About Axon - Axon Therapies

Howard Levin

CEO at Deerfield Catalyst

Dr. Levin is a Heart Failure Cardiologist by training and a veteran in the field of biomedical engineering and cardiology.

As co-founder of Coridea, his inventions and co-inventions have successfully launched companies including Ardian (Medtronic), CHF Solutions (Gambro), Respicardia (formerly, Cardiac Concepts), eValve (Abbott) and RenalGuard/Reprieve Cardiovascular (PLC Medical), Cibiem and Soffio Medical. He has held a number of positions in these companies including President, Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Medical Officer and VP of R&D.

Chad Hoskins

President & Chief Executive Officer

Chad has more than two decades of experience bringing innovative medical technologies to market. He previously served as General Manager of Home and Vice President of Strategy for Outset Medical, a rapidly growing player in the dialysis market, where he developed the initial commercialization strategy and supported several rounds of fundraising, including a successful IPO. Prior to Outset, Chad was Division Vice President of Heart Failure Therapies at Abbott where he was responsible for global marketing of the Mechanical Circulatory Support (formerly Thoratec) and CardioMEMS franchises. Before Abbott, he was with McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm where he served clients in both medtech and biotech industries as well as several early-stage healthcare companies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Brian Farley

Independent Board Member

Brian Farley is a retired medical device executive and entrepreneur who built multiple successful medical technology companies from early-stage technology development, through commercialization and scaleup. He was CEO of Entellus Medical, and CEO of VNUS Medical Technologies, as well as board chair of Neuronetics Inc, all publicly traded companies. Mr. Farley led Entellus and VNUS from early stages through successful IPOs, and served on the Entellus and VNUS boards until the acquisition of each company. Mr. Farley was also Board Chair of Myoscience Inc. when it was acquired. Prior to joining VNUS, Mr. Farley served in various management and executive positions in R&D, clinical research, and business development at the Vascular Intervention Division of Guidant Corporation and in the Medical Device Division of Eli Lilly and Company. Mr. Farley has served on the Boards of over 10 medtech companies and non-profits. Mr. Farley earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering with an emphasis in biomedical engineering and his Master’s Degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University.

Imran Eba

Partner at Action Potential Venture Capital

Imran Eba is a founding partner at Action Potential Venture Capital, GSK’s corporate venture capital fund focused on investing in companies that pioneer bioelectronic medicines and other whitespace non-drug therapies. Imran represents Action Potential as a board member at Axon Therapies and a number of other portfolio companies. Imran is also a founding member and program advisor to the Harvard Healthtech Fellowship, on the Board of Trustees at the Hartford International University for and on the Board of Ambassadors of the Brooke Charter School a K-12 public charter school network in Boston. Imran is based in Cambridge, MA.

David Neustaedter, Ph.D

Partner at Deerfield Management

David Neustaedter, Ph.D., is a Venture Partner on the Medical Technologies team and joined the Firm in 2022. Prior to Deerfield, Dr. Neustaedter spent seven years as a Vice President, at Medtronic Ventures and, before Medtronic’s merger with Covidien, spent a further 7 years with Covidien including five years as a Vice President of Venture Capital. He has also held positions at Stryker Development, Leerink Swann/MEDACorp Strategy Consulting, Fletcher Spaght, and Braun Consulting. Dr. Neustaedter holds a B.Sc. in Cellular, Molecular, and Microbial Biology from University of Calgary, an M.B.A from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University of British Columbia

Andrew ElBardissi, M.D

Partner at Deerfield Management

Andrew ElBardissi, M.D., is a Partner on the Medical Technologies team and joined the Firm in 2017. Prior to Deerfield, Dr. ElBardissi was a Principal at Longitude Capital, where he focused on investments in medtech and biotechnology. Before that, he was an Associate in JPMorgan’s healthcare investment banking practice. Dr. ElBardissi received residency training in General Surgery at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University. He has been independently funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, has authored over 30 publications in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals and has presented his research at numerous medical and surgical conferences. Dr. ElBardissi holds an M.D. from the Mayo Clinic, an M.P.H. in Quantitative Methods from Harvard University, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. with honors in Biology (Phi Beta Kappa) from the Schreyer Honors College at the Pennsylvania State University.

Matthew Stark

VP of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs

Matt joined Axon in September 2022 with more than 15 years of experience in clinical study design. Prior to joining Axon, he served as vice president of clinical and regulatory affairs for both Cardiac Dimensions and Terumo Aortic, formerly Bolton Medical. Prior to his tenure at Terumo Aortic, Stark established and led the medical affairs department for Spectranetics and guided the company through multiple product submissions and approvals. Prior to his time at Spectranetics, Stark managed the clinical study and submission of Gore thoracic stent graft products to the US FDA for approval. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from University of Colorado Boulder, a Doctorate of Philosophy, Molecular Physiology from University of Virginia, and Master of Business Administration, Finance, Economics, and Entrepreneurship from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Vivek Reddy, MD

Mt. Sinai

Vivek Y. Reddy, MD is Director of Cardiac Arrhythmia Services for The Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai Health System, and The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Professor of Medicine in Cardiac Electrophysiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Reddy is a leading electrophysiologist, who focuses on developing and testing advanced therapies for cardiac arrhythmias and other conditions – including atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardias. He is the lead investigator on several multinational clinical trials exploring new arrhythmia procedures and technologies.

