About Veru
Veru is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel medicines for high-quality weight loss, breast cancer, and viral related ARDS.
Who We Are
Veru is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the late-stage clinical development of novel medicines for high-quality weight loss, metastatic breast cancer, and viral-induced ARDS. We also have a sexual health commercial program to help fund our clinical development efforts.
Our scientific efforts reflect our commitment to high-quality weight loss, oncology, and viral related ARDS:
Enobosarm for high-quality weight loss
Our weight loss pipeline is focused on the clinical development of enobosarm, (aka ostarine, MK-2866, GTx-024, S-22, and VERU-024), a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM), as a treatment in combination with weight loss drugs to augment fat loss and to avoid muscle loss in overweight or obese patients for chronic weight management. Initially, enobosarm will be developed in a Phase 2b clinical study to address the large subpopulation of sarcopenic obese or overweight elderly patients receiving a GLP-1 RA who are at-risk for developing muscle atrophy and muscle weakness leading to physical function mobility disability and frailty.
Enobosarm for hormone receptor positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HER2-) metastatic breast cancer
Our oncology drug pipeline is focused on the Phase 3 clinical development of enobosarm, an oral selective androgen receptor modulator, for the 2nd line treatment of AR+ ER+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer.
Sabizabulin for viral-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
Sabizabulin, microtubule disruptor which has both host targeted antiviral and broad anti-inflammatory properties, is being developed in a Phase 3 program for the treatment of hospitalized patients with viral lung infection at high risk for ARDS.
Grow our sexual health program to invest proceeds in the clinical development of our drug pipeline
We are focused on increasing revenue from our FC2 Female Condom in the U.S. market via our established dedicated direct to patient telemedicine and pharmacy services portal, while leveraging our relationships with telemedicine and internet pharmacy providers and distributors. We continue to grow revenues in the public health sector in key U.S. and global markets via partnerships/distribution agreements with regional distributors/players.
The FC2 Female Condom patient portal can be found online at: Telepath Inc
Management Team
Mitchell Steiner, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Chairman, President, and Chief Executive OfficerMitchell S. Steiner, M.D., F.A.C.S. has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and as a director of the Company since October 2016. Dr. Steiner was the co-founder of Aspen Park and served as Aspen Park’s Chief Executive Officer, President and Vice Chairman of the Board from July 2014 to October 2016. From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Steiner was a consultant and then the President, Urology and member of senior management of OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPK) and had responsibilities for the launch, marketing, sales and reimbursement of 4Kscore prostate cancer test to urologists and primary care physicians. Dr. Steiner was also the co-founder of GTx, Inc., a men’s health and oncology public company, where he served as Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of Board of Directors from 1997 to 2014. Dr. Steiner is a Board Certified Urologist and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and has held numerous academic appointments, including Assistant Professor of Urology, Cell Biology, and Pathology at Vanderbilt School of Medicine from 1993 to 1995 and Chairman and Professor of Urology, Director of Urologic Oncology and Research and the Chair of Excellence in Urologic Oncology at the University of Tennessee from 1995 to 2004. Dr. Steiner holds a B.A. in Molecular Biology and Chemistry from Vanderbilt University and an M.D. from the University of Tennessee. He performed his surgical and urologic training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and postdoctoral research fellow in cell biology at Vanderbilt School of Medicine.
Harry Fisch, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Vice Chairman, Chief Corporate OfficerHarry Fisch, M.D., F.A.C.S. is the Founder, Vice Chairman of the Board, and Chief Corporate Officer of Veru and has served as a director of the Company since October 2016. Prior to Veru, Dr. Fisch co-founded Aspen Park, where he served as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer. From 1994 to 2016, Dr. Fisch served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Millennium Sciences, Inc., a medical device company for reproductive health. Over the course of Dr. Fisch’s career in the healthcare industry, he has held numerous academic and clinical appointments, including Clinical Professor of Urology and Reproductive Medicine at Weill College of Medicine, Cornell University from 2009 to 2021, Director of the Male Reproductive Center and Professor of Clinical Urology at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1999 to 2009. Dr. Fisch is a Board Certified Urologist and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Fisch holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and an M.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. Additionally, Dr. Fisch performed his surgical and urologic training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center.
