About Us

Company Overview
CalciMedica is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing inhibitors of CRAC channels for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, including COVID-19 pneumonia and acute pancreatitis. CRAC channels are critical for the transport of calcium, a key messenger molecule, into many cell types. Calcium is an important regulator of multiple biological functions, and CRAC channel activation controls several of these functions including inflammation, vascular permeability and cell death. CalciMedica has developed a portfolio of wholly-owned CRAC channel inhibitors and custom assays to optimize chemical leads.
The Company’s extensive preclinical work has shown a clear link between CRAC channel activation and a broad spectrum of both acute and chronic diseases that have the common thread of inflammation in their pathogenesis. CalciMedica is advancing both an intravenous formulated CRAC channel inhibitor, AuxoraTM, for the treatment of acute inflammatory indications such as severe COVID-19 pneumonia and acute pancreatitis as well as an orally available CRAC channel inhibitor, CM6325, for the potential treatment of chronic indications such as rheumatoid arthritis and chronic pancreatitis.
CalciMedica is headquartered in San Diego, CA.
Company History
Pre-2007
Dr. Ken Stauderman and collaborators discovered the role of STIM1, a protein that works in concert with Orai1 to form the CRAC channels targeted by CalciMedica’s drugs.
2007
CalciMedica was founded by scientists from Torrey Pines Therapeutics, including Dr. Stauderman, CalciMedica’s Chief Scientific Officer, and a team from Harvard’s CBR Institute for Biomedical Research comprised of Anjana Rao, Patrick Hogan (currently at La Jolla Institute for Immunology) and Stefan Feske (currently at NYU School of Medicine).
2007-Present
At CalciMedica, Dr. Stauderman led a team that developed a series of proprietary assays that have allowed for the identification of highly selective CRAC channel inhibitors and has built a leading platform for this work.
Present
Leadership
The CalciMedica team is comprised of scientists, physicians, drug development experts and entrepreneurs dedicated to the development of CRAC channel inhibitors for acute and chronic inflammatory conditions. The team is led by Rachel Leheny, Ph.D., who has over 30 years of experience in the life sciences industry as a scientist, a research analyst at several investment banks, and as a venture capital investor. Kenneth Stauderman, Ph.D., a co-founder of the Company and Chief Scientific Officer, is a leading expert in CRAC channels and led the discovery of some of the foundational work in this field. Sudarshan Hebbar, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, has over 15 years of clinical development and product development experience and was previously a practicing nephrologist and intensivist.
Management

A. Rachel Leheny, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
A. Rachel Leheny, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Leheny has over 30 years of experience in the life sciences industry as a scientist, a research analyst at several investment banks and as a venture capital investor. Dr. Leheny is a Founding Managing Director for Valence Advantage Life Sciences, a venture firm based in New York. Prior to Valence, she co-founded Caxton Advantage Venture Partners, from which Valence Life Sciences emerged. Before that, she was a Senior Vice President and Head of the biotechnology research team at Lehman Brothers. She also led the biotechnology research team at UBS Warburg. She started her biotechnology research career at Hambrecht and Quist. Dr. Leheny obtained an A.B. in Chemistry with honors from Harvard College, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University. She did post-doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was an NIH fellow and a lecturer.

Michael Dunn, MBA
President & Chief Operating Officer
Michael Dunn, MBA
President & Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Dunn has 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Before joining CalciMedica, Mr. Dunn was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Biocept, Inc., a company focused on the analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to better target therapy for cancer patients. Prior to that, he served as Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Monogram Biosciences, a biotech clinical laboratory specializing in infectious disease and cancer testing, which was acquired by LabCorp in 2009. Mr. Dunn served as Vice President and Chief Business Officer of ACLARA Biosciences, a company specializing in microfluidic chips and oncology testing, through its merger with ViroLogic, Inc., as well as Vice President and Chief Business Officer at ActivX Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical company that utilizes proteomics to discover and develop small molecule drugs for major unmet medical needs. Additionally, Mr. Dunn served as Vice President of Business Development at Aurora Biosciences, a company that developed and commercialized proprietary drug discovery systems and services. He also served in various project management and business development roles at Salk Institute Biotechnology Industrial Associates, Inc. (SIBIA) and its successor SIBIA Neurosciences, culminating as Vice President of Business Development.

Sudarshan Hebbar, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Sudarshan Hebbar, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Hebbar has over 15 years of clinical development and product development experience in both the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries. Before joining CalciMedica, Dr. Hebbar was a consultant for Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, where he served as the clinical development lead for a global multicenter Phase IV trial. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of Nephrology at Thrasos Innovation where he helped implement a global multicenter Phase II trial of a novel therapeutic compound for acute kidney injury. Before working at Thrasos, Dr. Hebbar served as Medical Vice President and a member of the U.S. Board of Directors at Oncimmune, a company that pioneered the development of autoantibody assay technologies for the early detection of lung cancer. Before joining Oncimmune, Dr. Hebbar served as a Medical Director at Reata Pharmaceuticals, where he was a medical monitor for both a Phase III global multicenter trial and multiple Phase I trials, and the clinical development lead for multiple Phase II trials. Dr. Hebbar began his industry career at Abbott, where he initially served as a Senior Medical Director in the Quality and Regulatory division before transferring to the Diagnostics division, where he supervised a team that provided medical input into product development, supported commercial launches of diagnostic products and led the clinical development of novel biomarkers.
Prior to joining Abbott, Dr. Hebbar was a Medical Director at Dialysis Clinics Incorporated and a partner at Kidney Associates of Kansas City where for 12 years he practiced nephrology, hypertension, transplant medicine and critical care medicine. Dr. Hebbar received a B.A. in Natural Sciences from The Johns Hopkins University and a M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine, both at Hennepin County Medical Center, a fellowship in Nephrology at the University of Chicago and a fellowship in Clinical Medical Ethics at The Maclean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago.

