Dr Mark Heffernan (CEO)
Dr Heffernan is a co-founder of Opsona (together with the three academic founders) and was responsible in forming and coordinating the initial capital raising and business development activities for Opsona. He received his PhD in Biochemistry at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He has senior management experience overseeing internal and external R&D and business development activities in two leading Australian biotechnology start-up companies under the Circadian Group. Since moving to Ireland, where he co-founded Opsona in 2004, he has driven the growth of the company to over 20 people and has negotiated a number of licensing, collaboration and research agreements with global companies and institutes.
Mary Reilly (VP of Pharmaceutical Development)
Ms. Reilly joined the Opsona management team in March 2005 to head up the pharmaceutical development of Opsona's clinical candidates. Ms. Reilly’s role within Opsona is to lead and direct the development of lead compounds from discovery through pharmaceutical development including chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC). Mary manages the outsourcing of manufacture, toxicological studies and clinical trials in the anti-inflammatory area with compilation of clinical trial applications and necessary regulatory submissions. She has extensive expertise within Drug development from late stage discovery to registration and approval of products at all stages of the development cycle within Europe and the USA. Recently she completed an MSC in Industrial Pharmaceutical Science which provides eligibility for QP status in line with directive 2001/20/EC.
