About Us
Our Mission
and Vision
At Aerovate, we are working to redefine treatment for people with rare cardiopulmonary disease in order to empower hope and new possibilities.
Passionate Team
We are a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing drugs that meaningfully improve the lives of people with rare cardiopulmonary disease. Our team has spent their careers in cardiopulmonary disease research, drug and aerosol development, commercialization and company building.
Our exceptional team of experts, industry veterans, and scientists is uniquely equipped to overcome the current challenges of treating these diseases and deliver novel therapeutics to make a meaningful difference for patients.
Leadership
“
We’ve assembled a team of people who are experienced, passionate and committed to what they’re doing every day, cultivating an environment of respect, kindness and inclusion.”
Tim Noyes, CEO
Benjamin T Dake, PhD
President & Founder
Ben has 15 years’ experience as an Entrepreneur, Scientist and Biotech Investor. He founded Aerovate to develop therapies with the potential to meaningfully change the treatment of rare diseases. Informed by his training in diseases of aberrant proliferation, he views PAH drug development through a unique lens focusing Aerovate on anti-proliferative therapies that directly address the root cause of disease.
Donna Dea
Head of Regulatory
Donna has more than two decades of regulatory experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with deep expertise in designing and implementing regulatory strategies for delivering new medicines to patients. Prior to operating a regulatory affairs consultancy, Donna spent 35 years with AstraZeneca, where she led the development and implementation of global regulatory strategies supporting the approval of new treatments for asthma, COPD, rhinitis, and atrial fibrillation, as well as for new device platforms, and was responsible for interactions with health authorities related to NDA/MAA submissions.
George Eldridge
Chief Financial Officer
George has 25 years of experience in biotech, serving as CFO for several biotechnology companies including Curis, Targanta and Proteon. George’s extensive background in raising capital includes private, IPO and follow-on settings, investment banking and M&A.
Sue Fischer
Executive Vice President, Development Operations
Sue has more than 20 years of experience in clinical operations in both academic and pharmaceutical industry settings. She previously built and led high functioning clinical operations teams at EMD Serono, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals and Syndax Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, Sue spent six years supporting clinical research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Sue’s expertise includes delivery of clinical trials across all phases of development in multiple therapeutic areas, team and people development, large scale vendor oversight, contracting and management, GCP and inspection readiness.
Hunter Gillies, MBChB
Chief Medical Officer
Hunter has been developing treatments for patients with pulmonary hypertension for more than two decades. He has designed and executed Phase 2 and Phase 3 programs for cardiopulmonary diseases resulting in the approval of multiple drugs for pulmonary arterial hypertension. His work helped establish the current dual combination therapy used as the frontline standard of care in PAH.
Sanjeev Khindri
Executive Vice President, Clinical Development
Sanjeev Khindri joined our leadership team as Executive Vice President, Clinical Development. Dr. Khindri has more than 15 years of experience as a clinical trialist and leader across all stages of clinical development in respiratory medicine including experience in rare diseases such as PAH and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis as well as a strong understanding of pediatric drug development and orphan drug legislation. He previously led medical teams at Akari Pharmaceuticals plc, Actelion Ltd., Galecto Biotech AB, and GSK plc. He trained in adult internal medicine and clinical pharmacology in the United Kingdom.
Cheryl Lassen, MBChB
Senior Vice President, Clinical Development
Cheryl joins Aerovate as Senior Vice President Clinical Development, bringing a wealth of clinical development (phase 1-3) experience, particularly in pulmonary hypertension and respiratory diseases. She joins Aerovate from Janssen where she held clinical leadership positions with responsibility for a selexipag, macitentan 10mg, macitentan 75mg and the fixed dose combination (macitentan/tadalafil). She was instrumental in leading the clinical submission team for the recent NDA and EMA regulatory filings of the first FDC in PAH. Cheryl has worked at companies such as ARENA which included their oral prostacyclin (ralinepag), Cytos, Epirus, Novartis, BMS, Abbott and Pharmacia in a wide array of indications. Cheryl holds a Medical degree and a Science degree.
Ralph Niven, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Ralph has over 25 years of broad experience in translational medicine with a specific emphasis on inhaled drug development. Ralph has driven the experimental and clinical development of small molecules and biomolecules employing a variety of delivery systems, at both startups and large pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, APT Pharmaceuticals, and Amgen.
