Honor
In all areas of our work, honor is the guiding principle and the foundation for realizing our mission.
Natalie, 10, GRIN2B Patient
We are neuroscience innovators.
Neurvati Neurosciences has created a search-evaluate-invest-develop strategy to advance novel therapies targeting a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders. We have an unmatched ability to assess advances in neuroscience research, review pre-clinical and clinical data, understand regulatory needs and confirm the commercial potential of promising product candidates.
As a Blackstone Life Sciences portfolio company, Neurvati is powered by best-in-class expertise, relentless passion, and extensive resources that allow us to optimize the development of neuroscience therapies. To fuel our success, we engage with strategic partners including other global leaders in neuroscience research and product development. We also align ourselves closely with the patient communities we serve. These efforts bring us the insights and experience necessary to support our efforts to deliver drugs with the potential to transform the lives of patients.
We are creative partners in neuroscience drug development
The search-evaluate-invest-develop model is structured to meet the demands associated with neuroscience drug development and commercialization. We maintain a long-term, strategic view of the neuroscience ecosystem and have the ability to apply customized business deal structures and strategies to advance our programs, including establishing fit-for-purpose subsidiary companies. Our deep base of resources allows us to achieve the highest levels of business versatility and operational productivity.
Grin Therapeutics
As the first example of our business strategy in action, in 2021 Neurvati established GRIN Therapeutics to advance a targeted approach to the treatment of GRIN-related disorders and other types of pediatric epilepsy.
Team
The Neurvati leadership team has deep expertise in neuroscience research and in all phases of drug development and commercialization, backed by worldwide industry connections and a shared dedication to meeting the needs of the patient communities we serve.
Our Leadership Team
Our Team
Russell Chin, MD
Russell L. Chin, MD, is Medical Director at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics. Prior to joining Neurvati, Dr. Chin was Medical Director in the Neuromuscular Development Unit at Biogen, where his research focus was on spinal muscular atrophy. He served as project lead and clinical development lead on a collaboration to study the safety and efficacy of an implanted port-catheter system for intrathecal delivery of SPINRAZA (nusinersen). He has also served as medical director for several clinical trials of SPINRAZA.
Dr. Chin completed neurology residency training at New York Presbyterian Hospital and was chief resident at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he completed fellowships in clinical neurophysiology and peripheral neuropathy and was associate professor in the neurology faculty. He worked at the Peripheral Neuropathy Center and has authored publications on various neuropathies including chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), neuropathies associated with celiac disease, and small fiber neuropathy (SFN). He also served as director of the EMG Laboratory.
Kenneth Hess, PhD, MBA
Ken Hess is Director, Business Development at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics. He began his career as a consultant at Defined Health (subsequently Cello Health and Lumanity), supporting biopharmaceutical and investment firms across multiple therapeutic areas and project types including opportunity assessments, indication prioritizations, gap analyses, and S&E. In 2016, he took on roles in business development at Purdue Pharma and Otsuka Pharma, where he led the scientific and commercial evaluations of assets at all development stages. Most recently, Ken held leadership roles in S&E and business development finance at I-Mab Biopharma and Volastra Therapeutics. He earned a BA in economics from Franklin & Marshall College, a PhD in pharmacology from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and an MBA from the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.
Ashley Horn
Ashley Horn is an executive assistant at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics, supporting the Chief Medical Officer, development and business & finance operations. Prior to Neurvati, Ashley was an executive assistant and office manager at Bessemer Venture Partners. She has also served as executive assistant to C-suite executives at Lindsay Goldberg and Bowery Farming. Her career in administrative and operational work began at Okta, where she ultimately served as global programs and services manager. Ashley holds a BA in psychology from San Francisco State University.
Melissa Maitea
Melissa Maitea is currently in the role of Executive Assistant, Office of the CEO and Executive Operations at Neurvati Neurosciences. She manages coordination and logistics for the CEO (including coordination with the board of directors, business development, public relations/social media, and human resources). She joined Neurvati from The Walt Disney Company and her prior work experience includes the music, media, real estate and hospitality/events industries. She earned her undergraduate degree from Pace University.
Benjamin Millen
Ben Millen is a senior analyst in finance and business development at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics, where he assesses strategic partnership and investment opportunities. He is a recent graduate of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where he concentrated in finance and strategy and interned in strategy consulting and investment evaluation at KPMG and Samlyn Capital.
