Leadership

Prior to joining RHEI Pharmaceuticals, in February 2008, Dr. Cauwenbergh founded Phases123 LLC, a company focused on identifying high potential health care technology platforms and emerging health care companies. In 2001, Dr. Cauwenbergh founded Barrier Therapeutics, Inc., a company developing novel patented therapeutic agents for treatment of skin diseases. Under his leadership, Barrier Therapeutics went public and raised a total of $250 million in capital, evolving from an R&D organization into a commercial company with expected revenues of $45 million in 2008, prior to its recent acquisition by Stiefel Laboratories. Before Barrier Therapeutics, Dr. Cauwenbergh served in numerous positions with Johnson & Johnson in both the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Cauwenbergh was also previously with the R&D organization of the Janssen Research Foundation in Belgium.

Dr. Cauwenbergh currently serves as a Board member of DARA Biosciences, Upstream Biosciences as well as Ablynx NV, and is a member of the Board of Trustees, and Vice Chairman of Bio New Jersey. Since 2004, Dr. Cauwenbergh has served as Official Trade Advisor for Health Care in North America to the Belgian Government.

Dr. Cauwenbergh has authored over 100 publications and co-authored several books. He received his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven, Faculty of Medicine, where he also completed his Masters and undergraduate work. In 2004 Dr. Cauwenbergh was inducted in the New Jersey High Tech Hall of Fame.

Mr. De Backer joined RHEI Pharmaceuticals in November 2007 and has more than 15 years of experience in finance & general management. Prior to joining RHEI, Mr. De Backer worked for three years as an independent consultant providing interim management and strategic consultancy services to high tech start-up companies and spin-offs. Mr. De Backer started his career as Investment Manager at Lessius, a private Belgian investment banker. Between 1997 and 2005 Mr. De Backer served at Spector Photo Group, an independent photographic company where he held several positions as Group Financial Controller, Finance & Administration Manager and Business Unit Manager in Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

Joan Chypyha is founder and CEO of Alto Pharmaceuticals a company focused on bringing new health care products and technologies to the Canadian market. She has more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry in various capacities. Joan was formerly VP of Corporate Development at Barrier Therapeutics Inc., where she was responsible for overseeing all aspects of corporate development including mergers and acquisitions, as well as opportunities to in or out-license products. Prior to taking on the position of VP Ms. Chypyha was the General Manager of Barrier Therapeutics Canada where she was responsible for managing the company and building the business from the ground up. In a period less than 1 year, she was successful in negotiating the rights for three products in Canada; Solage, Vaniqa and Denavir, as well as a co-promotion agreement with Allergan for Botox in hyperhidrosis.

Ms. Chypyha began her career in the industry with Hoffmann-La Roche where she held positions of increasing responsibility concluding her 15 year tenure as Business Unit Director for Dermatology. Prior to that, Ms. Chypyha served as Assoc. Director of Business Development. In this capacity she negotiated licensing opportunities and partnerships, conducted due-diligence and worked to develop opportunities within the biotech sector. She has expertise in strategic planning, sales and marketing in various therapeutic areas as well as experience working with government agencies

Ms. Lian Minjun joined the team of RHEI Pharmaceuticals as General Manager beginning of 2008. Lian Minjun is hired on a long term bases from Horsten International, a well known and recognized Chinese consulting firm, to help RHEI Pharmaceuticals in its development in China and to assist the top management of the company in establishing a well balanced and highly qualified team. Through her expertise in the pharmaceutical area over more than 30 years, Lian Minjun is very well placed to assist RHEI in the regulatory affairs and the setup of clinical trials for its product pipeline.

LIAN Minjun was born in Shanghai. After graduating from the East-China Chemical & Engineering University, she was first employed at the Xian Pharmaceutical Factory and subsequently moved to Shaanxi Hanjiang Pharmaceutical Ltd. where she worked in different responsibilities to finally become Vice General Manager. LIAN Minjun’s expertise in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry includes areas such as GMP compliance, production, foreign trade, technical cooperation and regulatory aspects.
Since January 2001, LIAN Minjun works as the HORSTEN INTERNATIONAL representative in China and is involved in many different investment and cooperation projects across China.

Mr. Chunyou Wu joined RHEI Pharmaceuticals in March 2007 as Registration Supervisor and recently promoted to Manager of Regulatory Affairs, responsible of handling the company’s regulatory affairs with regards to the in-licensing of Western pharmaceuticals products in China and the organization of Clinical Trials.

Prior to working at RHEI Mr. Wu was a Registration Officer at Tigermed Corporation Inc., a company providing CRO services to pharmaceutical companies in China. While working at Tigermed Chunyou was instrumental with the development and registration of the following western drugs in China: Cazosent, OncoVex, Thytogen Injection and Tosuloxacin