About Us
BetterLife Pharma Inc. is a life sciences company creating and clinically validating an evolving intellectual property portfolio of novel molecules and drug delivery mechanisms for clinical trials and commercialization.
BetterLife Team
Ahmad Doroudian, PhD Chief Executive Officer & Director
- 20+ years experience as a Pharma CEO in finance, including M&A, and multiple IPOs, Integration of pharmaceutical operations (Whitehall Robbins, Rhone Polenc, Boehringer, Aventis)
- Founder of Merus Labs (NASDAQ: MSLI), sold for $300 M+ in 2017
- Acquisition, integration, tech transfer and management of branded pharmaceutical products Enablex®/Emselex®, Entrophen®, Sandomigran®, Sintrom®, Vancocin®, Zaditen®
Hooshmand Sheshbaradaran, PhD Chief Operating Officer
- 30+ years senior pharma executive with experience in global drug development, marketing, business strategy, operations, licensing and M&A
- Senior executive roles at Pharmacia/Pfizer, Roche, Zeneus/Cephalon, Niiki Pharma, Psioxus
- Development of Camptosar®, Ellence®, Emcyt®, Sutent® and Vidaza®.
Moira Ong, CPA, CA Chief Financial Officer
- 18+ years experience as VP of Finance & CFO in several private and public companies including Merus Labs (NASDAQ: MSLI), BetterLife Pharma (CNSX: BETR; formerly Pivot Pharmaceuticals)
- Managed the integration of the supply chain management and accounting Vancocin, Enablex®/Emselex®, acquired from Novartis, by Merus Labs International Inc.
- Previously at Grant Thornton and Deloitte
(1)">Jeff Fellows(1) Head of Regulatory
- 30+ years of drug development experience leading regulatory development efforts
- Worked with early stage development companies and a large multinational biopharmaceutical enterprise developing programs across numerous therapeutic areas
- Previously VP of Regulatory Affairs at Cell Therapeutics (currently CTI BioPharma, NASDAQ and MTA: CTIC), held senior positions in Regulatory Affairs at Amgen
Scott Rudge, PdD CMC Head
- Founded CMC development expert services group in 2004, has worked on over 200 projects for all molecule/therapy classes since
- Site Director & VP Operations for FeRx; increasing management responsibility at NIST, Synergen, Amylin
- PhD in Chemical Engineering from Purdue and author of multiple peer reviewed articles, book chapters and an award-winning textbook
Our Advisory Board
Mark is editor-in-chief and founder of BioPub, a small-cap biotech investing situations analysis website with a global following. He graduated summa cum laude from University of North Carolina with a chemistry and was a rare junior-year inductee into Phi Beta Kappa.
In the NIH-sponsored Medical Scientist Training Program at Duke University, he earned an MD with junior election to Alpha Omega Alpha and a PhD in biochemistry and cell biology with special distinction.
He trained in categorical internal medicine at Duke, completed post-doctoral work in distintegrins at National Taiwan University (Taipei), and returned to Duke for research and clinical fellowships in gastroenterology and transplant hepatology.
After serving on the faculties of Duke, where he was awarded the medical center’s highes teaching honor, and later University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston), where he was elected to the faculty senate, and UT Health Science Center in Houston, he established an independent freestanding hepatology clinic and clinical research institute, leading clinical trials for a large number of pharma companies and speaking nationally on interferon therapeutics for virus hepatitis as a key opinion leader for many years.
He authored more than three dozen peer-reviewed publications and chapters, over 100 abstracts, and was elected Fellow of the American College of Physicians in 2002.
With an impressive record of success in biotech investing and analysis, and the growing success of BioPub, he decided to devote all energies to guiding biotech investors, analyzing investing situations, and serving as a consultant to the biotech industry.
Dr. Thomas Laughren is currently a consultant in psychiatric and neurologic drug development. He retired as Division Director for the Division of Psychiatry Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at FDA in Dec, 2012. Prior to coming to FDA in September, 1983, Dr. Laughren was affiliated with the VA Medical Center in Providence, RI, and was on the faculty of the Brown University Program in Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, and also completed residency training in psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin.
As Division Director for the Division of Psychiatry Products, Dr. Laughren oversaw the review of all psychiatric drug development activities conducted under INDs and the review of all NDAs and supplements for new psychiatric drug claims. He has authored and co-authored many papers and book chapters on regulatory and methodological issues pertaining to the development of psychiatric drugs, and is a frequent speaker at professional meetings on these same topics. Dr. Laughren has received numerous awards for his regulatory accomplishments.
Dr. Fish is an accomplished scientist with focus on interferon activity against variety of viruses including Covid-19, SARA, Ebola and Zika. During the 2003 outbreak of SARS in Toronto, Dr. Fish initiated studies to investigate the therapeutic potential of interferon in SARS patients. Encouraging results have directed her group’s efforts toward examining interferon activity against a number of emerging infectious diseases.
