We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing the development of our lead drug candidate, tecarfarin, a late-stage novel therapy with orphan drug indication for the prevention of systemic thromboembolism in patients with end-stage renal disease and atrial fibrillation.
We are committed to bringing this novel therapy to the market to help improve the lives of the thousands of individuals who suffer from this very serious condition.
Our Mission
Our mission is to build a company with a foundation of product candidates that significantly improve quality of life and patient outcomes for individuals with cardiorenal diseases.

Dedicated Leadership
Our mission is supported by a dedicated leadership team and an experienced scientific advisory board with extensive knowledge in cardiology, pharmaceuticals, and clinical research.
Management Team

Quang Pham
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer





Quang Pham
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Quang Pham has served as our Chief Executive Officer since he formed the Company in 2022. He previously served as Chairman & CEO of Espero BioPharma, Inc., a company he also founded and the previous sponsor of the tecarfarin IND. He then served as a consultant to HESP LLC, the assignee for Espero to Horizon Technology Finance. Previously, Mr. Pham was a partner with D+R LATHIAN, LLC, a life sciences multichannel marketing agency. Prior to joining D+R LATHIAN, he founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Lathian Systems, Inc., a digital and database marketing company serving the pharmaceutical industry until 2012 when the company was acquired by D&R Communications, LLC. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from UCLA, and served as a U.S. Marine Corps Officer. We believe Mr. Pham is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his significant business, mergers and acquisitions, and fundraising experience, numerous interactions with the FDA, continuous five-year history with tecarfarin development, and his extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry and our competitors.



Matthew Szot
Chief Financial Officer and Co-Founder



Matthew Szot
Chief Financial Officer and Co-Founder
Matthew Szot has served as our Chief Financial Officer since May 2022. From March 2010 to November 2021, Mr. Szot served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of S&W Seed Company, a Nasdaq-listed agricultural seed biotechnology company. Since September 2020, Mr. Szot has served on the Board of Directors and as Chairman of the Audit and Compensation Committees of INVO Bioscience, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed commercial-stage fertility company. He also serves on the Board of Directors and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Board and as Chairman of the Audit Committee of SenesTech, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed life science company with next-generation technologies for managing animal pest populations through fertility control. From June 2018 to August 2019, Mr. Szot served on the Board of Directors and as Chairman of the Audit Committee of Eastside Distilling, a Nasdaq-listed craft spirits company. From 2007 until 2011, Mr. Szot served as the Chief Financial Officer for Cardiff Partners, LLC, a strategic consulting company that provided executive financial services to various publicly traded and privately held companies. From 2003 to 2006, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Rip Curl, Inc., a market leader in wetsuit and action sports apparel products. From 1996 to 2003, Mr. Szot was a Certified Public Accountant with KPMG in the San Diego and Chicago offices and served as an Audit Manager for various publicly traded companies. Mr. Szot graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana with a BS in Agricultural Economics/Accountancy. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of California. Mr. Szot brings a wealth of knowledge in mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy, equity and debt financings, corporate governance, SEC reporting and compliance, and developing and implementing financial and operational workflows and process improvements. He also has extensive experience in international operations, joint ventures, and technology license agreements.



Douglas W. Losordo
Chief Medical Officer



Douglas W. Losordo
Chief Medical Officer
Losordo joins Cadrenal from American Regent, Inc., where he served as Global Head Clinical Research, Development and Operations. American Regent, a Daiichi Sankyo Group Company, develops, manufactures, and supplies high quality sterile injectables for healthcare providers, clinics and hospitals across the United States and Canada. Prior to American Regent, he served as Chief Medical Officer from 2020 to 2021 of KBP Biosciences, a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to research, development, and commercialization of innovative medicines for the global market. Prior to KBP, he served as Executive Vice President, Global Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer of Caladrius Biosciences since 2013 and was a member of the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board from 2006 to 2013. Prior to Caladrius, he was Vice President, New Therapies Development, Regenerative Medicine, and a member of the Baxter Ventures team at Baxter International. Before beginning his career in the biotech industry in 2011, Dr. Losordo was the director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and the Eileen M. Foell Professor of Heart Research at Northwestern University’s School of Medicine and director of the Program in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Previously he was Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and Chief of Cardiovascular Research at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston. He is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology. He received his M.D. from the University of Vermont. He has served as an associate editor of Circulation Research, the basic science journal of the American Heart Association, and serves on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals.
Board of Directors





Quang Pham
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer





Quang Pham
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Quang Pham has served as our Chief Executive Officer since he formed the Company in 2022. He previously served as Chairman & CEO of Espero BioPharma, Inc., a company he also founded and the previous sponsor of the tecarfarin IND. He then served as a consultant to HESP LLC, the assignee for Espero to Horizon Technology Finance. Previously, Mr. Pham was a partner with D+R LATHIAN, LLC, a life sciences multichannel marketing agency. Prior to joining D+R LATHIAN, he founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Lathian Systems, Inc., a digital and database marketing company serving the pharmaceutical industry until 2012 when the company was acquired by D&R Communications, LLC. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from UCLA, and served as a U.S. Marine Corps Officer. We believe Mr. Pham is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his significant business, mergers and acquisitions, and fundraising experience, numerous interactions with the FDA, continuous five-year history with tecarfarin development, and his extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry and our competitors.



