Dr. Nagesh Palepu, Ph.D
Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Nagesh Palepu is a seasoned professional in pharmaceutical development, with a career spanning over 30 years working in global biopharmas, generics, and drug delivery companies. Currently, he serves as the founder and chief scientific officer of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, which is his fourth company.

Dr. Palepu’s career began at Pfizer in pharmaceutical research and development. Over the course of his career, he has worked in formulation development at Bristol Myers (now BMS), SmithKline Beecham (now GSK), Adria Laboratories, and Geneva Pharmaceuticals (now Sandoz). He served as the chief scientific office of Sonus Pharmaceuticals before starting his own businesses.

Dr. Palepu continues to operate Hitha Solutions (a consultancy focused on innovative formulation development, manufacturing optimization, and intellectual property) and Innovative Pharma Solutions (a contract research organization). As the co-founder and chief scientific officer of SciDose, he developed and scaled up some of the most commercially successful 505(b)(2)s on the market today - Veletri and Bendeka - as well as a number of other enhanced versions of existing products.

Dr. Palepu earned his master’s in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay, and his Ph.D in pharmaceutics from the University of Iowa. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus award from both IIT-Bombay and UI’s College of Pharmacy. Over his career, Dr. Palepu has published over 25 journal articles and has been granted over 100 US and international patents as inventor/co-inventor.

Hitha Palepu
Chief Executive Officer

Hitha Palepu is an entrepreneur, investor, and writer. She is currently the CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals.

Ms. Palepu joined Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals in 2017 to focus on fundraising and strategic partnerships. The company’s lead product, RHO-11, is focused on the early treatment of the top and third leading killers (heart disease and stroke, respectively). FDA approval for RHO-11 is expected in 2023. In her previous role as VP of Business Development at SciDose, she oversaw out-licensing agreements valued over $500M.

Ms. Palepu is an active angel investor, focused on funding women-led and women-focused startup companies. She has invested in over 10 companies, and advises them on brand and digital strategy. Her portfolio includes MM.LaFleur, Girls’ Night In, Werk, and Messy.fm. She is the author of How To Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip and the creator of #5SmartReads - a daily curation of the must-read news that reaches over 50,000 people via social media and a newsletter.

Ms. Palepu graduated from the University of Washington with degrees in biochemistry and history.

Allan Clarke
VP, CM&C

Allan Clarke is a seasoned leader in drug development and manufacturing. He has led drug product development teams for over 30 years, with 27 of those years at SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoSmithKline.

Mr. Clarke is the inventor of Liquid Dispensing Technologies (improving the quality of microgram/milligram dose tablets), and built a team and commercial scale manufacturing to scale up this technology in finished products. He is also the inventor of FlexTab (a a GSK proprietary flexible-dosing technology), which was later sold to a major drug delivery company. Mr. Clarke was the principle GSK liaison to collaborations with several other drug delivery companies during this period.

He holds a B.S in Pharmacy from the University of Buffalo.

Dean Kessler, DABT
Vice President, Nonclinical Research

Dean Kessler is a pharmaceutical executive with deep experience in nonclinical pharmaceutical drug development. He has over 25 years of experience in the design and execution of nonclinical pharmacology and toxicology studies in support of pharmaceutical drug development. Mr. Kessler has provided strategic planning, design, conduct, management and interpretation of nonclinical pharmacology, toxicology, DMPK and early clinical PK studies. He also has extensive interactions with the FDA, from pre-IND to NDA submissions and writing and editing of critical documents including nonclinical reports and summaries in support of INDs, CTDs and NDAs. Prior to joining Rho Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Kessler has held various positions from Director of Pharm/Tox (Sonus Pharmaceuticals), Vice President of Nonclinical Development (Sonus/OncoGenex, SciDose) and most recently as Associate Director for Nonclinical Science at Seattle Genetics. Mr. Kessler holds a degree in Pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a DABT board certification from the American Board of Toxicology.

Kathy Gans-Brangs, Ph.D
Regulatory Lead

Dr. Gans-Brangs has over 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, with 15 years in Regulatory Affairs. She has been accountable for 50+ development programs ranging from pre-IND through NDA approval, sNDA and pediatric exclusivity. Dr. Gans-Brangs spent much of her career at DuPont, DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals, Zeneca, AstraZeneca. During her time in AstraZeneca, she directed a Regulatory Affairs portfolio with $1.2B US sales

Dr. Gans-Brangs holds a Ph.D in Pharmacology, and held a post-doctoral fellowship in prostaglandin research. 

Gerald Messerschmidt, MD
Clinical Advisor

Gerald Messerschmidt is a healthcare industry senior executive and clinician with broad experience in the clinical development of new therapeutic methodologies. These include research and clinical practice, pharmaceutical, biologic products, medical devices, genetic modification of living organisms and immune modulation therapy. Dr. Messerschmidt has extensive clinical and product development experience in start-up, midsize and large corporate settings. In addition, he has had continuous experience with FDA, European authorities (CHMP, EMA and country authorities), Japan Authorities as well as many other regulatory country agencies and maintains credibility with these regulatory worldwide groups.