Engrail Therapeutics is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company founded in 2019 with the aspiration of becoming a leader in neuroscience. We are committed to rapidly advancing our innovative, precision-targeted therapeutics.
Our purpose is to deliver transformational therapies that improve the lives of patients with devastating neurologic, neuropsychiatric, and neurodevelopmental disorders.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Vikram is a neuroscientist, investor, entrepreneur, and industry veteran with nearly 25 years of industry experience. Most recently, Vikram was CEO of Cipla Technologies and built a pipeline of branded products to treat CNS disorders and respiratory diseases. Prior to that, Vikram was head of Strategy for Cipla New Ventures. Vikram’s career experience spans a wide spectrum of industry functions, including venture capital, business development, transactions, market access, drug idea generation, drug development, and operations. Vikram served on the boards of Stempeutics, Chase Pharmaceuticals, Cipla Technologies, and Cipla USA. Vikram received his PhD from the University of Sheffield and completed his post-doctorate at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Chief Scientific Officer
Kimberly is a highly accomplished neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative drug discoverer and developer with over 25 years of industry experience. Most recently, Kimberly served as SVP, Clinical Development and SVP, Early-Stage Clinical Development and Translational Medicine at Intra-Cellular Therapies, guiding Caplyta (lumateperone) from early development to approval. Prior to Intra-Cellular, Kimberly worked at Acadia Pharmaceuticals, playing a key role in the development of Nuplazid (pimavanserin). Kimberly received her PhD in Biopsychology from the University of Chicago and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California – San Diego and Lederle Laboratories.
Sr. VP, Clinical Development
Eve has over 20 years of industry experience with a specific focus on neuroscience clinical development and operations. Most recently, Eve helped lead early-stage clinical development at Intra-Cellular Therapies. Previously, Eve led clinical development activities at Cytori Therapeutics, Ceregene, and Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Eve has also served as founder and lead at Taylored BioConsulting, providing clinical development and other consulting services. Eve received her BSc (Hons) from the University of Western Australia, PhD in Biochemistry from King’s College London, and completed her postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and University of California – San Diego.
VP, Commercial Strategy & Business Development
Camilla has over 10 years of industry experience advising companies on commercial launch strategies, conducting early-stage asset valuations, and leading commercial due diligence as a consultant focused on the life sciences. Camilla has worked with key stakeholders within industry to identify and communicate the commercial potential for new treatments across multiple therapy areas and stages of development, with recent expertise in orphan drugs and neurosciences. Camilla previously held positions as Engagement Manager and Consultant with Two Labs, IMS Health and ICON. While at IMS, Camilla helped establish IMS Health Capital, an investment banking company.
VP, Drug Development & Manufacturing
Acting Chief Financial Officer
Rex has over 30 years of experience in public and corporate accounting and finance. Rex’s corporate career includes a variety of progressive roles, including CFO at Hocking International Laboratories, LLC; SVP, Finance and Accounting at Provide Commerce, Inc., and Proflowers, Inc.; CFO and founder at PhatPipe, Inc., and Controller at EG Electro-Graph, Inc. Rex has direct experience in the preparation and successful placement of an IPO along with several corporate acquisition and sale transactions. Rex also had a successful tax and consulting practice as a sole practitioner. Rex received his Master of Accountancy from Brigham Young University.
VP, Translational Science & Clinical Development
Estibaliz Arce is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in neurocognition and neuroimaging, with more than 20 years of experience in the academic and biotech/pharmaceutical sectors.
Esti completed her BSc and PhD in clinical psychology at Universidad de Deusto, Spain. She came to the United States to complete a clinical psychiatry internship at Crownsville State Hospital (MD) as well as her dissertation at USC (CA). Following the completion of her doctorate, she pursued postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA and UCSD, where she focused on clinical/neuropsychological evaluations and treatment for psychotic and affective disorders, as well as understanding the neural underpinnings of cognitive and emotional processes in several psychiatric populations using fMRI.