Michele Greco
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative OfficerMichele Greco has served as Chief Financial Officer since March 2018 and as Chief Administrative Officer of the Company since December 2017. Ms. Greco served as Executive Vice President of Finance from October 2016 to March 2018 and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Female Health Company from December 2014 to October 2016 and served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company from January 2013 to December 2014. From March 2009 to January 2011, Ms. Greco was involved in a series of personal business ventures. Previously, Ms. Greco served as an audit partner with Ernst & Young LLP from 1994 to 2009. Ms. Greco is a CPA with nearly 30 years of experience in public accounting with Ernst & Young LLP.
K. Gary Barnette, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific OfficerGary Barnette, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientific Officer of Veru. Prior to joining Veru, Dr. Barnette was Sr. Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at Camargo Pharmaceutical Services, LLC, during which he oversaw the development of scientific and regulatory drug development strategies across all therapeutic areas for 6 years. From 2000 to 2012, Dr. Barnette served in various positions at GTx, Inc., including as Vice President, Clinical Development Strategy. Throughout his tenure at GTx, Dr. Barnette managed responsibilities across regulatory, clinical, clinical pharmacology, and medical affairs departments for urology (men’s health) and cancer supportive care. Prior to GTx, Dr. Barnette was a Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmaceutics Reviewer at the U.S. FDA, where he received numerous awards for reviewing, mentoring, and serving on various FDA guidance development groups and initiative task forces. Dr. Barnette holds a Ph.D. in Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences (Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics) from West Virginia University, School of Pharmacy.
Sergi X. Trilla, M.D., M.B.A.
Chief Business OfficerSergi Trilla, M.D., M.B.A., is the Chief Business Officer at Veru. Dr. Trilla’s responsibilities include supporting international development of the Company’s product candidates by identifying markets, governments, and partners interested in Veru’s portfolio, negotiating applicable agreements, and providing alliance management.
Dr. Trilla holds 30 years of experience in healthcare, including 22 years in international and strategic corporate development. As a qualified M.D., Dr. Trilla connects the two fields of health and business to ensure innovation arrives to patients. Following multiple leadership roles at various pharmaceutical companies, Dr. Trilla founded Trifermed in 2002, a business service provider specializing in corporate development and alliance management. Dr. Trilla has applied its services to more than 160 worldwide strategic partnerships.
Dr. Trilla also serves as a Professor (Adjunct Faculty Member) of Business Translational Medicine at the Forsyth Institute (a Harvard-affiliated research institute) in Cambridge, MA, and as a visiting professor on innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital health at Universidad de Navarra (Madrid, Spain).
Gary Bird, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President – Quality and Regulatory AffairsGary Bird, Ph.D. is the Executive Vice President for Quality and Regulatory Affairs at Veru. Dr. Bird’s organization is responsible for creating a compliant quality system to meet U.S. FDA expectations, includes international Regulatory Affairs, and oversight of all manufacturing activities. Dr. Bird has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with a broad area of expertise in regulatory affairs, quality system analysis, FDA compliance, team leadership, and vendor relations.
Throughout his executive career, Dr. Bird has held leadership positions at pharmaceutical and biotech-related organizations, including the Food and Drug Administration (CDER and CBER). Eli Lilly and Company, GTx Incorporated, Geno Rx, and his consulting firms PharmaConsult US and PharmaConsult Global, Ltd. Dr. Bird represented both FDA and Industry in the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) negotiations activities in five different Quality topic areas. Additionally, Dr. Bird has authored and delivered numerous lectures and training courses on best manufacturing practices for biopharmaceutical products, introduction to GMPs, introduction to biosafety, and stability of biopharmaceutical products.
Dr. Bird holds a Ph.D. in Entomology and Biochemistry from Mississippi State University.
Samuel Fisch
Executive Director, Investor Relations & Corporate CommunicationsSamuel Fisch has served as the Executive Director, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications at Veru since April 2019. Mr. Fisch is responsible for strengthening and expanding Veru’s investor base on a global scale and is the primary point of contact for Veru’s investor community.
Mr. Fisch brings a strong background of experience in investor relations and capital markets to the Company. Prior to joining Veru, Mr. Fisch worked at Solebury Trout (now Solebury Strategic Communications) during which he advised both private and public healthcare companies throughout all stages of development on investor relations, corporate strategy, and equity capital market advisory. Mr. Fisch holds a BBA from Elon University.
