Our Founder, Dr. Levitt, has more than 35 years of experience as a physician-scientist, in pharmaceuticals development, and he has held numerous leadership positions in development stage and global commercial biopharmaceutical companies. He is a prolific inventor with more than 25 issued patents and a serial entrepreneur having created and led multiple biopharmaceutical companies. Dr. Levitt is a founder of Onspira Therapeutics where he served as the CSO and a board member, which was sold to Sumitomo in 2019. Earlier in his career, he was Director Medical Affairs, Commercial Operations, CSL Behring. He also served as the Chief Executive Officer, President and a board member of Genaera Corporation (NASDAQ).

Currently, Dr. Levitt also serves as a senior leader in academia with a role as clinical professor actively caring for chronic pain patients, Chief of the Institute of Advanced Pain Management, and Vice-Chairperson for Research and Academic Affairs in the Department of Anesthesiology at University of Miami. As an established R&D leader, he has also served as Principal Investigator/Program Director on multiple competitive Awards from the NIH, DoD, Cystic Fibrosis, and Coulter Foundations. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals achieving a H-Index = 62.

Dr. Levitt received a B.S. degree in Chemistry, his M.D. degree from the University of Maryland, and completed post-graduate training in Internal Medicine (board certified), Genetics, Anesthesiology (board certified), and Neuro-anesthesiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Medical Genetics at the NIH.

Mr. Rongen is a serial entrepreneur and R&D / Commercial Development leader with extensive experience across many therapeutic areas and functions. He founded and progressed Matinas BioPharma (omega-3 and lipid-crystal nano-particle drug delivery) into a public company (NYSE:MTNB); and he was integral to the development and commercialization of multiple blockbuster products such as Humira^® and Lovaza^®.

Prior to founding Matinas BioPharma, Mr. Rongen was the architect behind Trygg Pharma which facilitated Norway’s Aker Group’s entry into the prescription omega-3 business. Before his work with Aker, he was VP for IP and Portfolio Management at Reliant Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline) where he in-licensed Lovaza^® and led development and pre-launch activities. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rongen was Global Product Director for Humira^® and other Immunology Programs at BASF Pharma (acquired by Abbott/Abbvie). Mr. Rongen started his professional career as a management consultant at Arthur D. Little’s Technology Innovation Management practice in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, followed by his work in New York City as biotech/pharmaceutical consultant at The Wilkerson Group (acquired by IBM).

Mr. Rongen holds a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) in Molecular Sciences graduate degree from Wageningen University in the Netherlands (with Biotechnology/Bio-Process Technology focus), and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mr. Barone has extensive experience in the biopharma industry spanning nearly four decades. He was a founding member of Reliant Pharmaceuticals and co-founded Essential Pharmaceuticals and Onspira Therapeutics, all of which were successfully transacted with strategic buyers at attractive multiples on invested capital. Mr. Barone led business development for EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Heron Therapeutics, Celldex Therapeutics and EUSA Pharma. In that capacity, he managed all external growth initiatives culminating in numerous value-creating transactions while also providing in-house legal services.

Mr. Barone began his career at Merck where he spent sixteen years in business development, marketing, law and finance.

Mr. Barone received his B.S. in Accounting from Villanova, his M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University, his J.D. from Seton Hall University and he is a CPA.

Dr. Rogers is an accomplished biotech entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who is an internationally respected clinician and academic leader. He trained in four medical specialties including anesthesiology, cardiology, critical care medicine and pediatrics. Dr. Rogers served as a Professor and Chair of the Anesthesiology Department at Johns Hopkins Medical School at age 37. The author of well over 100 papers and Editor of 12 books, he is a former Fulbright scholar, and former Chair of the Reagan-Udall Foundation, as well as a member of the U.S. Congress public advisory group on the FDA. Dr. Rogers is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

After his medical career at Johns Hopkins, he became CEO of Duke Hospital and Health Network, and subsequently Joined Perkin Elmer (NYSE: PKI) as Chief Technology Officer where he was responsible for the human genome sequencing program. He ultimately moved into medical venture capital, rising to Chairman & CEO of Paramount Capital.

Dr. Rogers brings a deep biotech executive perspective to Adolore. Before founding his current venture Gibson Oncology, Dr. Rogers’ track record includes founder and chairman of PolaRX (oncology); founder of Innovative Drug Delivery Systems; chairman of Cardiome (cardiovascular); chairman of Aptamera (oncology); as well as senior executive and board roles at numerous other biopharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Rogers graduated from Columbia University and earned his medical degree from the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse before serving in the United States Army Medical Corp. At the end of his subsequent two-decade career in medicine at Johns Hopkins, he earned an MBA from Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania.