Mr. Lanfear is Founder, President and Chief Executive of InteKrin Therapeutics, Inc. Denny is a thirteen year veteran of Amgen, Inc. where he was a Corporate Officer and Vice-President with broad operational, product development and marketing responsibility. His tenure began in 1986 as founder of the Process Development Department.

Under his ten-year leadership this group became the preeminent PD organization in BioPharma and a key strategic advantage for the company, as it remains today. As Vice President Process Development and Operations Systems, he directed the business process integration of over twenty-five hundred Operations and Quality staff world-wide.

While at Amgen he also had senior leadership roles in several product development programs including those for growth factors, somatotrophins and neurotrophins, directing efforts from preclinical to Phase III. He reviewed and wrote sections of more that 20 INDs and several BLAs. He managed several corporate partner relationships including that with SKB from 1986 to 1990. He also managed and had direct budgetary responsibility for the $135M development partnership with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from 1991 to 1999. In 1997 he was named Vice President, Market Development, where he defined long term competitive and reimbursement strategies for EpogenTM, a multibillion dollar drug.

Prior to joining Amgen, Denny held positions of increasing responsibility at Baxter International. Denny was also the founder and former CEO of Saronyx, Inc., a drug development software services company. He is also an active life science investor through his firm Lanfear Capital Advisers, which invests in pharmaceutical and medical device companies. He is an investor and former Director of Anthera Pharmaceuticals and an investor and Board observer at EndoVx, a medical device company focused on obesity.

Other investments include Coapt Systems and BAS Medical. Lanfear Capital is also Limited Partner in select venture funds. Denny earned degrees in Biochemistry and Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University and earned his MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.

Dr. DePaoli joins InteKrin after more than 16 years of experience in the diabetes and obesity field. He trained in Clinical and Molecular Endocrinology at the University of Chicago with Dr. Kenneth Polonski and in the laboratory of Dr. Graham Bell. His clinical and research interests in diabetes and obesity were focused during his work at the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute with Dr. Lois Jovanovich, which led him to join Amgen to develop a Metabolic Disease Area. His work at Amgen has been pivotal in enabling multiple clinical applications of Leptin. Dr. DePaoli has gone on to work on a broad array of cardio-metabolic disease targets with a focus on translating novel pathways into the clinic. These pathways include: 11 Beta HSD-1, Myostatin, RANK Ligand, IL-1 receptor, Calcium Sensing Receptor, PPAR-gamma modulation, DPP-4, and MCH-R1.  His accomplishments at Amgen that will bring value to InteKrin include extensive involvement in the Business Development activities, including in-licensing (Biovitrum), out-licensing (Amylin and InteKrin), and acquisitions (Tularik and Alantos).

Linda S. Higgins, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer at InteKrin Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Higgins joined InteKrin in 2007 and has over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Previously she was with Scios, Inc. where she was most recently Head of Research holding responsibility for drug discovery, preclinical development, and translational medicine. She has led multiple teams for programs in discovery through early clinical development focused on CNS, inflammatory, oncology, cardiovascular, hematology and fibrotic disorders which were advanced internally as well as in partnership with major pharmaceutical companies. During her tenure at Scios, it grew from a discovery organization, to a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company marketing a product discovered in house, to an operating company owned by Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Higgins has authored over 50 original peer reviewed scientific papers and invited reviews, and is inventor on over a dozen patents. She earned an AB in Behavioral Physiology with High Honors and Distinction from Kenyon College, Gambier Ohio; a PhD in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine; and postdoctoral training in Molecular Genetics at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

Carmen R. Rodriguez joined InteKrin Therapeutics, Inc. as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality. In this role, she is responsible for defining and leading the company’s regulatory strategy and for the compliance and quality activities associated with InteKrin’s programs.

Prior to joining InteKrin, Carmen served as Vice President Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Cambridge Antibody Technology, Inc. Previously, she held various senior regulatory leadership positions with Genencor, Roche Global Development and Syntex.  She brings over 25 years of regulatory and drug development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to InteKrin. Ms. Rodriguez has managed the preparation multiple INDs, NDAs and BLAs in various therapeutic areas leading to global regulatory approvals of various products including the blockbusters Cellcept® Naproxen® and Cytovene®.

Carmen earned her Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Honors) and her Master in Medicinal Chemistry from Universidad Nacional de Mexico in Mexico City.

Mr. Easom has over 16 years of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently he served as Director of Marketing at MedImmune, where he was responsible for launching the next-generation FluMist® nasal influenza vaccine. The majority of Eric's career was spent at Eli Lilly and Company, where he worked over 13 years in a broad cross-functional capacity that included marketing, business development, sales, finance and manufacturing.  Eric was instrumental in a variety of business development transactions including the business divestiture of Lorabid®, the formation of a large development and manufacturing deal for protein C, and clinical-phase licensing deals with biotech and pharmaceutical partners. Eric's marketing experience includes heading the US marketing team for Humatrope® human growth hormone and serving as a key marketing strategist for Zyprexa®, Lilly’s $4 billion flagship neuroscience product. 

Eric's career also includes starting a non-profit pharmaceutical company, Hope Pharmaceuticals, where he worked with leading non-profit companies and foundations to raise funds for potential in-licensing opportunities. He also served as Director of Supplier Management and Marketing at McKesson Medical-Surgical, where he was responsible for the pharmaceutical segment of the business.  

Eric obtained his MBA in Marketing and Finance from Indiana University and holds Bachelor and Master Degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Louisville.

Kathleen M. Lee, Ph.D., MBA, is Senior Director, Pharmaceutics.  Dr. Lee joined InteKrin in 2007 with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  She was most recently at Scios, Inc., where her last position was Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Development with responsibility for the formulation development and manufacture of dosage forms from preclinical through commercialization.  She previously held positions at Syntex, Roche and Oread with diverse CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) responsibilities of analytical chemistry, formulation development, drug delivery, project management and outsourcing management.  She has led CMC teams for small and large molecules.

Dr. Lee holds a B.S. in Chemistry with Honors and an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley,  and an M.S. in Mathematics and M.S. and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Mr. Nazak joined InteKrin Therapeutics in 2008 as Director of Finance and Accounting. He has over 20 years of experience in the area of finance and accounting operations in both public and private companies. Most recently Mike was the Corporate Controller at Reliant Technologies, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of medical laser devices. Prior to Reliant, Mike served as the Sr. Director of Finance and Corporate Controller for Connetics Corporation, a public company that develops topical and oral drugs used in the treatment of various skin diseases. He also held Corporate Controller and other finance and accounting positions at Cygnus Solutions (a Red Hat company), Rachem Corporation and Mips Computer Systems and was an auditor with Coopers and Lybrand LLP.