Challenging Biotech’s One-Track Mind When it Comes to Neuropsychiatric Drug Innovation

Heather McKenzie is a professional journalist with more than five years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since joining BioSpace, she has written more than 300 features and breaking news articles with a particular focus on neuroscience and oncology. She has also traveled internationally to cover global biotech hubs such as Israel. You can also catch her on episodes of BioSpace’s “The Weekly”podcast. In previous roles, she has covered current affairs, sports, education and politics. She previously spent eight years as a senior content producer for executive-level business conferences in the pharma/biotech, legal, energy and business strategy sectors. She hails from Toronto and has also lived in Chicago and Chesapeake, Virginia.

Bhat founded Reviva Pharmaceuticals in 2006 and since its inception, Reviva has advanced rapidly under his leadership, with a portfolio of proprietary compounds at different stages in a pipeline encompassing chronic diseases in the central nervous system, respiratory, and metabolic diseases. Dr. Bhat has developed and implemented innovative financing and business models with strategies that have greatly accelerated the drug discovery and development process, resulting in significant savings of time and costs but without sacrificing quality. Dr. Bhat has over 20 years’ experience in drug discovery and development and prior to founding Reviva, he held research positions at XenoPort, ARYx Therapeutics and Higuchi Biosciences Center in the United States. Dr. Bhat has received a global post-doctoral training at the University of Kansas, USA, the Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany and the Université du Maine, France. In 1995, he was selected for the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship, an internationally recognized award for young scientists to pursue advanced research in Germany. Dr. Bhat received his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the Central University (NEHU), India and has authored over 25 research papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Bhat is an inventor on over 100 granted patents.

Amit Etkin, M.D., Ph.D. founded Alto Neuroscience in 2019 and serves as its President and Chief Executive Officer and Chair of its board of directors. Prior to founding Alto, Dr. Etkin was a tenured Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where he held multiple leading roles. During his more than a decade on faculty, Dr. Etkin ran a well-funded lab with over 30 students, post-doctoral researchers, and staff, and was jointly appointed at the Palo Alto Veteran Affairs hospital. Dr. Etkin has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles in leading basic science and clinical journals and ranks in the top 0.1% of researchers by citations worldwide. His exceptional research contributions during his tenure at Stanford led to Dr. Etkin being awarded the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award, the most competitive and prestigious NIH grant, and the first in history to be awarded in clinical psychiatry.

Dan joined MindMed as Chief Medical Officer in February 2021 following MindMed’s acquisition of HealthMode, the company he co-founded and led as CEO. Prior to HealthMode, he built and led clinical, informatics, and regulatory strategy for Pfizer’s Digital Medicine and Innovation Research Lab. He also served as Global Clinical Lead for psychiatry clinical compounds at Pfizer. He previously served as founder and Chief Medical Officer at Column Health, a leading technology-enabled psychiatry and addiction practice. He is a strategic advisor to several pharmaceutical, biotech, and health technology companies. He is also a founding Advisor to the Digital Biomarkers Journal, co-founder and Board Chair of the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe), and was on the committee for Leadership for Digital Drug Development Tools at Critical Path Alzheimer’s Disease, MJFF, and Mental Health IT at the APA. Dan is Board Certified in Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine, and Clinical Informatics. He is a Fellow of the APA and the American Society of Addiction Medicine and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. He graduated with degrees in Neuroscience and Behavior (BA), and Clinical Informatics (MA), Columbia University; Medicine (MD), University of Colorado School of Medicine.

David Benshoof Klein is a healthcare innovator and entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the life science industry and a passion for developing novel patient-centric treatments. In 2012, David recognized the enormous impact of smartphones on behavior and cognition. Driven by the opportunity to leverage software to improve clinical outcomes and bridge gaps in treatment access, he began a journey to develop innovative app-based treatments. He created a term for this new modality of medicine, Digital Therapeutics™, and founded Click Therapeutics which develops, validates, and commercializes software as prescription medical treatments for people with unmet medical needs.

In collaboration with Otsuka, Click Therapeutics developed Rejoyn™, the first prescription digital therapeutic authorized by the FDA for the adjunctive treatment of major depressive disorder symptoms. Click has digital therapeutics under development in a wide variety of therapeutic areas including psychiatry, neurology, oncology, immunology, and cardiometabolic diseases. David is a staunch advocate for rigorous development and high-quality evidence standards. His mission is to create safer and more efficacious treatments through the combination of software and drugs; and believes collaborations between tech and pharma will revolutionize the standard of care and improve access to high-quality medical treatments globally.

Prior to founding Click Therapeutics, David was Managing Director at Opus Point Partners which created, financed, and operated 10+ science companies including Cougar Biotechnology (Acquired by J&J), Chelsea Therapeutics (Acquired by Lundbeck), and TG Therapeutics (TGTX). He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and was recognized by Goldman Sachs in 2019 as one of the 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs at its annual Builders and Innovators conference. David is also a guest faculty member at the Biotechnology Program at Columbia University, NYU Stern School of Business, and Columbia Business School. A native New Yorker, David is an avid art enthusiast and is the co-founder of Eli Klein Gallery, America’s leading Chinese contemporary art gallery.