Tracy M. Woody - President & Chief Executive Officer

Ms. Woody has served as a member of the Board of Esperion Therapeutics since May 2019. Ms. Woody previously served as the Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTGX) from April 2020 to July 2022. Ms. Woody previously served as Chief Commercial Officer of Versartis, Inc. from 2017 to 2018 and KemPharm, Inc. from 2015 to 2016. Prior to KemPharm, Ms. Woody was Vice President of Sales and Marketing of NextWave Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer), and Vice President of Business Development and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Greer Laboratories. Ms. Woody currently serves as a board member of Shorla Pharma. Ms. Woody has over 25 years of commercial experience in pharmaceuticals, biologics, and medical devices, across a wide range of therapeutic areas in diverse markets. Ms. Woody also has experience with multi-billion dollar revenue brands as well as products in the rare disease space. Ms. Woody holds a Bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion and Applied Physiology from East Carolina University.

The Team

Andrew C. Barrett, Ph.D. - Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Andrew Barrett has over 25 years of experience in academia and industry and is widely regarded as an expert in CNS pharmacology and therapeutics. Dr. Barrett earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship in Addiction at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital, where he conducted research on medications development for Substance Use Disorders. Dr. Barrett received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to complete both his doctoral and postdoctoral training and remains passionate about identifying and developing candidate medications for Substance Use Disorders. Prior to joining Cessation, Dr. Barrett held positions of increasing seniority at Cephalon (acquired by Teva in 2011), Synchrony Healthcare, Salix Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Valeant in 2015), and KemPharm. Dr. Barrett has published over 40 original manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, focusing primarily on the abuse-related effects of opioids, stimulants, and other drugs.

Paul Bremer, Ph.D. - Research and Development Director

As a passionate scientist, Dr. Bremer is committed to the discovery and advancement of innovative drug candidates that have the potential to effectively treat patients suffering from diseases. In 2018, Dr. Bremer joined Cessation Therapeutics to pursue the research and development of anti-drug addiction immunotherapies and has established Cessation as a resident company at the JLabs San Diego biotech incubator. Such a role is a continuation of the scientific projects that he worked on as a graduate student in Dr. Kim Janda’s laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). Here under a research fellowship from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Dr. Bremer helped pioneer vaccines and antibodies that combat the effects of some of the deadliest opioids such as fentanyl and heroin. This work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Bremer continues a collaborative position at TSRI and also held a scientist position at Vertex Pharma. In addition to his PhD from TSRI, Dr. Bremer has a BA in chemistry from Colgate University. Paul’s publications can be found here.

Nicholas Jacob, Ph.D. - Senior Research Scientist

Dr. Jacob joined Cessation Therapeutics in 2019 as a PhD graduate from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). He worked in the research group of Dr. Kim Janda as an NIH Clinical Translation Science Award (CTSA) fellow on the preclinical development of new adjuvant strategies for substance use vaccines and antibody optimization. Dr. Jacob has published extensively on this research work in the improvement of nicotine and cocaine vaccines. He also has extensive experience in grant writing and securing funding through this mechanism. His focus on brining translational aspects of research to the bench will be fundamental in accelerating products to market efficiently for Cessation. In addition to his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from TSRI, Nick holds a BS in chemistry from the University of Rochester. Nick’s publications can be found here.

Joshua Sills - Operations

Mr. Sills is the VP of Operations of Dialectic Therapeutics, a biotech company dedicated to the development of unique, impactful anti-cancer drugs that effectively treat patients with few to no other options. Mr. Sills has 15 years of experience in technical operations, project management, and leading teams on location and remotely while working in over seventy countries. Mr. Sills earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems from Florida State University.