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Our Company History

Belhaven was founded in 2021 in Raleigh, North Carolina, with initial funding from local angels and support from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. This funding enabled the initial formulation work to identify a lead formulation for Nasdepi® and confirmatory nonclinical studies in animal models.

In the second half of 2022, Belhaven successfully completed a pre-IND meeting with the US FDA confirming the development program requirements for Nasdepi®. Belhaven expanded its team to support the transition from research to clinical development and expansion of the product portfolio.

Management Team

Scott Lyman

Scott Lyman, MS, MBA

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

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Scott Lyman is the CEO and a Co-Founder of Belhaven Biopharma and serves as Chairman of the Board. Prior to founding Belhaven, he was the Chief Business Officer of Grid Therapeutics, a spinout from Duke University. Scott has previously held leadership roles at GSK, BioCryst, and Salix. His prior experience includes developing spray dried powders, leading drug development teams, participating in FDA filings, and the licensing of multiple products. In these roles, Scott contributed to the approvals of new Enbrel dosage forms, epilepsy medicine Ezogabine, antibiotic Xifaxan, and HIV medicine Tivicay.

Mr. Lyman holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University, a MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dave Neal

Dave Neal, MBA, JD

Chief Financial Officer and Board Member

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Dave Neal is the CFO and a Co-Founder of Belhaven Biopharma and serves as a Board Member.  Mr. Neal is a leading expert on the intersection of startups, law, and finance.  As a result of his more than two decades as a founder, C-level team member and financier of early-stage companies, he has amassed broad experience in all sectors of the startup landscape. He has managed over $300 million in financing during his career.  In addition to his corporate roles, Dave has been a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC for more than twenty years and served for five years as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the UNC School of Law.

Mr. Neal holds a BS and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an MBA from Stanford University.

Brian Taubenheim

Brian Taubenheim, MS, MBA

Chief Operating Officer

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Brian Taubenheim joined Belhaven in 2022 as the Chief Operating Officer to support progressing the lead program into the clinic and expand the company’s portfolio. Prior to joining Belhaven, Brian founded a consulting company focused on providing operational solutions by integrating experimental science, data science, and project management. He has extensive experience in pharmaceutical product development and operations from previous leadership roles at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and contract manufacturing at Sigma-Aldrich. Brian has worked with many international companies, Healthcare Authorities, and US Agencies including the National Institute of Infectious Disease (NIAID), the Biomedical Advanced Development and Research Agency (BARDA), and multiple groups in the Department of Defense. This work led to the deployment of a therapeutic countermeasure during the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic and approval of Rapivab in the US, Japan, and South Korea.

Mr. Taubenheim is a veteran of the US Marine Corps, holds a BS in Chemistry from Lakeland University, an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and a MS in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University.

Deirdre Kraimer, MS

Head of Clinical Operations

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Deirdre Kraimer is the Head of Clinical Operations at Belhaven and oversees the clinical development of the portfolio.  She has diverse background with experience ranging from Phase 1 and small, rare disease studies to medium sized, complex oncology studies, to large global Phase 3 studies.  Past roles include the Head of Global Clinical Operations at Smith and Nephew and Global Head, Clinical Study Management at Astellas Pharma. Deirdre started her career at Pfizer where she held a variety of positions over 28 years with increasing responsibility in Clinical Research and Operations.

Ms. Kraimer holds BS in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut and a MS in Biology from Brown University.

Board of Directors

Scott Lyman, MS, MBA

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

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Scott Lyman is the CEO and a Co-Founder of Belhaven Biopharma and serves as Chairman of the Board. Prior to founding Belhaven, he was the Chief Business Officer of Grid Therapeutics, a spinout from Duke University. Scott has previously held leadership roles at GSK, BioCryst, and Salix. His prior experience includes developing spray dried powders, leading drug development teams, participating in FDA filings, and the licensing of multiple products. In these roles, Scott contributed to the approvals of new Enbrel dosage forms, epilepsy medicine Ezogabine, antibiotic Xifaxan, and HIV medicine Tivicay.