Sheldon Litwin, MD

Medical University of South Carolina

Dr. Sheldon E. Litwin is the Alicia Spaulding-Paolozzi Professor of Cardiology and Director of Cardiac Imaging at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Dr. Litwin is nationally recognized for his expertise in advanced cardiac imaging and its use in the diagnosis of heart disease and treatment of patients with heart disease. He has been involved in multiple clinical trials using new therapies for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).

Barry Borlaug, MD

Mayo Clinic

Dr. Borlaug is Professor of Medicine and Director, Circulatory Failure Research for the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, and Chair for Research for the Division of Circulatory Failure in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

Dr. Borlaug’s research interests focus on the pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of heart failure, particularly heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, with an emphasis on hemodynamics.

Marat Fudim, MD

Duke University

Dr. Marat Fudim is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University and member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute He currently serves as the Medical Director for the Heart Failure Research Unit and Heart Failure Remote Monitoring.

Dr. Fudim’s research interest is in the pathophysiology of HF, device investigation and neuromodulation. In 2021, he was awarded the Douglas Zipes Distinguished Young Investigator Award for his work in using Splanchnic Nerve Blockade to Manage Heart Failure.

Sanjiv Shah, MD

Northwestern University

FAHA, FACC, FASE

Dr. Shah is the Stone Endowed Professor of Medicine and Director of Research for the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Shah is also Director of the Center for Deep Phenotyping and Precision Therapeutics in the Institute or Augmented Intelligence in Medicine at Northwestern University, and he is Director of the Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Dr. Shah’s research is focused on improving our understanding of the epidemiology, mechanisms, and treatment of HFpEF. Dr. Shah started the first dedicated HFpEF clinical program in the world at Northwestern University in 2007 and has been a leading enroller in clinical trials for HFpEF since that time.

Howard Levin, MD

Senior Clinical Advisor

Dr. Levin is a Heart Failure Cardiologist by training and a veteran in the field of biomedical engineering and cardiology.

As co-founder of Coridea, his inventions and co-inventions have successfully launched companies including Ardian (Medtronic), CHF Solutions (Gambro), Respicardia (formerly, Cardiac Concepts), eValve (Abbott) and RenalGuard/Reprieve Cardiovascular (PLC Medical), Cibiem and Soffio Medical. He has held a number of positions in these companies including President, Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Medical Officer and VP of R&D.

Sierra Yearsley

VP of Clinical Affairs

Sierra joined Axon in October 2020 bringing over 20 years of clinical experience in the start up medical device space. In her career Sierra has been responsible for building the clinical portfolio to support regulatory clearance, approvals, and commercialization activities at several companies, including Relievant Medsystems, Adiana (Hologic), and Oratec (Smith and Nephew). Prior to joining Axon she served as Vice President of Clinical Affairs for Precision Biopsy, leading the company’s clinical development efforts in the field of prostate cancer detection. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of Idaho.

PJ Iranitalab

SVP of Engineering & Operations

PJ joined Axon in March 2019 with over two decades of experience developing and bringing innovative medical technologies to market. Prior to joining Axon, he served as the Vice President of Operations and R&D for Apama Medical (acquired by Boston Scientific in 2017) where he developed a novel system for Pulmonary Vein Isolation for the treatment of Atrial Fibrillation. Prior to Apama, PJ was the Director of R&D for Cardica (acquired by Aesculap in 2018), where he helped develop and launch the world’s first 5mm Surgical Stapler used in General and Thoracic Surgical procedures. Before Cardica, PJ managed the General Surgery R&D team at Stryker Endoscopy and held various engineering roles at St. Jude Medical (Cardiac Rhythm Management) and at Boston Scientific (Electrophysiology). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from San Jose State University.

Chad Hoskins

President & Chief Executive Officer

Chad has more than two decades of experience bringing innovative medical technologies to market. He previously served as General Manager of Home and Vice President of Strategy for Outset Medical, a rapidly growing player in the dialysis market, where he developed the initial commercialization strategy and supported several rounds of fundraising, including a successful IPO. Prior to Outset, Chad was Division Vice President of Heart Failure Therapies at Abbott where he was responsible for global marketing of the Mechanical Circulatory Support (formerly Thoratec) and CardioMEMS franchises. Before Abbott, he was with McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm where he served clients in both medtech and biotech industries as well as several early-stage healthcare companies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Leadership

Investors

Howard Levin

Chad Hoskins

Brian Farley

Imran Eba

David Neustaedter, Ph.D

Andrew ElBardissi, M.D

Matthew Stark

Vivek Reddy, MD

Sheldon Litwin, MD

Barry Borlaug, MD

Marat Fudim, MD

Sanjiv Shah, MD

Howard Levin, MD

Sierra Yearsley

PJ Iranitalab

Chad Hoskins