John W. Denny
Founder, President and CEO of Alaeras, has thirty years experience in the design, development and manufacturing of a wide variety of pharmaceutical and commercial products. He has expertise in many areas of drug delivery, including inhalation and intranasal vaccines.
Prior to creating Alaeras, John was VP of Engineering for Ventaira Pharmaceuticals. While there, John led the effort to redesign the company’s platform inhalation technology in six months. This is a liquid nebulization system designed to delivery a wide variety of drugs to the lung. From 2003 to 2006, he was VP of Engineering for Oriel Thereapeutics, responsible for all development and manufacturing of the company’s dry powder inhalation system. Prior to Oriel, John was an executive for GSK, responsible globally for all new device development programs. While at GSK, John led the effort to develop the device for Veramyst, a nasal inhalation drug used to treat allergies.
He was President of Develotech, a design firm, for ten years and designed several new products, including products for NASA and AMTRAK. Prior to Develotech, John worked for three Fortune 500 companies, as VP of Engineeering and successfully commercialized more than fifty new products. He holds a number of patents in a variety of industries.
John received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an Executive MBA from Columbia University.
jdenny@alaeras.com
919-413-7647
George C. Proicou
Mr. Proicou has over 18 years of product development experience in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. He most recently was Director of Commercialization at PercuVision® LLC, a start up medical device company commercializing a novel silicone Foley catheter and visual placement system. While managing the development and manufacturing of the product at PercuVision®, Mr. Proicou also led the implementation of the company’s Quality System.
Prior to PercuVision®, he led the development and manufacturing scale-up for patented drug containment systems for Ventaira Pharmaceuticals, a start-up pulmonary drug delivery company commercialized from Battelle Memorial Institute. Mr. Proicou managed incubation and product development efforts for start-up medical device company BIOMEC Systems, Inc. He also brings a wealth of experience to PercuVision® from his nine years of developing and commercializing healthcare products at Abbott Laboratories, including the Hide-A-Port® line of Low Profile gastrostomy catheters. Mr. Proicou has a M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from The Ohio State University.
Dr. Anthony Hickey
Dr. Anthony Hickey, a consultant to Alaeras, is a professor at UNC since 1993, is one of the world’s leading authorities on dry powder inhalation and formulation. He has published over 100 papers and chapters in the pharmaceutical and biomedical literature, has edited two texts on pharmaceutical inhalation aerosols, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology of the United Kingdom. Dr. Hickey supervises a multidisciplinary group studying aerosol drug delivery to and disposition in the lungs, with focus on novel approaches to the treatment of lung diseases He has been successful with two start up ventures and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the team.
Dr. Herman Staats
Dr. Herman Staats, a consultant to Alaeras, is a professor at Duke University in the department of pathology, has twenty years experience developing novel adjuvant for nasal vaccines. He has four issued patents in this field and has done extensive testing of vaccines. He is interested in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved with the induction and regulation of mucosal immune responses as required for the development of effective mucosal vaccines.
Dr. Clayton Beard
Dr. Clayton Beard, a consultant to Alaeras, has worked in the field of virology and vaccine development for over fifteen years. Most recently he was a Program Manager at the Carolina Vaccine Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Prior to that, Clayton was a lead scientist at a biotechnology company, Maxygen, applying their proprietary technologies to develop novel vaccines against Hepatitis B, Dengue, and West Nile. He is also a registered patent agent and served as an intellectual property analyst in Maxygen’s legal department. Clayton’s virology, vaccine, and legal experience in academic, government, and private biotechnology environments give him a broad perspective and strong understanding of our prospective operations.