Sheila Mikhail, founder and managing member of Life Sciences Law (LSL) has over twenty years of experience in corporate and securities law and management consulting. Under her leadership, LSL has represented a wide range of venture backed and publicly traded pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. She has participated in numerous public offerings and facilitated venture capital investments, mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, asset purchases, technology transfer and private placements of securities. To date she has completed more than 3000 agreements in the areas of licensing, development, evaluation, research, clinical trials, technology transfer and intellectual property. Prior to attending Law School, Sheila worked as a consultant for Arthur Andersen, LLP in Chicago, where she specialized in mergers, acquisitions and cross-border transactions. She also worked for AT Kearney where she advised emerging companies on the commercialization of new technologies and Fortune 100 companies on operational strategies to improve profitability. Before establishing LSL, Sheila was Law Clerk to the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey, 6th Circuit, US Court of Appeals. She also practiced law with Ropes & Gray, LLP in Boston and Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP in New York. Sheila understands the legal and business needs of entrepreneurs. As former CEO and co-founder of Asklepios BioPharmaceutical Inc., Sheila raised $8.5 million and brought the company's leading therapeutic into a successfully completed Phase I clinical trial. Sheila is currently the CEO of NanoCor Therapeutics, Inc. and has guided the company from its start-up stages to raising $7.5 million from Medtronic, Inc. She also co-founded ZumaTek, Inc. as a spin-out from Duke University, and InnerOptic Technologies, Inc. as a spin-out from UNC. As founder and managing member of Funny Girl Ventures, LLC she has invested in early stage companies developing therapeutics and medical devices to address orphan drug indications and diseases primarily affecting women and children. Sheila was recently identified as one of the 50 most influential people in North Carolina by being named a 2009 NC Power Player, as well as being recognized by Business Leader Media as one of the top 100 attorneys in North Carolina.
Jarrett Disbrow is the President/CEO and Founder of Raleigh-based Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Arbor Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel products for the U.S. pediatric population. Mr. Disbrow has over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across sales, marketing, product and business development functions. Prior to founding Arbor in 2006, he served as the head of marketing for Accentia Pharmaceuticals (previously TEAMM Pharmaceuticals). While at Accentia, Mr. Disbrow was responsible for the launch and marketing of several pharmaceutical products in addition to helping build the company’s product pipeline and commercial strategies. With Accentia, he was a key member of the senior management team and was directly involved in all areas of commercialization and business/product development. Jarrett began his career with GlaxoWellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline), where he held roles of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing, including working on leading respiratory brands Advair® and Flovent®. Mr. Disbrow holds a BS in Business Management from North Carolina State University.
Dr. Khayrallah has been involved in drug development for 20 years in executive as well as research and development positions. He acquired his experience in diverse pharmaceutical environments including large pharmaceutical, contract research, and biotechnology companies. In 2002, Dr. Khayrallah founded a consulting company, Alius Pharma, LLC, to partner with small biotechnology companies in cancer drug development. From 1999 to 2002, he was VP of Clinical Affairs at Cytran, Inc., a Seattle area biotechnology company, where he led the product development team for the company’s lead compound in cancer and participated in financing and joint venture activities. Prior to that, Dr. Khayrallah served as Director, Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs at Lineberry Research Associates (now Constella Group) in RTP, NC. While at Lineberry, he led project teams in implementing clinical projects and providing strategic consulting in several therapeutic areas. Dr. Khayrallah also served in various positions at Burroughs Wellcome and later Glaxo Wellcome from 1987 to 1996, where he led clinical programs and trials resulting in FDA approvals in CNS indications. He holds a Ph.D. degree in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Steve brings 35 years of experience in drug development and commercialization to Trana Discovery. His career spans several major pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly, Glaxo and GlaxoWellcome where he held positions in sales, marketing, product development and as liaison with key opinion leaders. He launched or assisted in the development of 16 separate brands including Ceftin, Epivir, Relenza, Epivir-HBV, Zinacef and Fortaz. As an independent consultant Steve has worked with key opinion leaders to assist companies in assimilating complex medical issues and distilling development plans for maximizing product potential.
