Avera Pharmaceuticals - Clinical Advisory Board

Carol A. Tamminga, M.D. (Chair)
Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.
Mark S. Kramer, M.D., Ph.D.
Ranga Krishnan, M.B., Ch.B.
Gary Tollefson, M.D., Ph.D.

Carol A. Tamminga, M.D. (Chair)
Dr. Tamminga is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and holds the Communities Foundation of Texas Chair in Brain Science. There she directs clinical and preclinical research in schizophrenia focused both on understanding disease mechanisms and on developing improved treatments. Dr. Tamminga graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School in 1971 and completed a Psychiatry Residency at the University of Chicago in 1975. Dr. Tamminga was a member of an NIMH Extramural Research Review Committee for eleven years. She has been an ad hoc advisor to the NIMH Orphan Drug Program. She is on the Scientific Board of NARSAD and the Scientific Advisory Board for the Stanley Foundation. She has spent several rotations on the FDA Psychopharmacology Advisory Committee, and Chair of that committee from 1991 to 1994 and currently serves as Chair. Dr. Tamminga has been the recipient of numerous awards in the field, most recently the University of Maryland Research Lecturer of the Year. She also received the Dean Award for Schizophrenia Research. She is the co-founder of the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research and continues to direct its activities. Dr. Tamminga is a also a member of the Institute of Medicine.

Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.
From 1991 to 2001, Dr. Coyle served as Chairman of the Consolidated Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School,. He now holds the Eben S. Draper Chair of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Harvard. He received his MD degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1969. Following an internship in pediatrics, he spent three years at the National Institutes of Health as a research fellow in the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Julius Axelrod, Ph.D. He returned to Hopkins in 1973 to complete his Psychiatric residency, in which he is board certified, and joined the faculty. In 1980 he was promoted to Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry; and in 1982 he assumed the Directorship of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, being named the Distinguished Service Professor in 1985. Dr. Coyle is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a fellow of the American College of Psychiatry and served on the National Advisory Mental Health Council for the National Institute of Mental Health. He is President-Elect of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and is a Past President (1991) of the Society for Neuroscience. He has been named the Editor-in-Chief of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Mark S. Kramer, M.D., Ph.D.
Mark Kramer, M.D., Ph.D. is currently Professor of Psychiatry at University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry. He has had over 11 years of experience as the head of the clinical psychopharmacology group at Merck Research Laboratories, where he chaired critical project teams, designed strategic clinical programs, developed systems for conducting clinical trials, interfaced with a broad network of principal investigators, and filed New Drug Applications with the FDA. He is credited with the discovery of a new class of antidepressant, Substance P antagonists, which are currently in development. Dr. Kramer serves as a consultant to industry, and is a member of advisory boards. He is invited worldwide to lecture on various topics in neuroscience. He also has years of experience as a hands-on principal investigator for numerous clinical trials. Dr. Kramer holds B.A. degrees from Central High School (Philadelphia) and Temple University, a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and an M.D. from Temple University.

Ranga Krishnan, M.B.s, Ch.B.
Dr. Krishnan is professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina and one of the foremost clinicians in treating refractory depression and anxiety disorders. Dr. Krishnan’s areas of expertise range from mathematical considerations in clinical trial design to analysis of state-of-the-art functional brain imaging in studies of psychopharmacological agents. His clinical and research interests further include affective disorders, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, psychopharmacology, and geriatric depression. Dr. Krishnan has been widely recognized for his work in the field and credited with 300+ publications. Dr. Krishnan brings extensive drug development experience to Avera, including his many years of experience working with a number small and large pharmaceutical R&D companies. Dr. Krishnan received is M.B.B.S. degree from Madras Medical College in 1978 and completed is training in psychiatry and neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center from 1981-1984.

Gary Tollefson, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Tollefson is currently President and CEO of Orexigen. He brings to Avera a wide range of experience in psychopharmacological products, from clinical product development to global commercialization strategies in the neuroscience arena. Specifically, he has been involved with products in the areas of anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, cognition, bipolar disorder, pain, and obesity. Dr. Tollefson is a volunteer Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine. Prior to Orexigen, he spent 13 years at Eli Lilly and Company where he served as president of the Neuroscience Product Group. His marketed product responsibility included Prozac, Strattera, Cymbalta, Symbyax, Serafem, Permax, and Zyprexa. He currently holds the senior guest scientific position at Lilly as the Distinguished Visiting Lilly Research Scholar. Dr. Tollefson has previously worked with over 20 small to mid-size companies on product strategy, clinical development, business development, regulatory affairs, and commercial opportunity analyses. He also serves on several Boards as a Director. Dr. Tollefson obtained his doctor of medicine degree at the University of Minnesota where he went on to complete a residency in psychiatry and a Ph.D. in psychopharmacology. Prior to beginning his career in the pharmaceutical industry Dr. Tollefson was the chairperson of the Department of Psychiatry at the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Hospitals. He is an active researcher with over 200 peer-reviewed publications, a number of book chapters, extensive media experience, and is a frequent international speaker.