Mr. Lyman holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University, a MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dave Neal, MBA, JD

Chief Financial Officer and Board Member

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Dave Neal is the CFO and a Co-Founder of Belhaven Biopharma and serves as a Board Member.  Mr. Neal is a leading expert on the intersection of startups, law, and finance.  As a result of his more than two decades as a founder, C-level team member and financier of early-stage companies, he has amassed broad experience in all sectors of the startup landscape. He has managed over $300 million in financing during his career.  In addition to his corporate roles, Dave has been a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC for more than twenty years and served for five years as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the UNC School of Law.

Mr. Neal holds a BS and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an MBA from Stanford University.

Eric Edwards, MD, PhD

Independent Board Member

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Dr. Eric S. Edwards is currently the co-founder and CEO of Phlow Corporation, a leading impact-driven pharmaceutical company focused on securing the supply chain for critical essential medicines and their ingredients in America.  Previously, Dr. Edwards was the co-founder of Kaléo, Inc., a pharmaceutical company in Richmond, VA developing novel medicines for the treatment of chronic and acute-care diseases. He is co-inventor of several currently marketed products, including AUVI-Q, an epinephrine Auto-injector for the treatment of allergic emergencies (anaphylaxis) as well as the Naloxone Auto-injector (Rapid Opioid Countermeasure System) currently being deployed by the DoD in case of an opioid-related attack on the homeland or abroad as a part of the warfighter’s medical arsenal.

While at Kaleo, Dr. Edwards served as an expert presenter on the FDA Joint Meeting of the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee for Naloxone in the Community Setting. He has authored numerous publications in the allergy and opioid use disorder space and has been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences on the topics of epinephrine for anaphylaxis, food allergy management, therapeutics for allergic disease, and naloxone for opioid-related emergencies in the community setting. Dr. Edwards has been active on several committees and boards, including being appointed by the Governor to the Board of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park Authority/ Activation Capital and serving as a mentor and Board member for Lighthouse Labs, a nationally recognized, Top 25 Accelerator. He is also on the founding Board of the Food Allergy Science Initiative (FASI) working with world-class researchers to find a cure and develop treatments for food allergies. Dr. Edwards graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University’s prestigious guaranteed admission program. While at VCU/MCV, he received a B.S. in Biology, his Ph.D. in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, and M.D. degrees.

Wes Wheeler, MBA

Independent Board Member

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Wes Wheeler most recently was the President of Global Healthcare, UPS’ first vertical business unit in the company and is specifically focused on pharmaceuticals, medical devices, wholesalers, retail distributors and customers which store or move regulated healthcare products.  Prior to taking this role, Wes was the Chief Executive Officer of Marken, a leading global supply chain service provider to the clinical supply chain industry serving all the leading pharmaceutical sponsors, central laboratories, and contract research organizations in the world. Wes was recruited in 2011 to transform Marken which has grown to more than 50 locations in 27 countries throughout the world. As CEO, he transformed Marken from a single product courier company to the full-service company it is today and was behind his Board’s decision to sell the company in 2016 to UPS in a competitive process. Wes joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1989 with Glaxo (now GlaxoSmithKline) and worked for 12 years, leaving the company in 2003 as Senior Vice President, Global Manufacturing & Supply. While at GSK, Wes was responsible for the manufacturing merger of Glaxo Welcome and SmithKline Beecham. He has since served as CEO / President at four different companies, including Patheon, Valeant and DSM Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining GSK in 1989, he worked for 12 years as a project engineer for Exxon (now ExxonMobil).

During his 40-year professional career, Wes has been involved in every key functional area in pharmaceuticals, including manufacturing, drug development, supply chain logistics, marketing, and engineering. His combination of deep operational experience and many diverse roles as a leader in many different cultures has provided Wes with a unique range of skills required to transform and grow companies. Wes holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA with an emphasis in Finance.