Kevin Gilbert, JD, CPA
Executive Vice President, Corporate DevelopmentKevin Gilbert has served as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Veru since May 2018. Earlier in his career at Veru, Mr. Gilbert held roles as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Legal and as a consultant, where he focused on Veru’s diversification strategy. From 2012 to 2015, Mr. Gilbert was Vice President Corporate Development and General Counsel at Third Stream Bioscience Inc., a developer of a novel, topical antimicrobial technology. Prior to Third Stream Bioscience, Mr. Gilbert was Executive Vice President of Development and General Counsel at NanoCarbons LLC, a developer of nanomaterials for the energy storage industry. Over the course of his career, Mr. Gilbert worked nearly 20 years in a variety of officer roles in development and legal at Motorola Inc. and as a transactional and securities attorney at the multinational law firm, McDermott, Will & Emery. Mr. Gilbert has successfully completed more than 100 different transactions in more than 25 different countries around the world, including a number of complex cross-border transactions.
Mr. Gilbert holds a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Juris Doctor from the University of California at Berkeley. Additionally, Mr. Gilbert has been a Guest Lecturer on Mergers & Acquisitions at the UCLA Anderson Graduate Business School as well as the Purdue University Krannert Graduate Business School.
Michael J. Purvis
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate StrategyMichael joined us as Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Strategy in March 2021. With 25 years of legal experience, Michael was most recently Vice President, Assistant General Counsel & Assistant Secretary at Incyte Corp. from February 2015 until February 2021, where he helped lead and build the legal group as Incyte transformed into an S&P 500 global biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology, inflammation and autoimmunity, and dermatology. Prior to Incyte, Michael was Senior Associate General Counsel & Assistant Secretary at Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw disclosure, securities law matters, strategic transactions, and corporate matters until Auxilium’s successful acquisition by Endo Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Michael held a similar role at West Pharmaceutical Services from 2009 to 2010. Prior to West, Michael served as Senior Counsel at a securities trading firm, Susquehanna International Group, from 2003 to 2009, where he supported the healthcare research group and helped establish investment banking and private equity departments. Michael began his legal career in 1997 at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City, before joining Dechert LLP in Philadelphia in 2000. Michael received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Boston University School of Law and his B.A., magna cum laude, in Latin and Classical Humanities, from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Domingo Rodriguez, M.D.
Executive Vice President, Global Clinical OperationsDomingo Rodriguez, M.D. has served as Executive Vice President of Global Clinical Operations at Veru since April 2018.
Prior to joining Veru, Dr. Rodriguez was the Vice President of Global Development Operations at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, where his main responsibility as a member of the Science and Technology Senior Management team pertained to executing all of Mallinckrodt’s clinical-stage programs and indications both in the U.S. and abroad.
From 2004 to 2013, Dr. Rodriguez served in various positions at GTx, Inc., including as Vice President of Clinical Operations.
Dr. Rodriguez holds more than 30 years of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and device experience in small, mid-size and large companies with expertise in Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Due Diligence, Acquisitions, Integrations, FDA Inspections and Sales and Marketing.
Dr. Rodriguez has conducted global clinical development in therapeutic areas such as oncology, male health, autoimmune diseases and rare diseases, in addition to specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology, ophthalmology, regenerative medicine, immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies, transplants, analgesics, pediatrics, orphan/rare diseases and medical devices.
Dr. Rodriguez completed medical school at CETEC University in the Dominican Republic.
Board of Directors
Mitchell Steiner, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Chairman, President, and Chief Executive OfficerMitchell S. Steiner, M.D., F.A.C.S. has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and as a director of the Company since October 2016. Dr. Steiner was the co-founder of Aspen Park and served as Aspen Park’s Chief Executive Officer, President and Vice Chairman of the Board from July 2014 to October 2016. From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Steiner was a consultant and then the President, Urology and member of senior management of OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPK) and had responsibilities for the launch, marketing, sales and reimbursement of 4Kscore prostate cancer test to urologists and primary care physicians. Dr. Steiner was also the co-founder of GTx, Inc., a men’s health and oncology public company, where he served as Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of Board of Directors from 1997 to 2014. Dr. Steiner is a Board Certified Urologist and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and has held numerous academic appointments, including Assistant Professor of Urology, Cell Biology, and Pathology at Vanderbilt School of Medicine from 1993 to 1995 and Chairman and Professor of Urology, Director of Urologic Oncology and Research and the Chair of Excellence in Urologic Oncology at the University of Tennessee from 1995 to 2004. Dr. Steiner holds a B.A. in Molecular Biology and Chemistry from Vanderbilt University and an M.D. from the University of Tennessee. He performed his surgical and urologic training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and postdoctoral research fellow in cell biology at Vanderbilt School of Medicine.