John R. Murphy
Board Member



John R. Murphy
Board Member
Mr. Murphy serves on our Board of Directors and Chairman of our Audit Committee. Since 2003, John R. Murphy has served on the Board of Directors of O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY), where he served as Chairman of the Audit Committee from 2003 until 2019. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Human Capital and Compensation Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of O’Reilly Automotive. Mr. Murphy has also served on the Board of Directors of Summit Materials, Inc. since 2012, where he is currently the Chair of the Audit Committee. Previously he served as a Director, Audit Committee Chairman, and Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee of Apria, Inc. (“Apria”) (Nasdaq: APR) from August 2019 until April 2022. He also served on the Board of Directors of Alight Solutions LLC and Audit Committee Chairman from February 2020 until May 2022 and DJO Global, Inc. from 2012 until March 2019. Mr. Murphy also previously served on the Board of Directors of Graham Packaging, Inc. and Accuride Corporation, Inc. He previously served as Interim Chief Financial Officer of Summit Materials, Inc. in 2013, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation from 2009 to 2010, and Chief Financial Officer, then President and Chief Operating Officer, then President and Chief Executive Officer with Accuride Corporation, Inc. from 1998 to 2008. Mr. Murphy holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado, and is a Certified Public Accountant.



Steven Zelenkofske, DO
Board Member



Steven Zelenkofske, DO
Board Member
Dr. Zelenkofske has served on the Board of Directors of Dinaqor AG since May 2020. He has served as Chief Medical Officer of SwanBio Therapeutics since June 1, 2020. Dr. Zelenkofske is also an advisor to Veralox Therapeutics, Inc., as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, a position he has held since March 2020. Previously, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from August 2018 until April 2020. Dr. Zelenkofske also served as Chief Medical Officer of uniQure N.V., from June 2017 to August 2018. Prior to joining uniQure, N.V., Dr. Zelenkofske was Vice President and Therapeutic Head of Cardiovascular/Metabolism for AstraZeneca, a biopharmaceutical company, from November 2014 to June 2017. From January 2009 to November 2014, Dr. Zelenkofske was Senior Vice President Clinical and Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer of Regado Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company. Dr. Zelenkofske has held leadership positions at Sanofi-Aventis, Boston Scientific, a medical device company, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a global healthcare company. Dr. Zelenkofske holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Emory University and a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He conducted his graduate medical education at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology. We believe that Dr. Zelenkofske’s knowledge and experience working in the biotech and pharmaceutical space will assist us as we work to complete our drug development and commercialization activities.



Glynn Wilson
Board Member



Glynn Wilson
Board Member
Dr. Glynn Wilson is the Chairman & Head of R&D at Jupiter Wellness, Inc.. Dr. Wilson brings an extensive background of success in corporate management and product development with tenures in both multinational and start-up biotech organizations. He was formerly Head of Drug Delivery at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Research Area Head in Advanced Drug Delivery at Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals, and Founder, CEO, and Chairman of TapImmune Inc. for 12 years which became Marker Therapeutics through a merger. At TapImmune he licensed cancer vaccine technology platforms and established the clinical pipeline.



Robert Lisicki
Board Member



Robert Lisicki
Board Member
Robert Lisicki brings over 25 years of experience in the pharma/biotech sector, most recently Robert was CEO and Board Members at InCarda Therapeutics. Prior to that he was the Chief Commercial Officer of Arena Pharmaceuticals, where he provided global visionary leadership for the $6.7 billion growth-stage biopharmaceutical company through their acquisition by Pfizer in March 2022. During his time as Chief Commercial Officer at Arena Pharmaceuticals, Lisicki had a leadership role in more than $8 billion in M&A activities. He regularly interacted with FDA, EMA, and PDMA on study and protocol designs. Prior to Arena, Lisicki was Vice President, General Manager of Inflammation & Immunology and Cardiovascular at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for both commercial and development stage efforts. From 2014 through 2018, Lisicki was Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer of Daichii-Sanyko, where he managed the successful global product launches in Cardiovascular and successful U.S. development in Pain and Oncology. From 2005 through 2014, he held key global roles with Amgen. Lisicki earned his BS in Finance and Economics from State University of New York at Albany.
Scientific Advisory Board



