William Lee, PhD, Executive Vice President Research, Gilead Sciences

Mack Mitchell, MD, VP Medical Affairs & EVP Health System UTSW; CMO Southwestern HRPN

Howard Jaffe, MD, President and COB of the Gilead Foundation. Former CMO Gilead Sciences

Ivan Diamond, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Founder

• Former Senior Advisor, Gilead Sciences; VP Neurology Research, CVT;  Vice Chair, UCSF Department of Neurology; Founding Director, UCSF Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center

Peter Strumph, President and Chief Executive Officer and Founder

• Former SVP Operations, Portola Pharmaceuticals; CEO, Codexis; CEO, Nile Therapeutics; SVP Operations, CVT; Operations Planning, Biogen; Lieutenant, US Navy

Brent Blackburn, PhD, Chief Development Officer and Founder

• Former CEO, Rapidscan Pharma; SVP R&D, CVT

In addition to Lou Lange, Ivan Diamond, and Peter Strumph, the BOD includes:

​A Biopharmaceutical Company Focused on

Developing and Commercializing First-In-Class Therapy for Substance Use Disorders

Lou Lange, MD, PhD, Executive Chairman and Founder

• General Partner Asset Management; Senior Advisor to CEO, Gilead Sciences
• Former Founder Chairman & CEO, CV Therapeutics; Chief of Cardiology and Professor of Medicine at Jewish Hospital Washington University

The Team

The Amygdala founders have deep and varied expertise in drug development and the addiction space. In addition to our individual experiences, we are all former members of the executive management team that built CV Therapeutics into a FIPCO and developed two first-in-class NCEs approved in the US and EU and achieved guideline status in both territories with current global revenues over $1.6B.

The Board of Directors

Adrienne MacMillan, Chief Financial Officer and Founder

• Former CFO, Rapidscan Pharma Solutions; VP Finance, CVT

News

ANS-6637 is in clinical development for Smoking Cessation and other substance use disorders

Amygdala Neurosciences is developing ANS-6637 a new chemical entity with a novel MOA for treating substance use disorder. Based on a mechanism of action in the brain (published in Nature Medicine) that prevents pathophysiologic dopamine surge without changes to basal dopamine, ANS-6637 has the potential to prevent drug seeking behavior, craving and relapse. 

In pre-clinical studies, ALDH2 inhibition reduced self-administration, cue- and drug-primed relapse in nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and binge eating models and also demonstrated anxiolytic properties in models of stress. ANS-6637 has completed extensive Phase 1 studies and is ready for Phase 2 efficacy studies.

Our initial development focus is for smoking cessation with parallel development efforts for cocaine, opioid and alcohol use disorders. 

Feb 16, 2017 - Amygdala Neurosciences Acquires GS-6637 from Gilead

​​GS-6637 utilizes a novel pathway for the potential treatment of substance and behavior based addictions

Aug 1, 2017 - Amygdala Neurosciences Initiates Phase 1b Clinical Study of ANS-6637, the First-In-Class Selective ALDH2 Inhibitor in Development as a Treatment for Substance Use Disorder​