Jemima Monchery
Jemima Monchery is a clinical trial manager at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics. She has experience in clinical operations management for both domestic and global studies including working at the site level and with full-service CROs and trial sponsors in areas including oncology, neurology, and rare disease. She began her career at Yale Cancer Center, coordinating early and late phase lung oncology clinical studies. She progressed into biotechnology with a role at Roche, working as a member of the Pharma Research Early Development team working on global clinical trials. She then progressed to leadership roles in the CRO sector, executing end-to-end clinical project management including strategies to improve operational efficiencies. Most recently, Jemima worked at Alexion Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for execution of operational plans and strategies for a Phase 4 interventional pediatric rare disease study and a neuro observational global registry. She received her BS in biology from Providence College and her MHS in biomedical science from Quinnipiac University.
Jennifer Pinheiro
Jennifer Pinheiro is Senior Director, Development Operations and Outsourcing at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics, where she leads the development, management and execution of core operational and vendor oversight activities. Prior to joining Neurvati, Jennifer was Director, Development Operations and Chief of Staff to the Chief Development Officer at Wave Life Sciences, where she managed the company’s clinical research and development-related governance committees, Procure to Pay processes and administrative staff within the development organization. Prior to joining Wave, Jennifer held roles of increasing responsibility at Biogen and Sanofi Genzyme. She began her career as a practice coordinator at Partners (now The Brigham) Multiple Sclerosis Center. She earned her BA in biology from Boston University.
Vijay Rai
Vijay Rai is Associate Director of Clinical Operations at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics, playing a lead role in planning and executing clinical trials. He has more than a decade of experience in clinical trial management. Before joining Neurvati, Vijay held positions of increasing responsibility in every phase of clinical trial planning and execution at Novartis, Ovid Therapeutics, Allergan, and Pacira Pharmaceuticals. He received his BS in pharmacology and toxicology from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
Hillary Savoie, PhD
Hillary Savoie, PhD, is Director of Community Engagement and Communication at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics. She is an internationally recognized leader in patient advocacy in the rare disease community, with extensive experience as a rare disease advocate, patient engagement consultant, and writer on patient advocacy issues. She has a deep personal understanding of the role of patient advocacy as the mother of daughter Esmé, who is medically and developmentally complex. She is the founder of The Cute Syndrome Foundation, an advocacy organization focused on support for individuals and families affected by a rare genetic and developmental encephalopathy. She served as Executive Director at TCSF for nine years and now serves as the organization’s Chair of the board of directors. Her essays and reported features focused on life with medically complex children have been published in news outlets including Romper.com, New York Times, Rolling Stone, and the podcast Story Collider, among others. She holds a doctorate in communication and rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).
Board of Directors
Deborah Dunsire, MD
From 2018 until her retirement in 2023, Dr. Dunsire served as CEO of H. Lundbeck A/S, a global biopharmaceutical company focused exclusively on neurological and psychiatric diseases. She previously served as president, CEO and a director of XTuit Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a private biopharmaceutical company, and president, CEO and a director of FORUM Pharmaceuticals. She worked for Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited as a corporate officer and director and she served as president, CEO and a director of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Dunsire held various roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis Pharma AG. She currently serves as a director of Syros Pharmaceuticals and Ultragenyx. She was named one of the “10 Women CEOs Leading the Charge” by BioSpace and “Woman of the Year” by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. She earned her MBBCh from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Jonathan Freeman, PhD
Jonathan Freeman, Ph.D., is a Blackstone Life Sciences Senior Advisor and has over 20 years of practical industry experience within the healthcare private equity, start-up, business development, corporate development, and M&A sectors. Dr. Freeman is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Anthos Therapeutics. Dr. Freeman previously served as Senior Vice President of Strategy / Portfolio Management, and Head of Business Development and Licensing at Merck KgaA (FWB: MRK); CBO, Vedanta Biosciences (LSE: PRTC); Head of M&A and Licensing at Baxter International (NYSE: BAX); and Director of Corporate Development at Serono (NYSE: SRA).
Dr. Freeman received a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Metabolism from the ICRF (now CRUK), an MBA jointly from the Universities of Versailles, Paris-Saclay, and Webster, St Louis, and both an MA and First-Class BA (Hons) from Cambridge University.
Jonathan was previously Vice President of the Swiss PLG, an EMBO fellow at the Swiss Institute of Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) and has authored several peer-reviewed scientific papers in the fields of oncology and drug metabolism.