Derek M. Winstanly, MBChB

Independent Board Member

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Derek M. Winstanly, MBChB currently serves as Board Chair of Renovion, a Biophamaceutical Company based out of Durham, NC and Board Member of Huya, a Biophamaceutical Company based out of San Diego, CA. He previously served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Customer and Governance Officer of Quintiles Transnational, November 2011- 2015.  In addition, his responsibilities included Government Affairs, Head of Compliance, Office of Chief Medical Officer and Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Board. Dr. Winstanly joined Quintiles in 1999 as President of Quintiles Japan and was responsible for the implementation of the Asia Pacific Contract Pharmaceutical Organization, including Pre-clinical, Clinical, Commercial, Academy, and Informatics divisions.  In 2002, he became Chairman of Quintiles Japan and Regional Director for the Asia-Pacific Region. In June 2005, he became the Executive Vice President, Strategic Business Partnerships and Chief Customer Officer. He also has a special interest in patient empowerment and social media and their impact on clinical development.  Prior to joining Quintiles, Dr. Winstanly worked for Glaxo Wellcome, plc, now GlaxoSmithKline, for 15 years. Dr. Winstanly first joined Glaxo South Africa, now Glaxo-SmithKline South Africa, as Medical Director in charge of Clinical Development, Regulatory and Medical Affairs. After being named and serving as Chief Executive Officer of the South African company, Dr. Winstanly moved to the U.K. to accept the position of Director, Migraine & New Therapy areas, where he was responsible for the International Commercial development of all products in these disease areas. Following the merger of Glaxo, Inc. and Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., he was appointed President of Nippon Wellcome, now Glaxo-SmithKline K.K., in Japan. Dr. Winstanly qualified as a Medical Doctor MBChB at the University of Pretoria and is registered as a Medical Practitioner in both the U.K. and South Africa.  In addition, Dr. Winstanly also flew as a pilot with the South African  Airforce and completed a certificate course in Aviation and Space Medicine both in Farnborough, UK and the Institute of Aviation Medicine in South Africa.

Scientific Advisory Board

Anthony Hickey, PhD

Chairman

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Dr. Hickey is Distinguished Fellow, at RTI International, Professor Emeritus of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Royal Society of Medicine. He was previously the founder, President, and CEO of Cirrus Pharmaceuticals, and the founder, CSO of Oriel Therapeutics.  Currently, Tony is the CEO of Astartein and CSO of TFF Pharmaceuticals. Other affiliations include the Chair of the USP Joint Sub-Committee on Nanotechnology, Member of the USP Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms Expert Committee (DFEC) and Aerosols Sub-Committee of the DFEC of the United States Pharmacopeia.

Edwin Kim, MD

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Dr. Kim is an associate professor and chief of the division of pediatric allergy and immunology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He is the director of the UNC Food Allergy Initiative and has over 10 years of experience studying novel therapeutics for food allergy with a particular focus on food immunotherapy. He has clinical expertise in food allergy diagnostics, oral food challenges, as well as the evaluation and treatment of anaphylaxis.

Badre Hammond, MBA

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Mr. Hammond is a 20-year industry veteran in the combination drug device development and CDMO services space. Badre has a strong record in implementing global commercial expansion, product launch, strategy, licensing, and M&A. He has a strong global regulatory record with successful submissions of drug products and medical devices to the FDA, EMA, China FDA (CFD).  Currently, Mr. Hammond leads global commercial operations of Aptar Pharma delivering growth and global expansion in the device and service businesses. He was a key device contributor to the commercialization of the Narcan (Naloxone), first of its kind combination drug product rescue medication for opioid overdose reversal and Valtoco diazepam nasal spray rescue medication for cluster seizures patients.

Barry Bleske, Pharm D, FCCP

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Dr. Bleske is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacy at the University of New Mexico.  Prior to becoming faculty at the UNM in 2015, Dr. Bleske was a tenured professor at the University of Michigan-College of Pharmacy.  He was a faculty member for 27 years and is now professor emeritus.  Dr. Bleske has authored and co-authored over 150 published abstracts, articles, and book chapters.  Dr. Bleske’s research has been in the cardiovascular field, with a focus on CPR and novel drug delivery approaches, atrial fibrillation, heart failure and environmental toxicology, and has included both basic and clinical research.

David Fitzhugh, MD

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Dr. Fitzhugh established Allergy Partners of Chapel Hill in 2012 and maintains a special interest in food allergy and food desensitization.  He completed his undergraduate education at Cornell University, graduating cum laude in biochemistry and attended medical school at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, VA and fulfilled residency training in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  His subspecialty fellowship training in allergy/immunology was completed at the University of South Florida.

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