene Therapy.

Steve Moses

Vice President of Technical Operations

Mr. Moses brings to NovaRx more than 25 years of research, operations, quality assurance, and regulatory affairs experience in the pharmaceutical biopharmaceutical and medical devices industries. Mr. Moses is also founder and Managing Director of BioService Solutions, a process and facilities design and validation service provider for the biotech and medical device industries. He has previously held senior-level positions at the Diagnostic Products Corporation, Medical Biology Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center, City Of Dallas Water Utilities Department, and Viagene, Inc. (later The Chiron Technologies Center for Gene Therapy).

Ewa Carrier, M.D.

Vice President of Medical Affairs

Dr. Carrier has board certifications in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. She is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Pediatrics in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Prior to that, Dr. Carrier was an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. She performed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, a Hematology-Oncology Fellowship at Children's Hospital in Oakland, California, and Pediatric Residencies at the Stanford University Medical Center and White Memorial Medical Center, Loma Linda University in Los Angeles. Dr. Carrier has participated in over 20 clinical trials and has over 40 scientific publications to her credit. Her research interests are clinical applications of embryonic stem cells, stem cell transplantation, cancer stem cells, and cancer vaccines. Dr. Carrier received her M.D. with honors from the Wroclaw University School of Medicine, Wroclaw, Poland.

Elena Prokopenko

Director of Quality Assurance

Ms. Prokopenko is the Director of Quality Assurance for NovaRx and brings more than 17 years of biopharmaceutical cGMP industry experience. Prior to joining NovaRx Ms. Prokopenko held the QA Manager Position at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc and was responsible for the release of Amylin’s clinical and commercial products. Previously, Mrs. Prokopenko has held management positions at Telos Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Genstar Therapeutics and Baxter Health Care and was involved in all aspects of cGMP production of human therapeutics. Ms. Prokopenko earned her BS and MS in Biochemistry at Odessa Mechnikov University, Odessa, Ukraine.

Linda Bergen

Director of Human Resources and Administration

Mrs. Bergen has been involved in cancer research and development for more than 20 years, working in administration, human resources, operations, and grant management. Early in her career, Bergen worked at UCSD Cancer Center, transferring thereafter to Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center as its first employee. She worked closely with several start-ups through the UCSD CONNECT program. In the for-profit sector, Bergen managed human relations at Pentech Energy Solutions, and GeneOhm.

Jay Sorensen

Director of Manufacturing

Mr. Sorensen is the Director of Manufacturing for NovaRx and brings more than 20 years of experience in Research and Development and Manufacturing according to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) of human therapeutics. Prior to joining NovaRx, Mr. Sorensen was the Manager of the Manufacturing Sciences and the Technical Support Departments at Genentech, Inc. He was responsible for pre-process validation studies and risk assessments for equipment at Genentech’s newest commercial manufacturing facility. In addition, he was responsible for leading major investigations for production discrepancies. Previously, Mr. Sorensen has held management positions at Biogen-Idec, Genstar Therapeutics, Chiron Corporation., Applied Molecular Evolution, and Cytel Corporation. Mr. Sorensen is a graduate from the University of California San Diego.

David H. Murdock

David H. Murdock is Chairman and major shareholder of Dole Food Company Inc., (NYSE) a Fortune 500 company, and Chairman, CEO and owner of Castle & Cooke Inc., a private company.

Emmet O'Neal III

Mr. O'Neal is NovaRx's co-founder and on the Board of Directors for the Company. He works as a private investor in Birmingham, Alabama and is actively involved with several other companies in addition to NovaRx. From 1985 to 1994, Mr. O'Neal served as the Chief Executive Officer of O’Neal Steel, Inc., a family-owned metal services center.

Andrew Conrad, Ph.D.

Dr. Conrad is on the NovaRx Board of Directors and serves as Chief Scientific Officer to the National Genetics Institute, Global Director of Esoteric Clinical Trials Service for Labcorp, and Chief Scientific Officer to both Castle and Cooke and the Dole Food Company, Inc. To date, the primary focus of his research has been on the effects and manifestations of chronic viral illnesses as measured by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In addition, he has begun to explore the role of gene expression in cancer. This work is conducted in one of the largest PCR laboratories in the world, the National Genetics Institute, which performs over three million PCR reactions per year.

Alexander M.M. Eggermont, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Eggermont is clinical consultant to NovaRx. He is a Full Professor of Surgical Oncology and Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology at the Erasmus University Medical Centre - Daniel den Hoed Cancer Centre in Rotterdam. He holds the Chair of Experimental Surgical Oncology endowed by the Dutch Cancer Society and the 'Joseph Maisin Chair' for Surgical Oncology at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Prof Eggermont is past President of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and chairs the Committee on Adjuvant Treatment Strategies of the EORTC-Melanoma Group. Elected to the 2005-2008 Board of ASCO (Surgical Oncology Seat), Prof Eggermont is past Chairman on the International Affairs committee of ASCO, and serves on the JCO Editorial Board, the AACR Centennial Committee, International affairs committee and the Tumor Immunology task Force. He is author and co-author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and monographs.

John Gutheil, M.D.

Dr. Gutheil is a board certified oncologist who is a company consultant. He assisted the company in the preparation of both the Phase II and Phase III clinical trial protocols for Lucanix. Previously, Dr. Gutheil served as the Vice-President of Medical Research for Favrille, Inc., a publicly-held biotechnology company located in San Diego. Prior to joining Favrille in 2002, Dr. Gutheil served as the Executive Director for Clinical Research and Development at Vical, Inc. During his time at Vical, he oversaw the completion of two registration studies in metastatic melanoma as well as the initiation of additional clinical studies in melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, prostate cancer, and head and neck cancer. From 1986 to 1997, he served as the Director of Clinical Research at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego. In addition, Dr. Gutheil simultaneously held various positions at the University of Maryland Cancer Center, including Director of the Fellowship Program, Director of the Community Physician Outreach Program, and Co-Director of the Neuro-Oncology Program.