Haima Therapeutics Announces the Appointment of Dr. Timothy Pelura as Independent Board Member and Executive Advisor
Dr. Pelura, CEO of OptiKira, brings more than 40 years of biotech experience
NOVEMBER 20, 2019. Cleveland, OH, Nov. 20, 2019 – Haima Therapeutics, a pre-clinical biotechnology company focused on developing bio-inspired therapies to mitigate bleeding, announced today the appointment of Timothy Pelura, Ph.D., as an independent Board Member and Executive Advisor to Haima’s management team. Dr. Pelura brings more than 40 years of experience in biotech, including 20 years building startup companies as a CEO, where he raised over $100 million in seed and series A/B rounds of equity financing. He is currently president and CEO of OptiKira, a Cleveland-based drug development company.
“Haima is well positioned with its lead product, SynthoPlate, to make a significant impact for early mitigation of bleeding after trauma,” says Dr. Pelura. “I’m excited to join their board and provide leadership and guidance as an executive advisor. There is a clear clinical need and exciting pathway forward for this young company.”
“I’m excited to welcome Tim to our growing team as an executive advisor and independent board member at this important next stage in Haima’s evolution,” says Michael Bruckman, Chief Operating Officer of Haima. “Tim brings additional leadership experience having gone through the process of building up pharmaceutical start-ups, delivering on important value inflection points in R&D, and taking the next steps in corporate development. His domain and leadership experience are a perfect fit to help us commercialize our technology, SynthoPlate.”
“Tim is a fantastic addition to our team,” says Christa Pawlowski, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Haima. “His experience as VP of R&D at Alliance and his recent roles as CEO of multiple startup companies is invaluable as we build both the business and science to advance SynthoPlate toward the clinic.”
ABOUT DR. PELURA
Dr. Pelura is the President and CEO of OptiKira, a drug development company exploring new therapeutics targeting the unfolded protein response which, when stressed, leads to inflammation, aberrant cell behavior and ultimately progressive cell death in the retina of the eye. This stress can occur as a result of diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, diabetes, cancer, retinal and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Pelura is a serial entrepreneur with over 40 years in the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries and has been pivotal in the development of several new drugs and devices spanning numerous therapeutic areas. Dr. Pelura has been the CEO of five life science companies over the past 20 years and successfully raised over $100 million in seed and series A/B rounds of equity financings. He was also a founding scientist at Alliance Pharmaceuticals as VP of Research and Development, where the company developed synthetic, oxygen-carrying “blood substitutes” for use in the critical care setting of high blood loss. Additionally, he has developed several lipid particle/emulsion-based therapeutics spanning several therapeutic areas.
ABOUT HAIMA THERAPEUTICS LLC
Haima Therapeutics is a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing bio-inspired therapies to mitigate bleeding in multiple therapeutic indications including traumatic injury, surgery and thrombocytopenia. Haima has developed a novel, fully-synthetic nanoparticle-based hemostatic technology called SynthoPlate that mitigates bleeding by acting at the site of injury and amplifying the body’s natural clotting mechanisms. Learn more at www.haimatherapeutics.com and follow us on twitter @HaimaThr. The company is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
Contact:
Michael Bruckman, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer