We are a team of scientists and professionals working tirelessly to help people with devastating cancer diagnoses. This is who we are.
About
CNS Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of anti-cancer drug candidates for the treatment of primary and metastatic central nervous system malignancies.
Our lead drug, Berubicin, is a next generation anthracycline that appears to cross the blood brain barrier and kill tumor cells in the brain. This represents a potentially new treatment for patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GMB), an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer.
Our Purpose
We are focused on developing novel drugs with the ultimate aim of advancing treatments for patients with primary or secondary brain cancers.
Crossing the blood brain barrier
Previously studied anthracyclines have limited efficacy in the brain due to their inability to cross the blood-brain barrier. At CNS Pharmaceuticals, our pipeline products Berubicin and WP1244/WP1874 appear to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, differentiating them from other clinically available anthracyclines.
Management Team
Under the leadership of John Climaco, CEO, the Management Team is responsible for overseeing the business operations of CNS Pharmaceuticals.
John Climaco, JD
John M. Climaco, Esq. is the CEO of CNS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. For 15 years Mr. Climaco has served in leadership roles in a variety of healthcare companies. Recently Mr. Climaco served as the Executive Vice-President of Perma-Fix Medical S.A where he managed the development of a novel method to produce Technitium-99.
Previously Mr. Climaco served as President and CEO of Axial Biotech, Inc., a DNA diagnostics company. In the process of taking Axial from inception to product development to commercialization, Mr. Climaco created strategic partnerships with Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson and Smith & Nephew. Mr. Climaco also currently serves as a director of Moleculin Biotech, Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company focused on anti-cancer drug candidates.
Mr. Climaco also served as a director of PDI, Inc., a provider of outsourced commercial services to pharma companies, and InfuSystem Holdings, Inc., the largest supplier of infusion services to oncologists in the US.
Chris Downs, CPA
Mr. Downs is the Chief Financial Officer of CNS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Downs has served in senior finance executive and public company director positions for over 20 years, primarily in the healthcare industry. Mr. Downs also serves as a Director and Audit Committee Chairman of Esports Technologies, Inc. Prior to his current role, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for InfuSystem Holdings, Inc., a supplier of infusion services to oncologists in the United States and worked at several boutique M&A investment banking advisory firms in Analyst, Associate and Vice President roles. In addition, while at Citigroup, Mr. Downs gained experience with both debt and equity capital markets offerings into the public and private markets as well as being formally credit trained. Mr. Downs is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point where he earned his Bachelor of Science. Mr. Downs earned an MBA at Columbia Business School and a Master of Science in Accounting at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Mr. Downs is a Certified Public Accountant.
Don Picker, PhD
Dr. Donald Picker, PhD, joined the CNS team in November, 2017 with over 40 years of drug development experience. At Johnson Matthey, Dr. Picker was responsible for the development of Carboplatin, one of the world’s leading cancer drugs, acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb and with annual sales of over $500 million. He also oversaw the development of Satraplatin and Picoplatin, third-generation platinum drugs currently in late-stage clinical development. Dr. Picker has significant experience in developing cancer drugs in multiple tumor types including solid and liquid cancers as well as antivirals and antiinflammatory drugs.
Sandra Silberman, MD, PhD
Sandra L. Silberman, M.D., Ph.D. is the Chief Medical Officer of CNS Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Silberman is a Hematologist/Oncologist who earned her B.A., Sc.M. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences, School of Public Health and School of Medicine, respectively, and her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, and then completed both a clinical fellowship in Hematology/Oncology as well as a research fellowship in tumor immunology at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. Dr. Silberman has played key roles in the development of many drugs including Gleevec™, for which she led the global clinical development at Novartis. Dr. Silberman advanced several original, proprietary compounds into Phases I through III during her work with leading biopharmaceutical companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Imclone and Roche.
Zena Muzyczenko
With two decades of experience in drug development and operations, Zena is a passionate and focused leader, who thrives in biotech. Her experience ranges among a broad span of therapeutic areas, prominently in oncology. Zena began her career as a CRA at a small, independent CRO before moving into a variety of roles of increasing seniority at Genmab, Inc. At Genmab, she led multiple clinical development programs, leading to the submission and approval of Arzerra. Prior to joining CNS Pharmaceuticals in 2020, Zena served in project management and leadership roles of increasing seniority at Chiltern, Inc. and Synteract, Inc.
Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors comprises healthcare leadership, finance, and technology expertise. They guide our long-term strategic plan and assist in advancing our mission to find effective treatment strategies to improve outcomes for patients faced with glioblastoma multiforme and other primary and metastatic brain cancer.
Faith Charles, JD
Ms. Charles has been a corporate transactions and securities partner at the law firm of Thompson Hine, LLP, since 2010. She currently leads Thompson Hine’s Life Sciences practice and co-heads the securities practice, advising public and emerging biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and internationally. Ms. Charles negotiates complex private and public financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, licensing transactions and strategic collaborations.
Ms. Charles currently serves on the Board of Directors of Avenue Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of central nervous system diseases and on the Board of Directors, Audit Committee and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of Abeona Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing cell and gene therapies for life-threatening rare genetic diseases whose common stock is listed on the Nasdaq. From 2018 until October 2021, Ms. Charles served on the Board of Directors and as a member of the Audit Committee and Chair of the Compensation Committee of Entera Bio Ltd., a publicly-traded biotechnology company. Ms. Charles founded the Women in Bio Metro New York chapter and chaired the chapter for five years and served on the Women and Bio National Board for over 3 years. Ms. Charles is also a member of the Board of Red Door Community formerly Gilda’s Club New York City. She has been recognized as a Life Sciences Star by Euromoney’s LMG Life Sciences, has been named a BTI Client Service All-Star, and was named by Crain’s New York Business to the list of 2020 Notable Women in the Law.
John Climaco, JD
John M. Climaco, Esq. is the CEO of CNS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. For 15 years Mr. Climaco has served in leadership roles in a variety of healthcare companies. Recently Mr. Climaco served as the Executive Vice-President of Perma-Fix Medical S.A where he managed the development of a novel method to produce Technitium-99.
Previously Mr. Climaco served as President and CEO of Axial Biotech, Inc., a DNA diagnostics company. In the process of taking Axial from inception to product development to commercialization, Mr. Climaco created strategic partnerships with Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson and Smith & Nephew. Mr. Climaco also currently serves as a director of Moleculin Biotech, Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company focused on anti-cancer drug candidates.
Mr. Climaco also served as a director of PDI, Inc., a provider of outsourced commercial services to pharma companies, and InfuSystem Holdings, Inc., the largest supplier of infusion services to oncologists in the US.
Jerzy (George) Gumulka, PhD
Dr. Gumulka has been retired since 2016. From 2001 until his retirement he served as a Global Technology Manager ASC, a Technology Manager, Special Projects/New Technology Platforms, Kraton Polymers US LLC and a Technical Director of Kraton Polymers do Brasil. Dr. Gumulka served on the Board of Directors of Moleculin LLC from 2010 through 2016. Dr. Gumulka received a PhD from the University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Jeffry R. Keyes, CPA
Mr. Keyes is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Quantum-Si. Previously, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Spinal Elements, Inc., a private equity backed medical device company. Prior to Spinal Elements, Mr. Keyes was the Chief Financial Officer of Custopharm, Inc., a private equity backed developer of generic sterile injectable pharmaceuticals, from September 2012 to April 2018, Mr. Keyes was the Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary of Digirad Corporation, a publicly traded healthcare services and medical device company. From August 2011 until September 2012, Mr. Keyes was Corporate Controller of Sapphire Energy, Inc., a venture capital backed start-up renewable energy company. From April 2011 to August 2011, Mr. Keyes was the Corporate Controller of Advanced BioHealing, Inc., a venture backed provider of regenerative medicine solutions, until its sale to Shire, PLC in August 2011. Prior to April 2011 Mr. Keyes held a variety of leadership roles in healthcare and medical device companies in finance, accounting, and M&A support, and he started his career in public accounting. Mr. Keyes earned a B.A. degree in accounting from Western Washington University and is a certified public accountant licensed by the Washington State Board of Accountancy. Mr. Keyes is considered a financial expert under relevant rules of the SEC, the NYSE and NASDAQ.
Amy Mahery
Ms. Mahery has more than twenty years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. She has held diverse global and U.S. commercial leadership roles spanning sales, marketing, and market access where she has been involved in the commercialization and launch of drugs in varied therapeutic areas including oncology, neurology, and immunology. Amy previously held multiple leadership roles at EMD Serono, Inc (Merck KGaA). Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Franchise, Neurology and Immunology (N&I) at EMD Serono where she developed and led the implementation of the end-to-end franchise strategy for the N&I portfolio. Prior to that, Amy led worldwide access strategy development across Oncology, Neurology, Immunology, Fertility, and General Medicines to create advanced approaches to pricing, reimbursement, and patient access as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Market Access and Pricing. Amy holds a holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from Trinity College.
Bettina Cockroft, MD, MBA
Dr. Cockroft is a well-established industry executive with over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with clinical development expertise across multiple therapeutic areas. Over the course of her notable career, she has successfully led multiple clinical development programs and has a proven track record executing programs through drug development, commercial launch and beyond, having played a key role in the approval of several drugs for neurological, cardiovascular and infectious diseases.
Most recently, Dr. Cockroft has served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., overseeing all clinical development activities, clinical operations and drug safety. Prior to joining Sangamo, Dr. Cockroft served on the senior leadership team as Vice President, Clinical Research, Neurology at Cytokinetics, Inc., where she was responsible for clinical development of fast skeletal muscle troponin activators in diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Before that, Dr. Cockroft served as Chief Medical Officer of Auris Medical AG, where she led and grew the clinical development team responsible for two Phase 3 programs. Dr. Cockroft also held roles of increasing responsibility at Merck Serono S.A., Novartis Consumer Health and Menarini Ricerche earlier in her career. Additionally, she has authored or co-authored over 20 publications and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Annexon Biosciences. Dr. Cockroft received her M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and her M.D. from the University of Genova.
Scientific Advisors
Sigmund Hsu, MD
Dr. Sigmund Hsu is fellowship trained and certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, with extensive experience in the evaluation and treatment of neurological disorders in cancer patients. He specializes in primary brain tumors as well as brain and spinal cord metastases, cancer neurology and the treatment of chemotherapy neurotoxicity.
Dr. Hsu earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He completed his medical internship at the Hospital of St. Raphael at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was awarded medical intern of the year in 1996.
After his residency at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, with Fred Plum, MD, and Jerome Posner, MD, Dr. Hsu completed his fellowship training in neuro-oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Prior to joining the Mischer Neuroscience Institute, Dr. Hsu was on the faculty at MD Anderson, where he served as assistant professor of neuro-oncology and the neurology residency program director. He is a charter member of the Brain Tumor Network and has volunteered for several years for Run for the Rose, serving as the medical director from 2005-07.
Dr. Hsu has presented research at several national conferences, and his work has been published in numerous journals and textbooks. His most recent research has focused on novel therapies for recurrent primary CNS lymphoma, recurrent glioblastoma multiforme and intralumbar injections for cancer therapy, and he has several patents granted and pending for his treatments.