Kenneth Stauderman, Ph.D.
Co-founder & Chief
Scientific Officer
Kenneth Stauderman, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Stauderman brings more than 30 years of research and management experience in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and has an extensive research background in mechanisms controlling intracellular calcium. Prior to co-founding CalciMedica with Dr. Gonul Velicelebi and joining the company in April 2007, Dr. Stauderman was Executive Director of Biology and Lead Discovery at TorreyPines Therapeutics, since its inception as Neurogenetics, Inc. While at TorreyPines, he directed two successful drug discovery programs and one target discovery initiative that led to the discovery of STIM1 as a key regulator of calcium release-activated Ca2+ channels. Prior to TorreyPines Therapeutics, Dr. Stauderman was Director of Molecular and Cell Biology at SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc. (which later became Merck Research Laboratories, San Diego) from 1994-2000 and Senior Scientist at Marion Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (now Sanofi-Aventis; 1986-1994). Dr. Stauderman has authored/co-authored over 50 scientific publications and is an inventor on several patents. Dr. Stauderman received a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Daniel Geffken
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Daniel Geffken
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Daniel Geffken brings more than 30 years of experience in financial strategy and operations to CalciMedica. As a founder and managing director at Danforth Advisors, he has served as chief financial officer and strategic consultant to life science and biotechnology companies, ranging from start-ups to publicly traded companies with $1 billion+ market capitalizations, including Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Atea Pharmaceuticals, Cabaletta, Cidara Therapeutics, Homology Medicines, Stealth BioTherapeutics and Transkaryotic Therapies. Mr. Geffken has played a key role in 12 initial public offering filings since 2013 and has raised more than $1 billion in equity and debt securities over the duration of his career. Mr. Geffken holds a B.S. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

John Dunn
Acting General Counsel
John Dunn
Acting General Counsel
John Dunn has over 25 years of experience practicing corporate law in the life science industry. Mr. Dunn serves on the Boards of Acer Therapeutics, a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, Sharp Healthcare, a San Diego not-for-profit healthcare system, and Biocom and Connect, non-profit organizations supporting the life science and technology industries in the San Diego area. Over the last 15 years Mr. Dunn has also served as a senior advisor to TVM Capital, a life science venture capital firm.
Mr. Dunn recently served as General Counsel and Secretary of Vital Therapies, Inc., a public biotech company, until its merger with Immunic, Inc. Previously, he spent 10 years at Biogen Idec where he was an Executive Vice President and the head of their corporate venture group, which made and managed strategic investments in emerging biotech companies. Prior to the merger of IDEC Pharmaceuticals and Biogen, Mr. Dunn served on the senior management team as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of IDEC where he led its legal and compliance departments. Mr. Dunn was a partner at the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman. He earned a B.S. in finance and a J.D. from the University of Wyoming.
Board of Directors
-
Robert McNeil, Ph.D.
Co-Chairman of the Board -
Robert N. Wilson
Co-Chairman of the Board -
Eric Roberts
Vice Chairman of the Board -
A. Rachel Leheny, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer -
Michael Dunn, MBA
President & Chief Operating Officer -
Fred Middleton, MBA
Managing Director, Sanderling Ventures -
Lakhmir Chawla, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Robert McNeil, Ph.D.
Co-Chairman of the Board
Robert N. Wilson
Co-Chairman of the Board
Eric Roberts
Vice Chairman of the Board
Mr. Roberts has 30 years of experience in the finance, investment and life sciences industry and has completed hundreds of financings and merger transactions. Mr. Roberts is currently Vice Chairman of the Board of CalciMedica Inc. He has served on the boards of a number of public and private life science companies and is also a Director of the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, the Atlantic Salmon Federation and the Dutchess Land Conservancy. In 2012, Mr. Roberts co-founded investment firm, Valence Life Sciences. Prior to Valence Life Sciences, Mr. Roberts managed the Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund which he co-founded in 2005. Prior to Caxton Advantage, he was Managing Director and Co-Head of the Global Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Lehman Brothers. Mr. Roberts was also a Managing Director, Partner and founder of the Life Sciences Department at Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. which was ultimately merged into UBS. At UBS, Mr. Roberts ran the Life Sciences investment banking team. Earlier in his career, Mr. Roberts worked at Citicorp in the Citicorp Venture Capital (CVC) group. Mr. Roberts received a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Director of the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, the Atlantic Salmon Federation and is a past Director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing.
Lakhmir Chawla, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Fred Middleton, MBA
Managing Director, Sanderling Ventures
Careers
CalciMedica is seeking innovative and highly motivated applicants to join its dedicated team for the positions listed below.