Dr. Fish is a Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto, Associate Chair, International Initiatives & Collaborations, University of Toronto and Emerita Scientist, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, University Health Network. She received a B.Sc. from the University of Manchester, U.K., an M.Phil. from King’s College, University of London, U.K. and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Fish is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiologists and a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. Dr. Fish has received many international awards acknowledging her scientific achievements and has published more than 170 peer reviewed scientific papers in international journals.
She is the principle author of the most recent paper published on Friday May 15, 2020 in Frontiers of Immunology titled “Interferon-α2b Treatment for COVID-19”.
- Ethnobotanist with over 20 years of experience researching and working with psychedelic compounds to understand and harness their therapeutic potential.
- Co-director of Breaking Convention, Europe’s largest conference on psychedelic consciousness and is a long standing drug policy reform advocate
- Over the last 10 years, worked with Transform Drug Policy Foundation, The Beckley Foundation and ICEERS to promote evidence-based drug policies and challenge the legal obstructions to scientific research and the development of psychedelic therapies
Ralph Anthony Pullen has been an active participant in the Canadian capital markets for over 50 years. During that time, Mr. Pullen has filled most roles in the institutional equity markets, including sales, investment research, market strategist and investment banker. He has been a leading force in the healthcare and biotechnology industry sectors since the mid-eighties, during when these industries began to emerge in Canada. He was instrumental in the creation and initial funding of MDS Capital Corp., which became Canada's largest venture capital fund dedicated to life sciences and where Mr. Pullen served as a board member from 1988 until its transition to become Lumira Ventures in 2009. Mr. Pullen has led and advised on millions of dollars of fund-raising efforts in the life sciences sector.
Our Board of Directors
- 20+ years experience as a Pharma CEO in finance, including M&A, and multiple IPOs, Integration of pharmaceutical operations (Whitehall Robbins, Rhone Polenc, Boehringer, Aventis)
- Founder of Merus Labs (NASDAQ: MSLI), sold for $300 M+ in 2017
- Acquisition, integration, tech transfer and management of branded pharmaceutical products Enablex®/Emselex®, Entrophen®, Sandomigran®, Sintrom®, Vancocin®, Zaditen®
- Served as president, chief executive officer, lead director, chairman and committee member on numerous publicly listed natural resource and industry company corporate boards in Canada, the USA, England, South America and Africa
- Senior partner with the law firm, Lang Michener LLP, for 20 years
- Engaged in numerous acquisitions, divestitures, corporate reorganizations, financings and corporate improvements, as well as serving on numerous special committees across many sectors
Ralph Anthony Pullen has been an active participant in the Canadian capital markets for over 50 years. During that time, Mr. Pullen has filled most roles in the institutional equity markets, including sales, investment research, market strategist and investment banker. He has been a leading force in the healthcare and biotechnology industry sectors since the mid-eighties, during when these industries began to emerge in Canada. He was instrumental in the creation and initial funding of MDS Capital Corp., which became Canada's largest venture capital fund dedicated to life sciences and where Mr. Pullen served as a board member from 1988 until its transition to become Lumira Ventures in 2009. Mr. Pullen has led and advised on millions of dollars of fund-raising efforts in the life sciences sector.
- President of International Business at Physicians Interactive
- Formerly served as Corporate Vice President of Business Model & Healthcare Innovation at Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies
- 10+ years involvement in developing medicines and technology to help people lead healthier, more productive lives
- Founding partner at The Conscious Fund, a US$60 million fund in the psychedelic medicine space which has backed 14 of the leading companies in the sector.
- Expertise includes psychedelic compounds, operating models, venture funding, growth and exit planning, as well as managing media and investor relations campaigns.
- Created over $200 million in company valuations within the psychedelic world.
- Holds a degree in law from the University College London.
Our Approach
At BetterLife we put comfort and accessibility at the centre of everything we do and believe how we treat a condition is as important as the treatment itself.
This is why we are committed to developing products that have a solid scientific and clinical foundation for commercialization of affordable and patient friendly medicine.
For example, TD-0148A is a second-generation Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (“LSD”) derivative molecule that mimics the projected therapeutic potential of LSD. Due to its non-regulated & non-scheduled status, it will be cheaper to develop than LSD. In addition, due to its non-hallucinogenic nature, which means patients can use it without the fear of unpredictable hallucinations, it is possible for patients to self-administer the treatment in the comfort of their own home without supervision by a trained therapist.
We are proud of our partners, which include Carleton University Department of Neuroscience, University of California San Diego, and more. Together we are advancing BetterLife’s vision, which is a future where individuals can live a full life without compromise.