Management team
Thomas Holm Pedersen
Chief Executive Officer
Thomas co-founded NMD Pharma and has been CEO of the Company since its inception in 2015. During this time, NMD Pharma has transitioned from early a discovery-stage to clinical-stage company. He has led various financing rounds of the Company including raising one of the largest Series A investments in the sector in Europe in 2018.
The scientific basis of NMD Pharma - utilizing ClC-1 as a novel target for restoring muscle function in neuromuscular disease - comes from the academic work conducted at Aarhus University by Thomas and colleagues. Thomas obtained his PhD from Aarhus University and completed two years of post-doctoral work at Cambridge University. As a scientist, Thomas focused on cellular electrophysiology and ion channel biophysics, developing novel methods to understand the function and regulation of ClC-1 in health and disease. He has published more than 40 high-ranking papers including in Science and PNAS.
Thomas Kongstad Petersen
Chief Operating Officer
Thomas joined NMD Pharma as Chief Operating Officer in September 2019.
Thomas has more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Before he joined NMD Pharma, he was Vice President of Global Clinical Operations at LEO Pharma where he previously also held several senior leadership positions within Research, Preclinical Development and CMC. He has worked in all stages of drug discovery and development up to and beyond product approval within a broad range of therapeutic areas including autoimmune disorders, skin diseases, oncology, critical care, and neuromuscular diseases. In 2016, Thomas was appointed by the Minister of Business, Industry and Financial Affairs to join the Governmental Growth Team of Life Science, advising the Government on growing life science in Denmark. Thomas is also Chairman of the Danish public-private partnership Trial Nation, promoters of clinical research in Denmark, and Chairman of the board of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology (BCPT). Thomas is mentor in the Scion DTU Innovation Mentor teams at the Danish Technical University.
Thomas received his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine at Copenhagen University, where he also obtained his PhD in Clinical Pathology. He also spent time conducting research at the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas. Thomas has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers and reviews.
Jorge A. Quiroz
EVP, Chief Medical Officer
Jorge was appointed Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer at NMD Pharma in May 2022.
Jorge brings over 20 years of drug development experience from academic research and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He has a strong record of developing and implementing scientific, clinical and regulatory strategies across all phases of drug development, including investigational new drug (IND) applications for rare disorders and leading proof of concept and registrational studies for new drug applications (NDA) and supplementary new drug applications (sNDA).
Prior to NMD Pharma, Jorge was Chief Medical Officer of venture-backed and publicly traded biotechnology companies Apic Bio and Solid Biosciences, which focused on gene therapies for the treatment of neurodegenerative and neuromuscular disorders. He also served as Head of Neurodevelopment and Psychiatry at Hoffmann-La Roche, and as Director of Translational Medicine at Johnson & Johnson. Additionally, Jorge has contributed to over 50 scientific publications in the fields of translational neuroscience and drug development.
Jorge is a medical graduate from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and completed a fellowship at the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD, USA. He also holds an MBA dual degree from Columbia University and London Business School.
Dan Brennan
Senior Vice President of Corporate and Commercial Strategy
Dan joined NMD Pharma as Senior Vice President of Corporate and Commercial Strategy in June 2023.
Dan has 25 years of strategic commercial experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in a variety of large, medium and clinical stage global companies, many working to develop medications for rare neurological diseases.
This includes multiple senior leadership roles in public companies, including Chief Commercial Officer at Catalyst Pharmaceuticals and Chief Operating Officer at Edge Therapeutics, where he was responsible for pre-commercialization and launch activities of the companies’ lead products targeting rare neurological conditions.
Prior to this, Dan held several leadership positions at Lundbeck U.S., including Vice President and Group General Manager of Lundbeck’s U.S. Neurology Business Unit and Business Development group. Throughout his time in these positions, Lundbeck’s U.S. Neurology group launched four specialty orphan products achieving over tenfold growth in revenue during his tenure. He also served as Divisional Vice President and General Manager of the Hospital Business Unit at Abbott Laboratories and was at Eli Lilly and Company for ten years in multiple sales, marketing and new product development roles of increasing responsibility. He was recently a volunteer member of the Board of Directors for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America for 6 years and previously served on the boards of the Illinois Biotechnology Organization (iBIO), Alzheimer’s Association and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates).
Dan received a B.A. degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA degree, with distinction, from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University.
Morten Bull
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Head of People & Business Services
Morten joined NMD Pharma as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Head of People & Business Services in January 2024
Morten has 20 years of experience as in-house counsel across several industries and legal areas with a focus on pharmaceutical Research & Development. Before joining NMD Pharma, Morten served as executive director and global head of IP and R&D Legal of LEO Pharma, where he was part of the Legal and R&D leadership teams and business partner to the M&A group. He was responsible for the global legal advice on clinical development, preclinical and non-clinical research collaborations, and M&A and licensing activities relating to the pipeline.
Prior to this, Morten held several legal and leadership roles at the Danish incumbent telecoms provider TDC (Now Nuuday and TDC NET) with legal responsibilities covering M&A, financing and company secretary leading to the re-IPO of the company and commercial roles within strategy and sales.
Morten is an attorney-at-law with a masters degree from Copenhagen University and also holds a US Healthcare Compliance Certificate Program from the Seton Hall University School of Law.
Chloe Arrowsmith Jensen
Executive Assistant to Chief Executive Officer
Chloe joined NMD Pharma as Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer in January 2023, bringing over 17 years of experience in stakeholder management and business development.
Prior to joining NMD, she was head of the newly established institutional relations programme at British Patient Capital, the UK’s largest domestic investor into UK venture capital and growth opportunities in the life sciences and technology sectors. As part of her responsibilities, Chloe also acted as senior lead for numerous firmwide ESG, diversity and inclusion and strategic projects.
At NMD Pharma, Chloe works in close collaboration with Thomas Holm Pedersen, CEO, supporting and enabling the development and implementation of the Company’s strategy. She has also been appointed as NMD Pharma’s ESG lead and will be responsible for overseeing NMDs efforts going forwards.
Chloe received her BA (Hons) degree from the University of Surrey and also holds qualifications from the Chartered Alternative Investment Association and an Investment Management Certificate.