Andrew Fleischman, MD

Chief Executive Officer

Andrew N. Fleischman, MD is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Illexcor Therapeutics. Dr. Fleischman is a trained physician and translational scientist who started his pursuit of innovative therapeutic and diagnostic technologies early in his career even before completing residency training. Dr. Fleischman is now a seasoned executive and company builder with an instinct for identifying promising technologies and rapidly advancing complex development programs with large teams. Dr. Fleischman led a team of medicinal chemists to discover new classes of Hemoglobin S polymerization inhibitors, including our lead drug ILX-002, and is now leading the IND program and clinical program for ILX-002. In addition to leading Illexcor Therapeutics, Dr. Fleischman has founded and built a rapidly growing in vitro diagnostics company CLEU Diagnostics and an innovative RNA-based medicines company AmpedRNA Biosciences. Dr. Fleischman has a broad skill set, ranging from leading translational and clinical sciences to establishing regulatory and intellectual property strategies for the company. Dr. Fleischman has brought in over $25 million in funding in the past 3 years for his companies, including more than $16 million in non-dilutive grants for innovative development programs. Dr. Fleischman looks forward to advancing ILX-002 into the clinical and making his mark on patients across the world.

Martin Safo, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer

Martin K. Safo, Ph.D. is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Illexcor Therapeutics. Dr. Safo also directs the Center for Drug Discovery as a highly distinguished Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Safo is a prolific scientist, with more than 160 published original research papers and 17 issued drug patents. Dr. Safo is a preeminent international leader in the discovery of drugs for sickle cell disease, having spent three decades in the pursuit of highly effective oral drugs to modify mutant Hemoglobin S. Along with his mentor the late Professor Donald Abraham, Dr. Safo’s pioneering work on fundamental approaches to allosteric modification of hemoglobins led to a new era for the discovery of Hemoglobin S polymerization inhibitors. This work was the basis for several clinical-stage drug candidates, including RSR-13 which was evaluated as a Phase 3 anti-cancer agent by Allos Therapeutics and Aes-103, an oral drug for sickle cell disease that was acquired by Baxter in 2014. As the culmination of three decades of scientific pursuit, ILX-002 is by far the most promising drug candidate discovered by Dr. Safo, and he looks forward to bringing this therapy to patients in the US and throughout the world.

David Light, PhD

VP of R&D

David R. Light, Ph.D. has served as VP of Research & Development for Illexcor Therapeutics since 2020. This appointment followed a productive decades-long career in the biopharmaceutical industry (Sanofi, Biogen, Bayer, Genentech, among others) in multiple therapeutic areas, including hematology, cardiovascular, oncology, and immunology. Dr. Light’s efforts focusing on pre-clinical development contributed to a number of INDs and several marketed drugs in benign hematology, such as Eloctate, Aprolix, and Cablivi. While working at Berlex Biosciences/Schering AG, Dr. Light led the team that developed the Phase 1 benign hematology assets Solulin (soluble thrombomodulin) and an oral factor Xa inhibitor, and a Phase 2 toxin-conjugated antibody for oncology (Anetumab). After working on the pre-clinical discovery program for hemophilia at Bayer Healthcare, he joined Syntonix/Biogen Idec to develop extended half-life clotting factors for hemophilia in 2011. In that same year, Dr. Light began a large sickle cell drug discovery program at Biogen, which continued through 2020 at Bioverativ/Sanofi. He led large project teams on multiple therapeutic approaches to treat sickle cell disease, including adhesion molecule inhibitors, oral drugs and cell-gene therapies to induce fetal hemoglobin expression, and Hemoglobin S polymerization inhibitors. Dr. Light is excited about the promise of ILX-002 to deliver game-changing results for patients with sickle cell disease.

Yash Shenoy, MBBA, MBA

Business Development

Yash Shenoy, MBBS, MBA is a seasoned business development professional having closing over $500M in licensing and partnership deals. He is a physician turned MBA originally from Hyderabad, India. Dr. Shenoy is passionate about identifying novel drug development opportunities through Search & Evaluation and building win-win collaborative partnerships. In his previous role as an investment manager at InvAscent, he led growth capital investments in early-stage companies in the healthcare and life sciences sector in India. He helped close 13 investment deals with a total value over $100M. He also has served as Associate Director of Business Development for Apollomics, a clinical stage oncology company. Dr. Shenoy was principal in in-licensing 5 key assets for the company.