Sean Pokorney
Principal Investigator



Sean Pokorney
Principal Investigator
Dr. Pokorney is an electrophysiologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University. His areas of expertise include treatment options related to stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, bleeding management in atrial fibrillation, atrial fibrillation prevention and rhythm management, contact force-sensing catheters, the use of antiarrhythmic medications, risk of sudden death and use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators after acute cardiovascular events, and lead management for patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices. He received his MD and his MBA in Health Industry Management from Northwestern University. His post-graduate training included a Clinical Research Fellowship at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, as well as a Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship and an Electrophysiology Fellowship at the Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Pokorney has contributed book chapters on pharmacological management of atrial fibrillation in the outpatient setting and on managing recurrent implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapies. He has also presented on the Food and Drug Administration’s restriction of edoxaban use in atrial fibrillation patients with normal renal function and on the low rates of ICD use among Medicare patients with low ejection fraction after acute myocardial infarction. Dr. Pokorney’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the JAMA, Lancet, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm, JACC Electrophysiology, Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, American Heart Journal, American Journal of Cardiology, and Journal of the American Heart Association.



C. Michael Gibson, MS, MD
Chief Executive Office, Baim Institute for Clinical Research



C. Michael Gibson, MS, MD
Chief Executive Office, Baim Institute for Clinical Research
C. Michael Gibson, MS, MD is an interventional cardiologist, cardiovascular researcher, and educator who pioneered our understanding of the “open artery hypothesis” as well our understanding of the importance of restoring flow downstream in the capillary bed in the “open microvasculature hypothesis” in a heart attack. Gibson has been a leading investigator in trials of thrombolytic agents, glycoprotein 2b3a inhibitor agents, thienopyridines, factor Xa inhibitors, lipid-lowering agents and new devices. Gibson was named one of the world’s most widely published and cited scientists of past decade in 2014 by Thomson Reuters. Gibson founded and led his own Academic Research Organization (PERFUSE) for 30 years & has been the principal investigator of or led core services for >120 clinical trials, the results of which have been published in leading journals. Under Gibson’s direction, PERFUSE created the master database that unified data from over many years of TIMI studies (TIMI 1-50) in nearly 100,000 patients and coordinated data analyses for the TIMI study group and functioned as the TIMI Data Coordinating Center. Gibson has led phase 1-4 clinical trials, and cardiology megatrials of over 15,000 patients which eventuate in international approval of drugs like prasugrel, rivaroxaban, and betrixaban. Gibson also founded www.wikidoc.org and www.wikipatient.org, widely viewed open-source textbooks of medicine. He is Editor-In-Chief of >2,200 active contributors who have edited the content millions of times. Gibson also founded www.clinicaltrialresults.org and has conducted >2,000 TV/video interviews. He has over 340K followers on Twitter with millions of impressions at major meetings. For years, Gibson has been chosen as one of Boston’s Top Doctors & U.S. News & World Report also lists Gibson as one of America’s top doctors. He has held numerous leadership positions in medicine including positions as a Coronary Care Unit Director, a Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Director, a Chief of Cardiology, and as a Vice-Chairman of Medicine.



Christopher Bull Granger, MD
Professor of Medicine, Professor in the School of Nursing. Member in the Duke Clinical Research Institute



Christopher Bull Granger, MD
Professor of Medicine, Professor in the School of Nursing. Member in the Duke Clinical Research Institute
Dr. Granger’s primary research interest is in conduct and methodology of large randomized clinical trials in heart disease. He has led a number of large international clinical studies in heart attacks, unstable angina, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation. Additionally, he has lead clinical studies of blood thinners and coronary intervention for heart attacks, stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, and prevention of heart attack for patients with coronary artery disease. Dr. Granger has been co-director of the Reperfusion of Acute MI in Carolina Emergency Departments (RACE) project that is a North Carolina state-wide program to improve reperfusion care for acute myocardial infarction. He currently serves as the Chairman of the American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline program to improve heart attack care nationally as well as the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guideline committee for heart attack care. He has also studied the effects of genetic variation on heart disease and works with the National Institute of Health and the Federal Drug Administration on evaluation of heart disease and of new drugs. Additionally, Dr. Granger has developed tools to predict which patients are at risk for death, heart attack, and need for hospitalization.



