Management Team
Katerina Savelieva, Founder and President of External Pharma, Inc., has extensive experience in drug discovery and development, management and leadership. Prior to founding External Pharma, Dr. Savelieva served as Sr. Scientific Group Leader at Lexicon Pharmaceutical Inc. At Lexicon, she built a state-of-the-art behavioral phenotyping and pharmacology testing facility and was responsible for the set up and benchmark validation of all assays, phenotypic screens and models for neuropsychiatric indications. She established and managed the Behavioral Pharmacology group consisting of highly experienced and professional members at associate and scientist levels. The group also supported in vivo PK/PD studies by providing behavioral toxicology assessment of investigational compounds.
Prior to Lexicon Dr. Savelieva served as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Texas at Austin, School of Pharmacy, from 2000 to 2002. She received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Moscow Lomonosov State University. During her under-graduate, graduate and post-graduate work she was involved in development of Semax, a cognitive enhancer that increased memory and attention without side effects, both in normal and pathological conditions. This product development resulted in the approval of the Russian Federation Ministry of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Industry in 1996, for the clinical use of SEMAX® in the Russian Federation as a neuroactive peptide protecting and enhancing the recovery of cerebral functions after ischemic insults such as stroke and closed head injuries, and in neurodegenerative processes such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s Chorea.
Tom Lanthorn, co-founder and CEO of External Pharma, has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, covering all aspects from target discovery and evaluation to drug discovery and clinical trials. He holds a Ph.D. in physiological psychology (animal behavior and pharmacology) and neuroscience. Dr. Lanthorn has been an author on over 80 publications and has five issued patents covering compounds, devices, and molecular mechanisms of action. Before joining External Pharma, he was a VP of Neuroscience research at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals where he put into place and managed the Neuroscience Research department. In particular, this included overseeing the high-capacity behavioral battery that allowed Lexicon to evaluate over 4,600 genes via the behavioral phenotypes of KO mice in only five years. Through Dr. Lanthorn’s direct efforts, a neuroscience target discovery alliance with Bristol Myers-Squibb was initiated and extended for two additional years. This alliance brought in substantial research funding and resources to Lexicon and has provided BMS a number of ongoing novel drug discovery programs. This alliance required very close collaboration between Dr. Lanthorn and other members of the Neuroscience department with BMS investigators and managers in a collegial, but clearly client-like relationship, with BMS carefully scrutinizing every experimental result from Lexicon.
Prior to Lexicon, Dr. Lanthorn led the electrophysiology group at Astra Arcus (now part of AstraZeneca). During part of this time, he served as Chair of the IACUC, gaining valuable insight into contrasting viewpoints on animal experimentation. At G.D.Searle, Dr. Lanthorn rose to be Section Head of CNS Pharmacology. He was also elected a Fellow in recognition of his scientific achievements. During this time he was the discovery representative for three clinical trial programs affording him a strong understanding of the needs of drug development groups.
Gui-lan Ye, co-founder of External Pharma, currently serves as the director of research development. Before founding External Pharma, Gui-lan has served as Sr. Scientist at Lexicon Pharmaceutical Inc. since 2002. She oversaw Neurophysiology team in CNS and pain drug discovery and development. Gui-lan was instrumental in establishing Electrophysiology, Neuropathic Pain, and Neurodegeneration Laboratories in Lexicon. She also contributed to the joint drug discovery effort between Lexicon and Bristol-Myers Squibb. She is the coauthor of multiple scientific articles focusing on neurophysiology. Gui-lan served as a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant professor at Northwestern University from 1997 to 2002. She received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Fudan University and her M.D. from Qiqihar Medical School.
Kevin Baker, M.S.
- Director of Service and Strategic Development
- Co-Founder
Kevin Baker, co-founder of External Pharma, currently serves as director of service and strategic development. Kevin has over 10 years of professional neuroscience experience and over 8 years combined undergraduate and graduate training in neuroscience. Kevin has many scientific publications and his work has been cited by over 100 articles and books. While working at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Kevin has been key in designing and validating novel assays and models in learning and memory, anxiety, nociception, attention, depression, and motor functioning. Kevin also has extensive experience with dosing, drug dilution, small animal surgery (EEG, EKG, cannula implantation) and statistics.
Prior to Lexicon, Kevin worked as a clinical associate for human spine and brain surgeries. He currently owns and manages the Texas Biotech group. Kevin also finds time to volunteer for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's advocacy and fund raising groups. Kevin received his M.S. in behavioral neuroscience and psychology from Yale University.