Nicholas Galakatos, PhD
Nicholas Galakatos is the Global Head of Life Sciences and is the Chairman of its Investment Committees, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December 2018.
Prior to joining Blackstone, Dr. Galakatos was a co-Founder and Managing Director of Clarus since the firm’s inception in 2005. Dr. Galakatos has over 30 years of industry and investment experience in the healthcare sector and has led investments in biotechnology, pharmaceutical company partnerships, and diagnostics, from startups to commercial-stage companies. Before Clarus, Dr. Galakatos was a General Partner at MPM Capital, a healthcare venture capital firm. From 1997 to 2000 he was Vice President of New Business at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (presently Takeda) and a member of the Management Team. He was a founder of Millennium Predictive Medicine, Millennium Biotherapeutics, and TransForm Pharmaceuticals, where he was the Chairman and founding CEO. Dr. Galakatos is the Chairman of Anthos Therapeutics and a Director of BioMed Realty. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Reed College.
Dr. Galakatos earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from MIT and performed his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School. He earned his undergraduate degree at Reed College.”
Pierre Jacquet, MD, PhD
Pierre Jacquet is Vice Chairman, Global Healthcare Managing Director of L.E.K. Consulting. He has served in a variety of leadership roles for L.E.K., including the firm’s Global Leadership Team, the Americas Management Committee, and various partner operating committees since 2001. Dr. Jacquet has spent more than two decades focused on corporate strategy consulting, merger and acquisition advisory services, and value management, both domestically and internationally.
A former physician, he worked with Arthur D. Little from 1998 to 2000 as a manager of its pharmaceutical practice and performed business development for Genzyme in 1997. During his medical career, he was a Fellow at the Washington Cancer Institute from 1993 to 1996, where he authored over 30 publications and presentations.
Dr. Jacquet is a Director of Exact Sciences (Nasdaq: EXAS) and Mereo Biopharma (Nasdaq: MREO). He previously served as a Director of Osprey Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Jacquet earned a Master of Business Administration from the Darden Graduate School at the University of Virginia, was awarded a Doctor of Medicine with high distinction, and a Doctor of Philosophy in biomedical sciences from the University of Liège in Belgium.
Kiran Reddy, MD
Kiran Reddy, M.D., is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group having joined in May 2020. Dr. Reddy was previously the President & CEO of Praxis Precision Medicines, which he co-founded in November 2016.
Previously, Dr. Reddy was at Biogen where he was part of the corporate develop and strategy leadership team. Dr. Reddy was also an Associate Partner at Third Rock Ventures. He supported and managed various portfolio companies in addition to focusing on new company formation and new investments. He was part of the founding team and interim Chief Business Officer for SAGE Therapeutics through its IPO. Dr. Reddy was part of the team that launched Foundation Medicine, and he has served as a Board Observer for Alnara pharmaceuticals, Rhythm pharmaceuticals and PanOptica pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Reddy holds M.D. and MBA degrees from Georgetown University. He completed his internship in medicine and his neurology residency at Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Reddy was previously a Howard Hughes science fellow and has authored several peer-reviewed scientific papers in the field of epilepsy, neuroimmunology and neurodegenerative diseases.
Neurvati: Built for Success
Backed by the financial and professional resources of Blackstone Life Sciences, a division of Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, Neurvati Neurosciences is ideally structured to advance drug candidates through near- and long-term clinical and regulatory milestones. Our operational capabilities and global reach and resources empower us to achieve levels of business agility and superior clinical execution that represent significant competitive advantages.
Contact
For additional information, please contact us using the form below.
Bruce Leuchter, MD
Dr. Bruce Leuchter is a co-founder of Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics and was named President, CEO and board member of Neurvati when the company was established in September 2021. His extensive experience in neuroscience spans clinical research and patient care as well as investment banking, equity research and medical technology. He has served as a senior advisor on matters related to clinical research, corporate strategy, M&A transactions, and financings for many leading life sciences companies.
A physician by training and neuropsychiatrist by specialty, Dr. Leuchter brings a depth of understanding of the unmet need and patient experience in the diagnosis and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders to Neurvati. He completed his residency training in neurology and psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College and is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He also served as Director of Clinical Neuropsychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, where maintains a voluntary faculty appointment in the Department of Psychiatry.
