twoXAR Pharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of Mark Eller, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President of Research and Development and Anjali Pandey, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President of Nonclinical R&D and Chemistry

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- twoXAR Pharmaceuticals, a company that discovers drugs with AI, today announced the appointment of Mark Eller, Ph.D. as the Senior Vice President of Research and Development and Anjali Pandey, Ph.D. as the Senior Vice President of Nonclinical R&D and Chemistry. Both Dr. Eller and Dr. Pandey will report directly to Andrew A. Radin, CEO at twoXAR, and immediately assume direct responsibility for advancing 18 R&D programs across multiple therapeutic areas.  

"Both Mark and Anjali bring substantial senior-level pharmaceutical research and development experience to twoXAR that will further bolster our ability to discover and develop promising drug candidates," said Andrew A. Radin, co-founder and CEO of twoXAR. "With programs across 18 different diseases, this is a pivotal time for twoXAR as we continue to identify and develop novel therapies at an unprecedented rate."

Dr. Eller is an accomplished pharmaceutical industry executive who brings 30 years of R&D experience. Prior to joining twoXAR, Dr. Eller served as SVP Research & Clinical Development at Jazz Pharmaceuticals. He is an inventor on the patents that provided the original marketing exclusivity for Allegra® (fexofenadine), and those that provide the longest-term coverage for Xyrem® (sodium oxybate), both products obtaining annual sales of >$1.5B.  

"Joining an organization like twoXAR is exciting for me given the company's unique focus and capability to accelerate early stage drug development," said Mark. "I'm impressed with what the team has accomplished to date and with a solid foundation in drug discovery, I see a lot of potential in discovering much needed therapies across a wide range of diseases." 

Dr. Pandey is a leader in the pharmaceutical industry bringing 25 years of experience in all stages of drug discovery and development. Prior to joining twoXAR Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Pandey held Chief Scientific Officer positions at BridgeBio Pharma subsidiaries TheRas and Ferro Therapeutics and was Senior Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Development at Portola Pharmaceuticals where she led discovery and CMC for Bevyxxa™ (betrixaban) and cerdulatinib. Dr. Pandey has worked across antithrombotic, oncology, inflammation, and autoimmune therapeutic areas, is inventor of 60 issued patents, and has published 45 scientific articles.

"Joining twoXAR is an opportunity for me to apply my experience and expertise in drug development in a way that is truly innovative and unique," commented Anjali. "With the combination of twoXAR's talent, technology and R&D approach, I believe we have a lot of opportunity in advancing new targets and candidates against a plethora of therapeutic areas where treatment advances are needed."

twoXAR's approach to drug discovery combines steps from the traditional multi-step R&D process that severely limits the pace of drug discovery. This novel method – coupled with the company's proprietary AI-driven platform – enables twoXAR to select a disease and initiate in vivo testing in months instead of years. The company has built a development portfolio targeting more than 18 different diseases.

More about Mark G. Eller, Ph.D.
Dr. Eller has held several VP/SVP roles leading teams from discovery through approval at large and mid-sized pharma companies, including Jazz, Quintiles (now IQVIA) and HMR (now Sanofi). Dr. Eller is co-inventor on 30 patents and has led health authority presentations and negotiations, including six FDA advisory committee meetings. He has co-authored numerous scientific publications and served as an Adjunct Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Eller received his Pharmacy degree and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Iowa.

More about Anjali Pandey, Ph.D.
Dr. Pandey has held several CSO/SVP roles leading small molecule development and medicinal chemistry at mid-sized pharma companies including BridgeBio Pharma subsidiaries TheRas and Ferro Therapeutics and Portola Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Pandey brings in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience of the drug R&D process with expertise in medicinal chemistry, ADME/PK, computational chemistry, drug substance manufacturing and pharmaceutical development. Dr. Pandey received her Master of Science degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Southern Illinois University.

About twoXAR
twoXAR Pharmaceuticals discovers drugs with AI. The company identifies promising drug candidates, de-risks the opportunities through preclinical studies, and progresses candidates into the clinic through industry partnerships as well as conducting internal programs. Based in Mountain View, California, the twoXAR team includes experts in drug discovery and development, translational medicine, biomedical informatics, and artificial intelligence. Investors in twoXAR include SoftBank Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, OS Fund, CLI Ventures, and the Stanford-StartX Fund. For more information, please visit www.twoXAR.com.

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SOURCE twoXAR Pharmaceuticals