Jim O’Mara
President and Chief Executive Officer
Jim brings to Neurogastrx decades of biotech industry experience, and more than 10 years in gastrointestinal drug development and commercialization with the IBS product LINZESS® at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Among Jim’s notable contributions are numerous LINZESS deals he closed in the U.S., Europe, Japan and China. Prior to joining Ironwood, Jim was vice president of corporate development for Cozint Interactive, one of the first on-line market intelligence companies. Jim began his biotech career at MPM Capital, where he focused on business development transactions for emerging biotech companies. He has a B.S. degree in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
Cyril De Colle, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Cyril, a Neurogastrx co-founder, has more than 20 years of drug development experience, having led multiple programs from IND submission to late-stage clinical development. Before Neurogastrx, Cyril led the division at Kinemed responsible for advising global and venture-backed pharmaceutical companies on neuroscience drug development programs. Prior to Kinemed, he led clinical development programs targeting neurological disorders at Jazz Pharmaceuticals and served as a senior research scientist at Amgen and Roche Pharmaceuticals. These experiences led him to explore the role of the enteric nervous system in GI conditions, such as gastroparesis, the focus of our NG-101 development program. Cyril has a M.S. in pharmacology and a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Montpellier in France.
Christophe Arbet-Engels, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Christophe brings more than 25 years of experience in life sciences, academia, biotech & large pharmaceutical industry and, more recently, as chief medical officer at Millendo Therapeutics and Poxel Pharmaceuticals, with responsibility for all medical activities, including driving portfolio strategy and execution of U.S. and global registration programs. Prior to joining Millendo Therapeutics, he led and contributed to several pre-IND to late-stage development programs in cardiometabolic, oncology, neurology, hematology and rare diseases and launched several therapies as global or U.S. head of clinical development and medical affairs, including blockbusters LANTUS® and JARDIANCE® and, recently, TWYMEEG® in Japan. Christophe has a M.D. and a Ph.D. in internal medicine/endocrinology-metabolism from the University of Paris, France and an M.B.A. in finance from Rutgers University in N.J.
Sara Burke
VP, Program Management
Sara has 20 years of biopharma industry experience leading IND and NDA submissions through late-stage clinical development programs. At Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, she led the NDA submission and subsequent approval of LONHALA® MAGNAIR®, a drug-device combo to treat COPD, and was as a key contributor to the label expansion of APTIOM® for treatment of epilepsy. Prior to that, she served as development lead for Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ linaclotide partnerships in the E.U., Japan and China. Sara began her career working in molecular biology labs for companies including Archemix and Cereon Genomics. Sara has a B.S. degree in biology from Stonehill College and M.B.A. from Babson College.
Kimberley Cummings, Ph.D.
VP, Regulatory Affairs
Kimberley is a regulatory affairs professional with more than 20 years of experience in regulatory strategy and pharmaceutical product development. As a consultant at small to mid-size firms and global CROs, Kimberley provided leadership and regulatory expertise for the implementation and execution of integrated regulatory strategies across all phases of drug development and numerous indications, often with a focus on rare diseases. She has significant experience in moderating regulatory agency meetings and interactions, as well as preparing and filing a variety of regulatory submissions. Recently, Kimberley served as vice president of Levo Therapeutics, Inc., a small, late-stage biotechnology company focused solely on the development of treatments for a rare neuroendocrine disorder. Kimberley earned her B.S. degree in forensic chemistry from Ohio University and Ph.D. in biomedical sciences with specialization in pathology from the Medical College of Ohio, now part of the University of Toledo. She maintains a Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) from the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS).
James DeTore
Chief Financial Officer
Jim has been a consulting chief financial officer to several high-growth life science companies since 2017. Prior to this, he served as chief financial officer of Bluebird Bio and Proteostasis Therepeutics, in each case leading the company’s financing and investor relations strategies, helping to raise over $750 million in equity capital. He also served as vice president of corporate finance at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals where he worked directly on several debt and equity transactions, including the company’s initial public offering. Before that, he held senior financial roles at Genzyme. Jim received his M.B.A. and bachelor’s degree in finance from Northeastern University in Boston.
Paul Rogers
Chief Commercial Officer
Paul has over 30 years of experience across a variety functions and therapeutic classes. Paul has extensive experience in the gastroenterology area. During his 15 years with AstraZeneca, Paul’s responsibilities included overseeing the development and commercialization of multibillion-dollar products such as NEXIUM® and CRESTOR®. Paul led the U.S. clinical development program for NEXIUM, resulting in four indications at launch and ultimately managed the brand to over $1 billion in sales. Paul later was vice president of global marketing at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals where he led the company’s flagship GI brand LINZESS® in the U.S., including commercial planning for launches with partners in Europe, Japan and China. More recently, Paul served as chief commercial officer for a small biotech where he led large cross-functional teams to launch a product in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Paul has an M.S. in clinical immunology from Hahnemann University and an M.B.A. in finance from St. Joseph’s University.
