Ron Barrett, Ph.D.

Chairperson

Ronald W. Barrett, Ph.D., is the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Medikine, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing a proprietary platform to identify peptide mimetics of clinically relevant cytokines that interact with the broad class of heterodimeric cytokine receptors. Prior to Medikine he cofounded XenoPort, Inc., where he was the CEO and a Director for more than 15 years. Shortly after his tenure, XenoPort was acquired by Arbor Pharmaceuticals, LLC. Under his guidance, XenoPort completed multiple private and public financings, corporate partnerships, and advanced five in-house discovered compounds into human trials including mid- to late-stage clinical trials. He led the company’s efforts that resulted in the FDA approval of HORIZANT® (gabapentin enacarbil), the first and only non-dopaminergic drug approved for moderate to severe restless legs syndrome in the U.S. Prior to founding XenoPort, Dr. Barrett was Senior Vice President of Research at Affymax Research Institute, where he pioneered the development and use of new drug discovery technology – work that led to two FDA-approved medicines. He is currently a Director of Quadriga Bioscience, Inc. and an Advisor to Shasqi, Inc. He was previously a Director of Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc (CNCE).

Dr. Barrett co-authored more than 50 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor on more than 50 issued patents in the U.S. He received a B.S. degree in biology from Bucknell University and a Ph.D. degree in pharmacology from Rutgers University.