Harry Fisch, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Vice Chairman, Chief Corporate OfficerHarry Fisch, M.D., F.A.C.S. is the Founder, Vice Chairman of the Board, and Chief Corporate Officer of Veru and has served as a director of the Company since October 2016. Prior to Veru, Dr. Fisch co-founded Aspen Park, where he served as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer. From 1994 to 2016, Dr. Fisch served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Millennium Sciences, Inc., a medical device company for reproductive health. Over the course of Dr. Fisch’s career in the healthcare industry, he has held numerous academic and clinical appointments, including Clinical Professor of Urology and Reproductive Medicine at Weill College of Medicine, Cornell University from 2009 to 2021, Director of the Male Reproductive Center and Professor of Clinical Urology at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1999 to 2009. Dr. Fisch is a Board Certified Urologist and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Fisch holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and an M.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. Additionally, Dr. Fisch performed his surgical and urologic training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center.
Mario Eisenberger, M.D.
DirectorMario Eisenberger, M.D. has served as a Director of the Company since October 2016. Dr. Eisenberger currently is the Dale Hughes Professor of Oncology at The Johns Hopkins University and has been in the full-time faculty since 1993. From 2010 to 2014, Dr. Eisenberger founded Oncology Trials Insights, Inc., a privately held clinical trials management company. Since 2010, Dr. Eisenberger has also served as an ad-hoc member of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the FDA. Since 1988, he has served in advisory, strategic and data safety monitoring boards, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi, Astellas, Schering Plough, Auguron, AKZO, Dupont, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Aventis, Jansen, Ipsen, Active Biotech, Medivation, Tokai, Xanthus, Cytogen, Ortho Biotech, Active Biotech, Merck-Sharp and Dohme, Tyme, Inc., Ferring and Bayer. From 1984 to 1998, Dr. Eisenberger held the position of head of the advanced prostate cancer committee and vice chair of the genitourinary cancer of the Southwest Oncology Group. From 1984 to 1993, he served as Professor of Oncology at The University of Maryland. From 1984 to 1989, he was the Chief of Oncology at the Baltimore VAH. From 1982 to 1984, he was a Senior Investigator at the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the National Institute in charge of coordinating extramural clinical research in urological cancers. From 1976 to 1982, he served in the faculty of the University of Miami. Dr. Eisenberger obtained his M.D. at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 1972 and is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.
Grace S. Hyun, M.D.
DirectorGrace S. Hyun, M.D. has served as a Director of the Company since August 2020. Dr. Hyun currently specializes in Pediatric Urology and serves as Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Langone School of Medicine, and Director, Pediatric Urology at NYU Langone Brooklyn Hospital since 2017. Dr. Hyun has held former positions Associate Director, Pediatric Urology, The Mount Sinai Medical Center from 2011-2017, and Assistant Professor, New York Presbyterian- Columbia University from 2005-2011. Dr. Hyun is certified by the American Board of Urology in urology and pediatric urology. She serves on various medical boards including the New York Section of the American Urological Association and Chair of the Urology Committee of the New York Academy of Medicine. She has won numerous awards and honors throughout her career, including “Top Doctor” by Castle Connolly, and “Best Doctor” by New York Magazine for the past seven years. She received a B.A. in History from Columbia University and an M.D. from Weill Cornell University Medical College. She completed her urology residency at The New York Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia and pediatric urology fellowship at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Lucy Lu, M.D.
DirectorLucy Lu, M.D. rejoins the Veru Board in May 2021 after previously serving as a Director of the Company from 2016 to 2019. From 2012 to 2017, Dr. Lu was the Chief Financial Officer of Fortress Biotech, Inc. Prior to working in the biotech industry, Dr. Lu had 10 years of experience in healthcare-related equity research and investment banking. From 2007 to 2012, Dr. Lu was a senior biotechnology equity analyst with Citigroup Investment Research. Dr. Lu holds an M.D. degree from the New York University School of Medicine and an M.B.A. from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. Dr. Lu obtained a B.A. from the University of Tennessee’s College of Arts and Science.
