Next-Generation Neuroscience Is Here

Mike is the President and CEO of Gate Neurosciences. An experienced biopharma executive, investor, and entrepreneur, Mike has spent the past 20 years contributing to the development of dozens of successful biotech companies. Mike established his career in the biotech industry in the early 2000s at Recombinant Capital, Inc, a boutique strategic advisory firm, where he served as an advisor to over 100 companies, including emerging and established biopharma, and had a role in more than $4 billion in partnering transactions. In 2008, Recombinant Capital was acquired by Deloitte and Mike became a leader in the Deloitte Life Sciences Practice based in San Francisco.

Since his time at Deloitte, Mike has held operating roles at several emerging and established biopharma companies, notably serving as Head of Business Development, BioNeurology at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Head of Financial Strategy at Coherus Biosciences (CHRS), and Chief Business Officer of the pain-focused specialty pharma Charleston Laboratories where he led the $650M US partnership with Daiichi Sankyo. Most recently, Mike was the Chief Executive Officer of Anagin, Inc., an emerging biotech developing first-in-class novel targeted therapies for addressing pathologies associated with disrupted synaptic plasticity in the central nervous system.

Mike received his BS from Purdue University and a hybrid Masters from Northwestern University.

Ronald Burch is the Chief Medical Officer of Gate Neurosciences. With more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Burch’s expertise spans discovery research, preclinical safety, clinical research, regulatory affairs, and company formation. He has participated in more than 20 IND submissions from which 7 investigational products have become marketed products and 2 are currently in phase 3 clinical trials.

Previously, Dr. Burch served as the Director of Pain & Inflammation at Nova Pharmaceutical Corporation where he led programs from lead identification into clinical trials for a range of indications including pain and asthma. He was also Head of US Biosciences at Zeneca Pharmaceuticals Group where he led the CNS Therapeutic Area team that developed the antipsychotic agent Seroquel. And at Purdue Pharma LP, Dr. Burch was Vice President, Scientific Evaluations and a member of development teams that introduced Tramadol CR, Norspan, and hydromorphone ER, and headed the discovery teams that identified and took V11294 (PDE4 inhibitor) into phase 2 for asthma as well as LABD (long-acting bupivacaine injectable) into phase 2 for pain.

Dr. Burch then founded and was CEO of AlgoRx until its reverse merger with Corgentech, developing Zingo (nanoparticle lidocaine transdermal) to NDA for procedural pain in children and ALGX-4975 (capsaicin injection) to phase 2 for analgesia in total knee replacement, Morton’s neuroma, and bunionectomy (currently in Phase 3 fast track development as CTNX-4975 by Centrexion). Following AlgoRx, Dr. Burch oversaw the phase 2 and phase 3 of long-acting bupivacaine injection at Pacira, now approved as Exparel. Dr. Burch then left Pacira to join the founding team of Naurex where he oversaw the regulatory strategy and clinical trials programs for the NMDA receptor modulators GLYX-13 (through phase 2b) and NRX-1074 (through phase 2a) for depression prior to being acquired by Allergan.

Dr. Burch obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and M.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina and BS in chemistry and marine biology from the College of Charleston. Dr. Burch was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, performing research involving neuroreceptor regulation with Nobel Laureate Dr. Julius Axelrod.

Anantha Shekhar is the Chief Scientific Officer of Gate Neurosciences, a nationally recognized leader in neuropsychiatry, and currently serves as the Dean of the Medical School and Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Previously, Dr. Shekhar was the Associate Vice President for University Clinical Affairs & Research and Executive Dean for Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine.  Dr. Shekhar is also the Founding Director of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (Indiana CTSI), a statewide institute within the Indiana University School of Medicine supported by a grant from the US National Institutes of Health and established in 2008 as a joint partnership between Indiana University, Purdue University, the University of Notre Dame, life sciences businesses and community organizations.

Dr. Shekhar has conducted groundbreaking research in the innovative psychiatric therapeutics, bench to bedside neuroscience discovery and translation, and recognized for his work with biotech and entrepreneurship. Currently, he provides visionary leadership to Pitt’s large academic medical center, encompassing six health sciences schools: medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, pharmacy and rehabilitation sciences.  His innovation highlights include first to demonstrate the following: that Muscarinic receptor 1/4 agonist is effective in schizophrenia (Karuna Therapeutics); Role of the neuropeptide orexin and orexin 1 receptor in human panic disorder; Role of NMDA-PSD95-nNOS pathway in regulating fear (co-founded Anagin); Role of Metabotropic glutamate 2 receptors and amygdala NMDA plasticity in anxiety and mood disorders. He is a member of the National Academies Forum on Drug Discovery and Development (2019-2023); Co-Chair, and co-author National Academies Workshop on Innovation in Drug Research and Development for Prevalent Chronic Diseases.

Prior to Gate Neurosciences, Dr. Shekhar was the founder, CSO and CMO of Anagin, Inc., a neuroscience company developing first-in-class nNOS agonists for PTSD and neuropathic pain. Dr. Shekhar completed his psychiatry residency, psychopharmacology fellowship, and obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Indiana University.  He received an M.D. from St. John’s Medical College.