Company | Board of Directors

Jeff Himawan, Ph.D.

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Dr. Himawan is Managing Director for Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. At Essex Woodlands, Dr. Himawan has led several of the firms’ investments in the biotechnology arena, including an investments in Symphogen (a Danish-based company with a novel, antibody-producing platform technology), Iomai (a company with a method of delivering vaccines through the skin), Light Sciences Oncology (a company focused on the development of Light Infusion Technology™ for the treatment of solid tumors), and MediciNova. Prior to joining Essex Woodlands, Dr. Himawan was co-founder and Managing Director of Seed-One Ventures (Seed-One), a venture capital firm that specializes in the initial formation, financing, and early operational development of technology-based companies. At Seed-One, Dr. Himawan created and managed several early-stage companies including Elusys Therapeutics, a New Jersey-based biotechnology company. Prior to his experiences at Seed-One ventures, Dr. Himawan was a bench scientist with basic research experience in both industrial and academic settings. Dr. Himawan holds a B.S. degree in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and obtained a Ph.D. degree in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard University.

Yuichi Iwaki, M.D., Ph.D.

Member of the Board of Directors
President and Chief Executive Officer, and Founder

Dr. Iwaki holds three professorships at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in the Departments of Urology, Surgery and Pathology and has been Director of the Transplantation Immunology and Immunogenetic Laboratory since 1992. He is also a visiting professor at the Nihon University School of Medicine, Kyushu University and the Tokyo Women's Medical School in Japan. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Dr. Iwaki held professorships at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Departments of Surgery and Pathology from 1989 through 1991. He received both his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Sapporo Medical School in Sapporo, Japan. Dr. Iwaki is the author of 200 peer-reviewed publications and more than 40 books. He has been advising pharmaceutical companies and venture capital funds regarding research and investment strategies for over 20 years and is a board member of several biotechnology companies, including Avigen Inc.

John K. A. Prendergast, Ph.D.

Member of the Board of Directors

Dr. Prendergast has served as President of Summer Cloud Bay Inc., an independent consulting firm providing services to the biotechnology industry since 1993. Dr. Prendergast is a co-founder and director of the biopharmaceutical companies Avigen, Inc., AVAX Technologies, Inc. and Palatin Technologies, Inc., and serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of AVAX and Palatin. Dr. Prendergast received M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and a C.S.S. in Administration and Management from Harvard University.

Daniel Vapnek, Ph.D.

Member of the Board of Directors

Dr. Vapnek is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. From 1981 through 1999, Dr. Vapnek held various senior research positions at Amgen Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, including Senior Vice President of Research, from 1988 to 1996 and Senior Consultant from 1996 to 1999. Previously, Dr. Vapnek was a Professor of Molecular and Population Genetics at the University of Georgia and a research associate at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Vapnek was Chairman and CEO of Protein Pathways Inc. and is a director of the biotechnology companies BioArray Solutions, Inc. and Avigen, Inc. Dr. Vapnek received a Ph.D. in microbiology and a B.S. in zoology from the University of Miami.

Hideki Nagao

Member of the Board of Directors

Hideki Nagao has been employed by the Development Bank of Japan since 1980. Mr. Nagao is currently Director General, Department for Technology and Growth Business at the Development Bank of Japan. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Tokyo University.

Alan W. Dunton, M.D.

Member of the Board of Directors

Dr. Alan W. Dunton is a recognized expert in prescription drug development and clinical research. His twenty years of experience are marked by the development and approval of the prescription drugs Levaquin® (antibiotic), TOPAMAX® (migraine), Reminyl® (Alzheimer's disease), Regranex® (diabetic foot ulcers), Risperdal® (antipsychotic) as well as the successful OTC product Aleve® (arthritis). Most recently, since February 2003, Dr. Dunton was President and CEO of Metaphore Pharmaceuticals. Metaphore was acquired by ActivBiotics in December 2005. Before joining Metaphore, Dr. Dunton was the President and Managing Director of the Janssen Research Foundation, a Johnson & Johnson company. In this capacity, he was responsible for the research and development of new prescription drug products marketed by the Johnson & Johnson family of companies worldwide. He was a member of the Group Operating Committee of the J&J Pharmaceutical Group, a member of the Board of Janssen Pharmaceutica, N.V. and Chairman of Janssen-Cilag, International. His experiences also included positions with Roche, CIBA-GEIGY (now Novartis) and Syntex (now Roche). Dr. Dunton also developed and implemented an Ethical Code for the Conduct of Clinical Research and was a recipient of the prestigious Nellie Westerman Prize from the American Federation of Clinical Research for his work in medical ethics. Dr. Dunton received his M.D. degree from New York University School of Medicine and completed his post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at the New York University Medical Center/Bellevue Hospital VA Medical Center and in Clinical Pharmacology at Cornell University Medical College/New York Hospital.

Arlene M. Morris

Member of the Board of Directors

Arlene Morris brings significant expertise in the establishment of strategic partnerships, marketing and operations to MediciNova. She was appointed President and CEO of Affymax, Inc. in June 2003. She has over 25 years of management experience from Johnson & Johnson, Scios Inc., Coulter Pharmaceutical, Inc. and Clearview Projects. While at Coulter, she completed numerous transactions, including the $1.0 billion merger between Coulter and Corixa and a contractual joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline for Bexxar® valued in excess of $200 million. Previously, Ms. Morris was the Vice President of Business Development at Scios Inc. where she completed several high profile transactions including one of the first biotech profit-sharing deals for a late-stage product. From 1977 through 1993, Ms. Morris held various management and executive positions at Johnson & Johnson in sales, marketing, new product development and business development, holding the position of Vice President of Business Development for McNeil Pharmaceutical from 1988 to 1993. She received her B.A. degree in Biology and Chemistry from Carlow College and studied marketing at Western New England College. Arlene is also on the Board of BIO, the Biotechnology Industry Organization.