HepQuant Announces Additions to the Executive Leadership Team to Drive Commercialization

Kelly R. Pitts, PhD, Chief Operating Officer; Carrie Mulherin, MBA, Chief Commercial Officer; Shailesh Chavan, MD, Chief Medical Officer; Paige Nardi, MBA VP Market Access

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#Healthcare--HepQuant, LLC, a leader transforming the management of liver diseases, announces key additions to its executive leadership team. Four seasoned executives have joined HepQuant to round out the Company’s leadership team and finalize preparations to launch its quantitative liver function test. HepQuant enables healthcare providers to manage people with liver diseases more effectively and to identify people at risk for liver disease. The Company develops non-invasive, quantitative products that directly measure liver health to accurately risk stratify patients and inform treatment decisions.

Kelly R. Pitts, PhD joined HepQuant in April as Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Pitts joins HepQuant with more than 20 years of business, R&D and operational leadership experience in biotechnology, biopharma, and medical diagnostics. He brings to HepQuant core strengths in operational oversight for manufacturing and clinical labs, mergers and acquisitions, contract negotiations, intellectual property management, profit and loss reporting, margin improvement, strategic planning, and long-term budget accountability. Dr. Pitts most recently served as Senior Vice President of Operations for C2N Diagnostics, a diagnostics company focused on identifying biomarkers in the diagnosis, progression and treatment monitoring of human brain disorders. Prior to C2N Diagnostics, Dr. Pitts was the President and Chief Scientific Officer for Colorado Operations at Corgenix.

Carrie Mulherin, MBA joined the Company in May as Chief Commercial Officer and will build and lead the sales and marketing organization. She is a diagnostics industry executive with deep experience in strategic marketing, cross-functional team management, commercialization and reimbursement strategy. Most recently, she was VP of Life Sciences at Atonarp, a Tokyo-based start-up developing mass spectrometry and optical spectroscopy platforms. Prior to Atonarp, Carrie served as Chief Marketing Officer at LightDeck Diagnostics, a point-of-care platform technology company with products for the emergency department and critical care, clinics, veterinary and environmental testing.

Shailesh Chavan, MD joined HepQuant in May as Chief Medical Officer. He is a physician-executive with more than 20 years’ experience in the pharma, biotech and clinical research organization. His areas of expertise include drug and device development in immunology, oncology, neurology and transplant medicine. He was most recently Vice President Clinical Development and Clinical Operations at Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, with responsibility for management of all clinical programs. Prior to Veloxis, Dr. Chavan served as Senior Medical Director, Clinical Medicine at Takeda Pharma and Global Clinical Development Lead for Transplant Programs at Shire Pharma (prior to acquisition by Takeda).

Paige Nardi, MBA joined the Company in June. She has a proven track record of developing and implementing strategies and programs in the pharmaceutical and molecular diagnostics market segments. Paige has expertise in pharmacy benefits, medical management and policy, coding and reimbursement, contracting, and pre-authorization/appeals of complex claims. Most recently, Paige served as Executive Director, Market Access for Scipher Medicine, a precision immunology company. Prior to Scipher, she was Vice President of Sales at Envolve Pharmacy Solutions and Director of Managed Care at Biodesix.

“This team understands the medicine and business aspects of our industry to take HepQuant from a development-stage company to a commercial enterprise,” said Greg Everson, MD, Founder and CEO. “They each have expertise in their respective domains and have built and developed complex operations, sales and marketing, medical affairs, and reimbursement organizations. These are exactly the skill sets HepQuant needs to build and scale to make the Company a commercial success.”

About HepQuant

HepQuant is developing non-invasive diagnostic products that directly measure liver function to enable healthcare providers to treat people with liver diseases more effectively. Liver function is the key indicator of liver health. Knowing where a patient falls on the disease spectrum informs treatment decisions for that individual. HepQuant is a privately held diagnostics company based in Denver, Colorado. Learn more at www.HepQuant.com.

HepQuant products are investigational combination drug and in vitro diagnostic devices and have not been evaluated or reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration for commercial sale. They are currently available for investigational use via the FDA guidelines for investigational device exemptions (IDEs).

Carrie Mulherin, HepQuant Chief Commercial Officer
Ph:267-496-6391
carrie.mulherin@hepquant.com