Leadership and Team

Ena Respiratory
Dr. Christophe Demaison

Dr. Christophe Demaison

Managing Director & CEO

PhD
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Christophe has served as the Managing Director and CEO of ENA Respiratory since the company was formed in 2020 as a spin-off of ENA Therapeutics Pty Ltd, now renamed Axelia Oncology Pty Ltd.

Passionate about building ventures and leading teams committed to translating life sciences innovations into treatments that have a meaningful impact on patients, Christophe has more than 20 years of experience spanning start-up creation, capital raising, company management, pharmaceutical product development, business development and licensing of early-stage innovations.

Christophe has a strong research and technical background. He completed his PhD in immunology at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) before moving to Great Ormond Street Hospital (London, UK) where his research led in 2002 to Britain’s first successful gene therapy clinical trial for the treatment of immune deficiencies in children.

Dr Ruth Tal-Singer

Dr Ruth Tal-Singer

Medicine Development Leader

PhD
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Ruth joined ENA as a strategy consultant in June 2020. While President and CEO of the US COPD Foundation, she championed a strategic partnership and served as a member of ENA’s Board of Directors until March 2023. In April 2023 she assumed the role of Medicine Development Leader at ENA.

Ruth is an internationally recognized innovative, patient-focused and highly analytical healthcare leader and clinical scientist with extensive pharmaceutical Research and Development experience. She was previously VP, Medical Innovation at GSK, focusing on enhancing the value of GSK’s Respiratory portfolio. She was also a Member of the Respiratory Therapy Area Unit Executive Team at GSK. She has a proven history of successfully leading international public and private partnerships and non-profit organizations through critical advancements and progress of clinical trials and large observational cohorts. Wide-ranging scientific knowledge comprises molecular biology, immunology, application of digital technology and in vivo disease models in the development of therapeutics. She authored 200+ peer-reviewed including highly cited scientific publications.

Dr Courtney Crim

Dr Courtney Crim

Chief Medical Officer

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Courtney Crim joined ENA Respiratory in 2023 as its consultant Chief Medical Officer. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of North Carolina. He previously served as Group Director in Respiratory Clinical Development at GlaxoSmithKline. He had approximately 22 years of experience designing Phase II-IV clinical trials and has presented submissions for drug approval at US, European and other country regulatory agencies.

 

Dr. Crim is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed published manuscripts. He is a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and the American Thoracic Society, and as to the latter, currently serves as Chair of the Drug/Device Discovery and Development Committee.

Rohina Batra

Rohina Batra

Chief Financial Officer

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Rohina is an experienced finance professional, with a keen interest in supporting deep tech and
life sciences companies in the startup ecosystem. With over two decades of international
expertise in finance and investment management, she began her career in venture capital,
followed by leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline, Seven Network, and News Corp. In 2013, she
founded CFO Plus – an accounting firm that has consistently been recognized as a provider of
choice to a number of tech accelerators and VC funds in Australia.

Rohina has extensive expertise in M&A, capital raising, financial modelling, statutory reporting, taxation, and corporate governance. Passionate about disruptive technologies, she currently serves as CFO of several innovation companies, helping founders through their journey of establishing and scaling their startups.

Rohina is both a Chartered Accountant and a CPA. In addition, she holds an MBA, a BA (Hons)
in Economics, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

Dr Grant Mclachlan

Dr Grant Mclachlan

Director, CMC Program Management

PhD
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Grant joined ENA Respiratory in 2020, overseeing the CMC activities. Grant has over 25 years of experience in drug development, including managing CMC activities. He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Monash University Australia, and completed a post-doctoral in the USA. Upon returning to Australia, he joined IDT Australia, where he was focused on API process development and scale-up for clinical trial and commercial supply.  Following a stint at Melbourne Ventures, where he was Project Manager and was responsible for a number of the University of Melbourne’s research translation and commercialisation opportunities, Grant joined Armaron Bio as CEO. He led Armaron through fund raising, pre-clinical development to the completion of a Phase II clinical trial.

Nicole Kruger

Nicole Kruger

Director, Clinical Operations

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Nicole has over 25 years’ experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, with over 20 years in the clinical research field. Starting as a Clinical Trial Assistant and progressing through Clinical Research Associate, Project Manager and Operations Manager roles, she has worked with major pharmaceutical companies, Contract Research Organisations and medium to small biotechnology companies to implement and manage their clinical research programs and projects. Nicole is leading the clinical operations and is responsible for ensuring delivery of high-quality clinical trials at ENA Respiratory.

Dr Francesca Mercuri

Dr Francesca Mercuri

Director of Biology and Clinical Operations

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Francesca joined ENA Respiratory in 2020, overseeing the translational research and clinical operation programs.  She has over 20 years of experience in the successful management of preclinical research programs and multi-institutional partnerships between academic institutions and industry. Francesca received her PhD in molecular biology from the University of Melbourne and her B.S, Honours in Immunology from Monash University. She was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship from the University of East Anglia, (UK) and a NH&MRC Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Dr Bruce Miller

Dr Bruce Miller

Clinical Consultant

PhD
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Dr. Miller has 30 years experience in drug development and led multiple drug development programs in COPD and other inflammatory diseases having held senior scientific roles with GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, and Sterling-Winthrop Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Miller was a key participant in numerous public-private collaborations that furthered disease understanding in COPD. He was co-chair for the COPD Foundation’s Biomarker Qualification Consortium’s Fibrinogen Working Group, work that resulted in the first regulatory qualification with FDA and EMA for a biomarker to support COPD clinical trials.

Dr. Miller now is a consultant to industry and other organizations providing expert input into drug development programs and disease understanding efforts.  Dr. Miller has authored/co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications in respiratory research and inflammation/immunology and is a co-inventor on 3 issued international patents.

Professor Eddie French

Professor Eddie French

Formulation Consultant

PhD
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Professor Eddie French is an independent pharmaceutical consultant who specializes in therapeutic product design and development; working with biotechs, SME pharma and medtech companies and charitable organisations.. Eddie has over 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  The majority of this time was spent with Pfizer as a director within Pharmaceutical Sciences, focusing on drug delivery and drug product development. Eddie has a PhD in Transdermal drug delivery and prior to his industrial career, he was a lecturer in pharmaceutics at the University of Bath. Eddie is a previous chair of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Great Britain and is current joint chair of the inhalation focus group. He is an honorary professor at the Universities of Bath and Nottingham. Eddie is the formulation team leader on the project.

Professor Tim Hammond

Professor Tim Hammond

Toxicology Consultant

PhD
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Professor Tim Hammond has 35 years of experience in pharmaceutical drug Discovery and Development and was a former Vice President of Safety Assessment in the UK for AstraZeneca. He has wide experience in toxicology required to take candidate drugs through each phase of clinical development up to and including marketing authorisation. Since 2012 he has been an independent consultant. Tim has experience in supporting a wide range of therapeutic areas including respiratory.

Tim is a past President of the British Toxicology Society, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, is a member of the American Society of Toxicology and was a founding member of the International Safety Pharmacology Society who awarded him the Distinguished Scientist Award in 2007.