Tim Noyes
Chief Executive Officer
Tim has 30 years’ industry experience leading all aspects of R&D and commercialization in the biopharmaceutical industry including Merck, Genzyme and Proteon. His extensive commercial planning and launch experience while at Genzyme, included leading the planning and commercialization of Renagel, a treatment for hemodialysis patients that resulted in Genzyme’s acquisition of GelTex for more than $1 billion.
Marco Verwijs
Chief Technical Officer
Marco has over 15 years of product development and manufacturing experience. He has worked on multiple commercial products, leading them from clinical product development through NDA filing and commercial launch. He joins Aerovate from Vertex, where he helped develop Kalydeco and Orkambi, Flexion Therapeutics, where he helped develop and launch Zilretta, and most recently Epizyme, where he helped develop and launch Tazverik.
Stephen Yu
Senior Vice President, Quality
Stephen has more than 20 years of global regulatory compliance and quality management systems experience in the pharmaceutical and life science industry from early phase development to commercial operations. He previously led Quality teams at Allena Pharmaceuticals Inc., Lyndra Therapeutics, Inc., and Immunogen, Inc.
Habib Dable, Chair
With experience in both emerging biotech and late-stage biopharmaceutical companies, Mr. Dable joined the Board of Directors in July 2023 and was named chair in March 2024. He also serves on the Boards of Blueprint Medicines Corporation, Day One Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., and PepGen Inc. and is a part-time Venture Partner at RA Capital Management, L.P., having previously also served as a member of the Boards of Directors of Albireo Pharm, Inc., Millendo Therapeutics Inc., and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). Mr. Dable previously led Acceleron Pharma, Inc. as President and Chief Executive Officer, eventually facilitating its $11.5 billion sale to Merck & Co. in 2021. Earlier in his career, he worked at Bayer AG where he held roles of increasing responsibility ultimately serving as President of US Pharmaceuticals. During Mr. Dable’s tenure at Bayer AG, he led the launches of several highly successful brands, including EYLEA® as Global Head Neurology and Ophthalmology, as well as Stivarga®, and Xofigo® as Global Head Specialty Medicine.
Allison Dorval
Allison is the chief financial officer of Verve Therapeutics, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Puma Biotechnology, Inc. She has more than 20 years of corporate finance, accounting and operating experience, including 14 years of life sciences executive finance experience. Prior to joining Verve, Allison served as chief financial officer of Voyager Therapeutics, vice president, controller, at Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and as chief financial officer at Insulet Corporation, where she led financial planning, reporting and accounting. Previously, Ms. Dorval held corporate finance positions with iBasis, Inc. and Digitas Inc. Ms. Dorval is a certified public accountant and began her career in public accounting at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, where she held positions of increasing responsibility and scope. Ms. Dorval obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Vermont.
David Grayzel, MD
David is a Partner at Atlas Venture and focuses on investments in novel therapeutics, often those that are near to first in human clinical testing. In the last ten years, David has co-founded and served as chief executive officer of numerous companies
Mark Iwicki
Mark has more than 25 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience. He is the Chairman, President and CEO of Kala Pharmaceuticals and was previously the CEO of Civitas Therapeutics which was acquired by Acorda Therapeutics. Prior to Civitas, Mark served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Blend Therapeutics and President and Chief Executive Officer of Sunovion Pharmaceuticals. He was President and Chief Operating Officer at Sepracor, which was acquired in 2009, and serves on several boards.
Tim Noyes, CEO
Tim has 30 years’ industry experience leading all aspects of R&D and commercialization in the biopharmaceutical industry including Merck, Genzyme and Proteon. He has extensive launch planning and commercial launch experience. While at Genzyme, he headed all launch planning and the commercialization of Renagel, a treatment for hemodialysis patients that resulted in Genzyme’s acquisition of GelTex for more than $1 billion.
Josh Resnick, MD
Josh is a Managing Director at RA Capital Management. He has more than 15 years of experience in investing, company formation, and company leadership across all stages of drug development, from discovery through commercialization.
Donald Santel
Don currently serves as Chairman of the Board of several biopharmaceutical companies, including Tentarix Biotherapeutics and Ocelot Bio, and also served as Chairperson of the Board for Oyster Point Pharma prior to their acquisition by Viatris in January 2023. Prior to these roles, he served as Executive Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer of Adicet Bio, Inc. Mr. Santel was also Chief Executive Officer and board member for Hyperion Therapeutics, Inc., and a co-founder, board member and Chief Executive Officer for CoTherix, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for cardiopulmonary disease, including PAH.