Michael L. Rankowitz
DirectorMichael L. Rankowitz was elected Director in March 2018. Mr. Rankowitz has held directorships with NF Investment Corp., Carlyle Funds, 1st Tee of Metropolitan New York, Discover Card, Clarent Hospital Corp., New York Racing Authority, International Dyslexia Association — New York Branch, Trinity School (New York) and Browning School (New York). From 1980 to 2001, Mr. Rankowitz was a managing director at Morgan Stanley, where he also served as co-head of Global High Yield and was responsible for risk management, research and sales for high yield, emerging markets, bank debt and distressed securities. He continues to be a Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley. He has a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Vermont.
Loren Katzovitz
DirectorLoren Katzovitz is a Senior Managing Director and senior executive of Centiva Capital in the Office of the CIO. Prior to joining Centiva, Loren was a Managing Director at Lazard Asset Management and a member of the firm’s Operating Committee, responsible for building the alternatives business, including recruiting, seeding, incubating, and developing new investment strategies for the firm.
He previously led several businesses related to Guggenheim Partners, which he joined in 2002. Loren was the firm’s President and a Managing Partner until 2006. During this time, he co-founded Guggenheim Advisors and Guggenheim Alternative Asset Management (GAAM), serving as its Chairman & CEO until 2011. Then, Loren transitioned his role at GAAM to launch Guggenheim Global Trading (GGT), which served as Guggenheim Partners Proprietary investment vehicle. He then formed Deimos Asset Management which was formed through a management buyout of GGT.
Before Guggenheim Partners, Loren worked at Royal Bank Canada (RBC) in New York as the Head of the Alternative Assets business and also co-headed RBC’s Global Equity Derivatives and Proprietary Trading business. He spent the early part of his career at Kidder Peabody, Lehman Bros. and Bankers Trust and focused on a variety of markets including commodities and alternatives. Loren holds a B.S. degree from the University of Southern California.
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Caroline M. Apovian
Caroline M. Apovian, MD, FACP, FTOS, DABOM is Co-Director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness (CWMW) in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. For over thirty years, Dr. Apovian has held a position at the forefront of the obesity and nutrition fields. One of the world’s premier weight management experts, she has distinguished herself as a leading researcher, healthcare provider, teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. In collaboration with the Divisions of Gastroenterology and Metabolic Surgery, the CWMW will offer comprehensive, multidisciplinary care for patients seeking weight loss. Under Dr. Apovian’s direction, the Endocrinology arm of the Center will specialize in the assessment and treatment of obesity and its comorbidities. Nationally, she is one of the founding creators of the American Board of Obesity Medicine which provides certification and recognition for physicians who have specialized knowledge and training in the practice of obesity medicine. Her current research interests are weight change and its effects on adipose tissue metabolism and inflammation, obesity and cardiovascular disease, resolution of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the bariatric surgery population, disparities in the treatment of obesity in underserved populations, and novel pharmacotherapeutic agents for the treatment of obesity. She is also an expert in sampling subcutaneous adipose tissue and muscle tissue in humans and has been studying the relationship between adipose tissue inflammation and obesity for over 15 years. Dr. Apovian has published over ten books and over 200 peer-reviewed original research and review articles on obesity and nutrition. Dr. Apovian was a member of the expert panel for updating the 2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, published in the Circulation and Obesity journals and was the Chair of the Endocrine Society Guidelines for Medical Treatment of Obesity published in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2015. She is a former Nutrition Consultant for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Dr. Apovian has given over 200 invited lectures nationally and internationally and served as President of The Obesity Society in 2017-2018. She is also a past Co-Director for the NIH-funded Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center.
Dr. Louis J. Aronne
Dr. Louis Aronne is a leading authority on obesity and its treatment. He is the Sanford I. Weill Professor of Metabolic Research and the director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center, a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary obesity research, education, and treatment center in the division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at Weill Cornell Medicine. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Aronne is a founder and past chairman of the American Board of Obesity Medicine and a past president of The Obesity Society. He is founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of Intellihealth a cloud-based weight management system which delivers obesity treatment online as flyte.
