Mr. Brand brings more than 30 years of global pharmaceutical experience in product development, acquisitions, marketing and operational management with GlaxoSmithKline, its predecessor companies, and most recently as President and CEO of Cardiokine and currently President and CEO of Tarsa.

Mr. Brand joined GSK International from the Canadian operation in 1983 in the post of Vice President, Cardiovascular/Gastrointestinal Marketing. Over the next 7 years, he held VP positions in marketing, business development, and regional operations in Asia, Europe and Latin America. In 1990, Mr. Brand joined the GSK US organization as Business Unit Head for Gastrointestinal and Central Nervous System Products, where he led the launch activities for Paxil and Kytril. In 1994, as Vice President of New Product Planning, he was responsible for the pre-launch commercial development plans for Coreg, Hycamptin, Requip and numerous in-licensing, co-promotion, co-development partnerships. From 1997 through 2003, Mr. Brand headed up the anti-infective, metabolic and cardiovascular business units that launched Requip, Avandia and Avandia extensions, and development of Augmentin ES/XR.

From 2004 to September 2007, Mr. Brand served as President and CEO of Cardiokine, a specialty pharmaceutical company developing lixivaptan. Over this period, Mr. Brand built a first class management and development team, successfully closed a $50 million Series B financing and completed a global lixivaptan co-development, co-marketing agreement with Biogen Idec.

Mr. Brand holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Ed Dougherty is the health and life sciences practice group leader. He assists medical device, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and biotech companies in developing and implementing strategies to support successful commercialization of novel technologies and repositioning of mature products in the U.S. health care market. Ed has significant experience helping manufacturers overcome hurdles in the health care reimbursement environment, including evidence planning, payer interaction, coverage, coding and payment.

Ed has designed multidisciplinary advocacy campaigns to assist manufacturers in successful positioning of products across the product lifecycle. He is also engaged in planning longitudinal patient registries and other post-marketing study activities to build persuasive bodies of evidence to support appropriate reimbursement for a range of high-value medical technologies.

Ed is also working to enhance collaboration between private industry, public research entities and patient advocacy organizations to accelerate the translation of scientific research into effective therapies for the treatment of rare diseases. He is engaged in launching public/private research consortia for a number of conditions.

Ed previously directed prospective study design and strategic marketing activities for a Fortune 40 Pharmaceutical Services Company. He led the strategic consulting group within the medical marketing division of a global contract research organization and coordinated outcomes research and reimbursement support activities for a major health care consulting firm.

Dr. Franson serves as a senior advisor in the health and life sciences sector. He has extensive clinical and regulatory experience in all pre- and post-approval phases of pharmaceutical development (small and large molecule) relating to interactions with FDA for policy and product issues, as well as interactions with global regulators.

Before joining B&D Consulting, Dr. Franson was Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at Lilly Research Laboratories (Eli Lilly and Company), responsible for all regulatory and patient safety activities from 2003 until his retirement from Lilly in June, 2008. He joined Eli Lilly and Company in 1986. Dr. Franson previously served as Lilly's Director of Anti-Infectives; Group Medical Director of Europe (based in the United Kingdom); Executive Director of Health Economics Research and Decision Sciences; and Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs responsible for North American Regulatory, Chemistry Manufacturing Control, Planning & Global Operations (safety, labeling, medical information, registration and submissions). From 1997 to 2003, Dr. Franson was Vice President of Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs-U.S for Lilly. In regulatory affairs from 1995 to 2008, Dr. Franson was directly responsible for Lilly's FDA submissions (NDAs, supplements), which involved more than 20 major submission reviews and approvals.

Dr. Franson has been a leader in many industry initiatives. He was co-chair of the joint FDA-industry working group addressing clinical aspects of the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, including the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) renewal. From 2000 to 2003, he co-chaired industry-FDA committees for PDUFA-3 renewal and has testified, on behalf of industry, at several congressional hearings. Dr. Franson also co-chaired an FDA-industry safety interventions working group, was a member of the AAMC-PhRMA Clinical Trials Forum and was a member of the Regulatory Advisory Board for the Centre for Medicines Research International (2003-08).

Dr. Franson has authored more than 50 articles in the fields of infectious disease, epidemiology, pharmacoeconomics and antibiotic utilization.

Martin Freed, M.D., spent nearly 14 years at GlaxoSmithKline and its predecessor, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals. He was Vice President, Clinical in the Metabolism Therapeutic Area, where he led clinical development for diabetes and obesity drugs. For over 12 years, Dr. Freed played a substantial role in the development of the Avandia-related franchise. He personally managed the clinical pharmacology development and subsequently led a team responsible for clinical development, life cycle management, and medical affairs of the GSK diabetes franchise, including Avandia, Avandamet and Avandaryl. Dr. Freed has served as Chief Medical Officer at Vitae Pharmaceuticals and at Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb).

Dr. Freed has been involved in the clinical development of drugs across a broad range of therapeutic areas including metabolic diseases, cardiovascular disease and diseases of inflammation with experiences ranging from Phase I through Phase IV. He has authored over 100 publications or presentations. A Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Freed received his Doctor of Medicine from Pennsylvania State University’s College of Medicine and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in Biology from the University of Delaware. Dr. Freed is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology. He performed his internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at Temple University Hospital and Yale New Haven Hospital, respectively.

Dr. Furr has over 35 years of experience in Pharmaceutical drug discovery and development, and most recently held a global role as Chief Scientist (based at AstraZeneca's Alderley Park R&D site, Cheshire, England), as well as Head of the AstraZeneca Research Centre in Bangalore, India that focused on developing world medicine, particularly on tuberculosis research. He gained a B.Sc in chemistry, microbiology and physiological chemistry at the University of Reading, followed by a BSc (special honours) in physiological chemistry and a PhD in reproductive endocrinology. He became a British Egg Marketing Board Fellow at the National Institute for Research in Dairying, then a Wellcome Veterinary Fellow at the University of Reading, before joining ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1972. He pursued a career in scientific research with the company, moving to Zeneca Pharmaceuticals following demerger and becoming Chief Scientist and Head of Project Evaluation for AstraZeneca in 1999, following the merger of Astra and Zeneca. He is author of numerous scientific papers, a member of many professional bodies and has received several honours for his work on the discovery of the cancer drugs 'Zoladex' and 'Casodex' and for services to British endocrinology. In 2000 he became Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to cancer drug discovery. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Society of Biology.