About

John co-founded Satsuma Pharmaceuticals in 2016 and since then has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and member of our Board of Directors. John’s biopharmaceutical industry experience spans more than 30 years and includes CEO, board of directors, executive leadership, operations, strategy, business / corporate development, and product development and commercialization roles in discovery-, clinical and commercial-stage public and private companies. John’s experience includes serving as Chief Business Officer and Senior Vice President at Transcept Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded, neuroscience-focused, specialty pharmaceuticals company, from early 2012 until its merger in October 2014 with Paratek Pharmaceuticals; serving successively from March 2007 to October 2009 as Chief Business Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors at OXiGENE, Inc., a publicly-traded oncology and ophthalmology company; and serving in business / corporate development and product management roles of increasing responsibility at CovX, Renovis, Elan Pharmaceuticals / Athena Neurosciences and Immunex Corporation. John currently serves on the board of Cyrano Therapeutics, Inc.  John has also served as a consultant and advisor to biopharmaceutical companies and a healthcare-focused investment fund, providing strategy consulting, business / corporate development and other services. John received a B.S.E. degree from Duke University and an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Detlef joined Satsuma Pharmaceuticals in 2017 and served as our Chief Medical Officer through March 2023. Detlef’s biopharmaceutical industry experience spans more than 31 years and includes CMO, CEO, board of directors, executive leadership, and head of research & development positions in discovery-, clinical and commercial-stage public and private companies. Prior to Satsuma, Detlef served as Head of R&D at Armetheon from 2015 to 2017. Before that Detlef was Chief Executive Officer and President of Sorbent Therapeutics, Inc.  from 2010 to 2014. From 2004 through 2009 Detlef served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Ilypsa and Relypsa, which he co-founded. Prior to that he served as Vice President of Clinical Development and Member of the Management Board of ALZA Corporation from 1999 to 2004. Detlef started his industry career in 1992 at Schwarz Pharma in Germany. During his tenure in the biopharmaceutical industry, Detlef was responsible for supporting the development, registration, and commercialization of a range of urology (EDEX^®, Ditropan XL^®, Elmiron^®, Viadur^®, Priligy^®) oncology (DOXIL^®), pain (DURAGESIC^®, E-trans fentanyl), CNS (CONCERTA^®), and cardiovascular products (KIKLIN^®, VELTASSA^®) in North America, Europe and Japan. Detlef received his MD degree from the Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen, Germany in 1988.

Rob joined Satsuma in 2020 and served as our Chief Commercial Officer through March 2023. Rob has over 25 years of commercialization experience with more than 15 years in commercial leadership roles in both small and large pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, Rob served from 2016 to 2020 as the Vice President, Strategic Planning & Business Development for Durect Corporation. Before 2016, Rob was in senior commercial roles at various public pharmaceutical companies including ALZA, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson and Wyeth Laboratories. Since entering the pharmaceutical industry in 1993, Rob has been responsible for the launch and commercialization of drugs for a variety of indications in the areas of women’s health, urology, pain management, CNS and metabolic disease. In several of these roles, Rob was the company’s first commercial hire with responsibility for building a commercial organization and launching its first product. Rob received a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Vermont and holds an M.B.A. in finance and marketing from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester.

Tom joined Satsuma Pharmaceuticals in January 2019 as our Chief Financial Officer. Tom has more than 25 years of experience working in companies ranging from start-ups to large public companies, and has served in a variety of roles, including executive leadership, finance, investor relations, operations, strategy, business/corporate development, and commercialization. Prior to joining Satsuma, Tom served as Chief Financial Officer at Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, from February 2016 to January 2019; as Chief Financial Officer for Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, from March 2015 to September 2015; as Chief Financial Officer of Sorbent Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from January 2014 to July 2014; as a consultant to Sorbent and a variety of health care and technology companies from September 2011 to December 2013; as Vice President of Finance & Administration of ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company, from December 2009 until its acquisition by Cephalon in August 2011; and as Vice President of Finance & Administration of Nodality, Inc., a biotechnology company, from March 2007 to May 2009. Tom has also served in finance and operations roles in medical device, technology, and other services companies. Tom received B.A. degree from Pomona College, and an M.B.A. from The UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Shannon has served as our Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality since 2018. Shannon has over 20 years of research and drug development experience with over 15 years as a leader in regulatory affairs. Shannon began her career through a drug development fellowship with Cato Research, a specialty contract research organization, and then transitioned into medical writing and regulatory affairs specializing in neurology and oncology product development from nonclinical studies through marketing approval. In 2010, Shannon moved to Pearl Therapeutics to focus on inhaled respiratory drug products, drug-device combination products, and product development through the US 505(b)(2) approval pathway. In addition to her regulatory leadership at Pearl, Shannon provided key inputs to Pearl’s nonclinical and clinical programs. Pearl Therapeutics received the FierceBiotech 2011 Fierce 15 award and was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2013 for $1.15 billion. Shannon has led global regulatory strategy programs including regulatory health authority interactions and approval of multiple new drug applications, including most recently approvals of Bevespi Aerosphere^® and Breztri^®. Shannon received a B.S. in biology from Duke University and holds a PhD in pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mic was intimately involved in founding and spinning out Satsuma from Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, and he has served as Vice President & Head of Operations since then. Mic has more than 15 years of experience in the field of nasal drug delivery and was involved in developing the technologies incorporated in Satsuma’s lead product candidate, STS101, as well as in preclinical development, early clinical evaluation and CMC development of multiple nasal-route, drug-device combination product candidates. Prior to joining Satsuma, Mic served in a variety of management roles at Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, encompassing operations, product development, quality, regulatory affairs, business development and intellectual property management. Mic received a B.S.E. degree in engineering from North Carolina State University, where he also did research in the area of computational fluid dynamics of nasal airflow.

Rob joined Satsuma in 2017 and currently serves as our Senior Vice President and Head of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC). He has over 32 years of drug development experience, focused primarily on the CMC development of orally inhaled products, including VENTOLIN^® inhaler and ADVAIR^® metered dose inhaler (MDI) products. Rob began his career developing MDIs at Muro Pharmaceuticals (acquired by ASTA Medica). He then joined GlaxoSmithKline, followed by KOS Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Abbott). In these companies, he led CMC development initiatives for multiple inhalation products, including ADVAIR^®, Serevent^®, Flovent^®, Ventolin^®, Azmacort^® and an insulin MDI product, while advancing into roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to joining Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, Rob was an early member of the senior leadership team at Pearl Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca), where he led CMC and global project teams developing Pearl’s MDI products, including Bevespi Aerosphere^® and Pearl’s triple combination product Breztri^®. Rob received a B.S. degree in Biochemistry from Dartmouth College.