Elaine M Hylek, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine



Elaine M Hylek, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine
Elaine M Hylek, MD, MPH is a professor of medicine and Associate Director of the Education and Training Division of the BU CTSI. She received her MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a Masters in Public Health (quantitative methods) from Harvard University School of Public Health. She completed her residency training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Her research areas include arterial (stroke) and venous thrombosis, anticoagulant therapies, and atrial fibrillation. Recent investigations have included the role of biomarkers in atrial fibrillation related stroke, factors associated with major hemorrhage and antithrombotic therapy, and the efficacy and safety of novel oral anticoagulant drugs. She has served on the Executive Steering Committees for international clinical trials and national registries, Event Adjudication Committees, and Data Safety Monitoring Boards. Dr. Hylek is a Section Editor for Thrombosis and Haemostasis, a member of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis Executive Committee for World Thrombosis Day, and the Director of the Thrombosis and Anticoagulation Service at Boston Medical Center.



Michael Lincoff, MD
Vice Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and an interventional cardiologist in the Heart and Vascular Institute of the Cleveland Clinic



Michael Lincoff, MD
Vice Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and an interventional cardiologist in the Heart and Vascular Institute of the Cleveland Clinic
He is the Director of C5Research, the Cleveland Clinic Coordinating Center for Clinical Research, an academic research organization which plans, coordinates, and manages multicenter clinical trials of new pharmacologic or device therapies. Dr. Lincoff's research activities focus on development of therapies to reduce acute and long-term complications of percutaneous coronary revascularization procedures, to optimize therapy for acute coronary ischemic syndromes, or reduce progression or complications of atherosclerosis. He has served as principal investigator or steering committee member of over 20 pivotal trials in ischemic heart disease, enrolling in aggregate nearly 100,000 patients, studying new antithrombotic or metabolic agents in the settings of atherosclerosis or high cardiovascular risk, coronary intervention, heart attack, or unstable angina. Dr. Lincoff also supervises clinical research activities throughout the Cleveland Clinic as Director of the Center for Clinical Research and Vice Chairman for Clinical Research of the Lerner Research Institute. He is a Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. He holds the Charles and Charlotte Fowler Endowed Chair for Cardiovascular Research at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Lincoff has authored or coauthored over 300 peer-reviewed articles, including publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Journal, and European Heart Journal. He has also authored over 80 book chapters and reviews and presented over 400 lectures at various medical meetings and courses throughout the world. He is the Consulting Editor of the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs and serves on editorial boards or as a reviewer for over 15 peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Lincoff serves as the Chair of the Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee of the United States Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Lincoff earned his undergraduate BS degree in chemical and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 1982 and his MD from Johns Hopkins University in 1986. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, a fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at the University of Michigan Medical Center, and a fellowship in interventional cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a member of the American Heart Association and the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society.



Richard Whitlock, MD
Associate Chair, Research, and a Professor at the Department of Surgery, McMaster University



Richard Whitlock, MD
Associate Chair, Research, and a Professor at the Department of Surgery, McMaster University
He was awarded the inaugural Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery in 2020. As well as being a PHRI Scientist, Richard is a cardiac surgeon and intensive care physician at Hamilton Health Sciences. His clinical focus is on aortic valve intervention and aortic surgery. He is a lead investigator for the CIHR funded studies SIRS, LAAOS III, and TRICS III, which have established a network of more than 120 centres to address important questions in his field. He has published more than 90 articles in referred journals. Medically qualified at the University of Toronto, Richard received his specialist training in cardiac surgery and critical care medicine at McMaster University. In 2012, he received his PhD in clinical epidemiology.



Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer, MD, MPH, ScD
Professor of Medicine and Chief, Section of Nephrology, Baylor College of Medicine



Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer, MD, MPH, ScD
Professor of Medicine and Chief, Section of Nephrology, Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Wolfgang Winkelmayer is a Professor of Medicine, holds the Gordon A. Cain Chair in Nephrology, and serves as Chief of the Section of Nephrology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Originally from Vienna, Austria, he earned a Master of Public Health degree in Health Care Management (1999) and a Doctor of Science degree in Health Policy (2001) from Harvard University. He then spent 8 years on the faculty of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he established himself as a prolific investigator and leader in the discipline of comparative-effectiveness research as it pertains to kidney disease. Before joining Baylor in 2014, he spent 5 years at Stanford University where he was the Director of Clinical Research in the Division of Nephrology. His main areas of research interest include the treatment of anemia as well as the effectiveness and safety of interventions for cardiovascular disease in patients with kidney disease. In addition, he has particular interest in medical publishing. He serves as the Associate Editor for Nephrology of JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, was a Co-Editor of the American Journal of Kidney Disease for 10 years, and has been appointed to several other editorial boards of leading nephrology and epidemiology journals. Since 2016, he has served as the Co-Chair of Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO), the leading guideline group in nephrology.