He has held leadership roles at leading financial services companies including biotechnology equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs, healthcare investment banking at Credit Suisse, and mergers and acquisitions at PJT Partners. He is also a co-founder and founding neuropsychiatrist of Click Therapeutics, a digital therapeutics company that specializes in the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Leuchter is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Daedalus Fund for Innovation at Weill Cornell Medical College and a member of the Life Science Institute Leadership Council at the University of Michigan. He earned his BA at the University of Michigan and his MD at Wayne State University School of Medicine.
Michael A. Panzara, MD, MPH
Michael A. Panzara, MD, MPH, is Chief Medical Officer at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics. He joined Neurvati in 2022, bringing more than 20 years of experience in developing therapies for neurological disorders having served in leadership roles at Wave Life Sciences, Sanofi, Genzyme, and Biogen and currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Athira Pharma, Inc., and Cadenza Bio, Inc.
Prior to joining Neurvati, Dr. Panzara was Chief Medical Officer, Head of Therapeutics Discovery and Development at Wave Life Sciences, where he oversaw the company’s therapeutic research and development portfolio with a focus on genetically defined diseases. From 2009-2016 he held leadership positions at Genzyme (later Sanofi Genzyme), initially serving as Group Vice President, Multiple Sclerosis and Immune Diseases and overseeing the development of MS and other inflammatory disease therapies. He was later named Head of the Multiple Sclerosis, Neurology and Ophthalmology Therapeutic Area for Global Development, leading strategic planning and overseeing the development and global regulatory approvals of the MS drugs LEMTRADA (alemtuzumab) and AUBAGIO (teriflunomide). He previously served as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Neurology at Biogen, where he was global clinical lead for TYSABRI (natalizumab), overseeing its clinical program and global approvals and managed clinical development activities for all late-stage MS products including AVONEX (interferon beta-1a), PLEGRIDY (PEG-interferon beta-1a), and TECFIDERA (dimethylfumarate).
Dr. Panzara received his undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and MD from Stanford University School of Medicine. He trained in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and received his postdoctoral training in immunology and rheumatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned his MPH degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Elliott Ruiz, MBA
Elliott Ruiz is Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics, overseeing finance, operations, and information technology. He began his career in investment banking at Truist Securities and also worked in the healthcare corporate finance group at KPMG. In 2014, Elliott transitioned into industry at Alvogen Inc., a privately held, private equity backed US specialty pharmaceutical company. At Alvogen, Elliott oversaw corporate development in addition to capital raising activities and financial planning and analysis. In 2016, Elliott joined Purdue Pharma to lead their business development finance team, ultimately serving as Treasurer overseeing business development, FP&A, treasury, accounts payable, credit, and insurance. Elliott’s leadership was battle-tested as he played an instrumental role in the company’s restructuring and settlement process. Elliott received his BA in economics from Cornell University and his MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. He also earned executive leadership development certification at the Yale School of Management.
Megan Weaver, MPH
Megan Weaver is Senior Vice President, Clinical Development Operations at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics, responsible for clinical operations, data management, medical writing, clinical site monitoring and GCP process optimization. In a career spanning 25 years, she brings significant operational and strategic development expertise in rare diseases, immunology, oncology and neurology spanning all phases of product development. Prior to Neurvati, she spent six years at Agios Pharmaceuticals where she led the oncology and rare clinical development operations organization and had responsibility for the clinical operations, medical writing, data management/systems, vendor outsourcing and process improvement functional areas. Prior to Agios, Megan spent almost 20 years at Biogen in roles of increasing responsibility in clinical operations and pharmaceutical operations/clinical drug supply.
She received her undergraduate degree in biology from Bowdoin College and her MPH focused in epidemiology and maternal and child health from Boston University.
Jason Lettiere
Jason Lettiere is VP, Business Development at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics. He has more than 15 years of experience executing on a range of strategic initiatives including business development and licensing, financial matters, portfolio management and commercial planning at both public and private high-growth biotechnology companies. Prior to joining Neurvati, Jason was Vice President of Business Development at Terns Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for developing a comprehensive business development strategy from initial outreach and evaluation through signing. Prior to Terns, Jason spent nearly four years supporting business and corporate development at Neurogene Inc. and he was also formerly a member of the healthcare investment banking team at Bank of America. Earlier in his career, he held roles of increasing responsibility across commercial, strategy and business development at Intercept Pharmaceuticals. Jason received his BS in Economics and Finance from Bentley University.