He completed his internship and residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Jacobi Medical Center, followed by a Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Dr. Aronne has been an investigator on more than 65 trials of obesity treatment modalities including medications, devices, and diets. He has authored more than 150 papers and book chapters on obesity and edited the National Institutes of Health’s Practical Guide to Obesity Treatment. He served as a consultant to the VA Weight Management/Physical Activity Executive Council in the development of the MOVE! Program, the nation’s largest medically based weight control program. Dr. Aronne has won many awards, including the 2015 Atkinson-Stern Award for Distinguished Public Service and 2021 Clinician of the Year from The Obesity Society, and several for medical teaching, including the Davidoff Prize from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Elliot Hochstein Award from Weill Cornell Medical College. Since 2001, he has appeared annually in Castle-Connolly’s Top Doctors directory as a specialist in obesity and internal medicine.
Dr. Aronne has served as a consultant/advisor to many companies developing treatments for obesity including Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (USA), Mediflix Inc. Pfizer, Inc., Altimmune, Inc., Amgen, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Janssen Pharmaceutical Company, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Senda Biosciences, and Versanis Bio.
Dr. Shalender Bhasin
Shalender Bhasin, MB, BS, is a Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Research Program for Men’s Health and Aging at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass. He is also the Director of the Boston Claude D. Pepper Aging Research Center at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bhasin is one of the foremost experts in men’s health and aging. He has published more than 400 original research papers in top tier journals and has conducted some of the most important randomized trials of testosterone in men and women. His lab generated the reference ranges for testosterone, characterized the mechanisms of testosterone’s action, and the role of steroid 5-alpha reductase in adults. He led the Endocrine Society’s expert panel that developed the guidelines for testosterone treatment of hypogonadal men since 2005. His lab has investigated the mechanisms of muscle loss with aging. He chaired an expert panel that developed the evidence-based definition of sarcopenia and has conducted many randomized trials of function promoting therapies. He has been investigating the role of Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD) in aging biology and the potential applications of NAD augmentation to treat age-related diseases. Dr. Bhasin has received research grants from NIA, NICHD-NCMRR, AbbVie, FPT, MIB, and Besins. Dr. Bhasin has been the recipient of numerous research, teaching, and mentorship awards throughout his career. He received the Endocrine Society’s Outstanding Clinical Investigator Award, and the American College of Endocrinology’s Frontiers in Science Award.
Dr. Adrian Dobs
Adrian Sandra Dobs, MD, MHS, is Professor of Medicine and Oncology and Director of the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (JHCRN). The JHCRN is a multi-institutional collaboration linking academic and community hospitals in the mid-Atlantic United States. Dr Dobs received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University, a medical degree from Albany Medical College, in New York, and completed an internship in internal medicine at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the Bronx, New York. She held a fellowship in endocrinology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and earned a master’s in health sciences degree in cardiovascular epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr Dobs is an active clinician seeing patients with general endocrine problems, with a subspecialty in sex hormone disorders. She has been an investigator on several NIH-funded studies evaluating the relationship of sex hormones and cardiovascular risk. She lectures in the United States and internationally in these areas, as well as aging and testosterone therapy and testosterone and cardiovascular disease. With book chapters, monographs, and journal articles, as well as television and Web contributions, Dr Dobs has published extensively on topics that include sex hormones and its relationship to metabolic disorders. Journals publishing her research include the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, JAIDS, and Journal of Andrology. She has sat on multiple NIH grant review committees and data safety monitoring boards. Dr Dobs is very active in mentoring medical students and postdoctoral fellows and was honored by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the David M. Levine Excellence in Mentoring Award.
Dr. William J. Evans
William J. Evans, PhD is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at the Duke University Medical Center and Human Nutrition in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He previously was Vice President and head of the Muscle Metabolism Discovery Unit at GSK. He has served as laboratory director at the Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Noll Physiological Research Center at Penn State and as the Chief of the Human Physiology Laboratory at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. With an H-index of 124 and more than 78,000 citations he is the author or co-author of more than 350 publications in scientific journals and was the first to describe sarcopenia. He is the co-inventor of the D3Creatine dilution method, a non-invasive and accurate measurement of muscle mass which is strongly related to health outcomes in older people. His work has been featured in the PBS series, NOVA, Good Morning America, 20/20, CBS evening news, CNN, and the New York Times. Dr. Evans has been invited to testify before the US Senate Select Committee on Aging on strategies to save Medicare. He is a founding member of the Society for Sarcopenia, Cachexia, and Wasting Disorders and recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Conference on Frailty and Sarcopenia Research.