Following her academic training, Esti has held several clinical and translational research positions at Wyeth, EMD Serono, Pfizer, and Biogen, contributing to the development of treatments for multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, and depression, among other CNS indications.
VP, Corporate Development
Anil has over 20 years of industry experience with demonstrated success in corporate strategy, business development, global and regional in-line and upstream marketing, as well as medical affairs and communications. Prior to joining Engrail, Anil spent several years in corporate strategy as well as leading neurosciences global strategic marketing at Allergan. Prior to Allergan, Anil worked in a variety of progressive leadership positions across functions at Takeda, including commercial strategy and execution, business development, and medical strategy. Anil has also served as founder and principal of ARINA LifeSciencesConsulting. Anil received his Doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Illinois – Chicago.
Sr. VP, Nonclinical Development
Bill is a highly sought-after non-clinical development expert and entrepreneur with over 35 years of industry experience leading teams and diverse programs to successful outcomes. As President of Farmington Pharma Development, a consulting service he founded in 2004, he has led dozens of clients’ programs from early-stage discovery through successful IND filings and beyond. More recently, he served as Nayan Pharmaceutical’s Head of Non-clinical Development; Project Leader and MedChem Director for Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical‘s creatine transporter disorder program; and, as acting CEO, he led Bikam Pharmaceuticals to a successful acquisition by Shire. Bill received his PhD in Chemistry from Virginia Tech and completed his postdoctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine.
Chairman of the Board
Managing Director, Pivotal Life Sciences
Peter Tuxen Bisgaard has served as the Chairman of our board of directors since June 2019. Since September 2017, Mr. Bisgaard has been Managing Director of Nan Fung Life Sciences, a global life sciences investment platform, and a Managing Partner at Pivotal Bioventure Partners LLC, a healthcare venture capital fund. Prior to this, he was a Senior Partner at Novo Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture investment firm, from 2009 to September 2017. Prior to Novo Ventures, he was with McKinsey and Co. He has previously served on the board of directors of the following publicly-held companies: Ra Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company; Nevro Corp, a commercial-stage medical device company; HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc., a commercial-stage RNA-platform based life sciences tools company; Otonomy, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for treating hearing disorders; and Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a late-stage drug development company focusing on migraine therapeutics. In addition, Mr. Bisgaard is serving, and has served, on numerous boards of privately held biotechnology and medical technology companies. Mr. Bisgaard received an M.Sc. in engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a post-graduate degree in mathematical modeling in economics from the European Consortium for Mathematics in the Industry.
Board Member
President and Chief Executive Officer, Engrail Therapeutics
Vikram is a neuroscientist, investor, entrepreneur, and industry veteran with nearly 25 years of industry experience. Most recently, Vikram was CEO of Cipla Technologies and built a pipeline of branded products to treat CNS disorders and respiratory diseases. Prior to that, Vikram was head of Strategy for Cipla New Ventures. Vikram’s career experience spans a wide spectrum of industry functions, including venture capital, business development, transactions, market access, drug idea generation, drug development, and operations. Vikram served on the boards of Stempeutics, Chase Pharmaceuticals, Cipla Technologies, and Cipla USA. Vikram received his PhD from the University of Sheffield and completed his post-doctorate at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Board Member
Chief Scientific Officer, Engrail Therapeutics
Kimberly is a highly accomplished neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative drug discoverer and developer with over 25 years of industry experience. Most recently, Kimberly served as SVP, Clinical Development and SVP, Early-Stage Clinical Development and Translational Medicine at Intra-Cellular Therapies, guiding Caplyta (lumateperone) from early development to approval. Prior to Intra-Cellular, Kimberly worked at Acadia Pharmaceuticals, playing a key role in the development of Nuplazid (pimavanserin). Kimberly received her PhD in Biopsychology from the University of Chicago and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California – San Diego and Lederle Laboratories.
Board Member
Venture Partner, Pivotal Life Sciences
Karoly Nikolich is a member of the Board of Directors of Engrail Therapeutics. During the 1980s, he led Genentech’s entry into neuroscience and led and participated in the development of numerous protein therapeutics. He was Vice President of Research at Lynx Therapeutics, co-founder of AGY Therapeutics, Amnestix, Neurofluidics, Chase Pharmaceuticals, Circuit Therapeutics, and Alkahest. He has also served as a venture partner with Pivotal BioVentures and has been on the boards and scientific advisory boards of a number of neurotherapeutics and biotech companies. He currently serves as Chair on the Board of Directors at Alkahest, a Grifols company. He has been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University Medical School. Dr. Nikolich is a graduate of Eotvos University in Budapest and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University and UCSF before joining Genentech.
Independent Board Member
Former EVP R&D, CRISPR Therapeutics
Dr. Tony Ho currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Engrail Therapeutics. Most recently, Dr. Ho served as Executive Vice President and Head of R&D at CRISPR Therapeutics. Tony was previously SVP and Head of Oncology Integration and Innovation at AstraZeneca. He oversaw both the development and commercialization of Lynparza and Imfinizi. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Tony was the Neurology and Ophthalmology Clinical Section Head at Merck and led multiple development programs, including the approval of Maxalt for pediatric migraine and Zioptan for glaucoma. Prior to joining Merck, Tony was the Co-Founder and CSO of Neuronyx, a regenerative medicine company. Tony received a BS from UCLA and an MD from Johns Hopkins University. He was Assistant Neurology Professor at Hopkins. Tony described and elucidated the pathogenesis of acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN). He has published widely with over 80 papers and is a co-inventor of 14 patents. Tony is currently an adjunct Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and Assistant Professor (Part-time) of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University.
Board Member
EVP, Research & Development and Chief Development Officer, Engrail Therapeutics
Stephen is an experienced pharmaceutical executive with 30 years of expertise leading the development, approval, launch, and lifecycle management of blockbuster drugs across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to cofounding Engrail Therapeutics, Stephen gained broad portfolio experience at Zeneca and AstraZeneca. After 12 years at Zeneca/AstraZeneca, he spent 13 years at Novartis in the US as CSO and head of clinical development and medical affairs. Most recently, Stephen served as a key advisor to Chase Pharmaceuticals, Cipla Technologies, and Pharmascience on the development of portfolios that led to high-value acquisitions. Stephen has extensive experience in the development of drugs in the neuroscience area and received his MD from Queen’s University Belfast.
VP, Preclinical Development & Neurobiology
Jordi is a renowned neurobiologist with nearly 20 years of neuroscience research and industry experience. Most recently, Jordi led the neurodevelopmental disorders biotech unit of Takeda and was a major contributor to the design and progression of its novel drug discovery portfolio. Prior to his tenure at Takeda, Jordi made significant contributions to the neuroinflammation unit at Lundbeck. Jordi received his PhD from the University of Barcelona (focus on the serotonergic system) and completed his postdoctoral studies in neuroinflammation at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies under the mentorship of Dr. Paul Sawchenko.
EVP, Research & Development and Chief Development Officer
Stephen is an experienced pharmaceutical executive with 30 years of expertise leading the development, approval, launch, and lifecycle management of blockbuster drugs across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to cofounding Engrail Therapeutics, Stephen gained broad portfolio experience at Zeneca and AstraZeneca. After 12 years at Zeneca/AstraZeneca, he spent 13 years at Novartis in the US as CSO and head of clinical development and medical affairs. Most recently, Stephen served as a key advisor to Chase Pharmaceuticals, Cipla Technologies, and Pharmascience on the development of portfolios that led to high-value acquisitions. Stephen has extensive experience in the development of drugs in the neuroscience area and received his MD from Queen’s University Belfast.
