David Happel
Chief Executive Officer
David Happel joined Sagimet as chief executive officer in October 2022, bringing extensive industry experience, and a strong track record of developing and executing corporate business strategies, raising private and public capital, negotiating M&A transactions, scaling operations and commercializing products. He was most recently president and chief executive officer of Cognoa, a pediatric behavioral health company developing AI-based technologies for developmental and behavioral health conditions, including the first FDA-authorized diagnostic aid, Canvas Dx, for autism. Mr. Happel was previously CEO of Chrono Therapeutics and has held several executive and commercial positions at Horizon Therapeutics, Raptor Pharmaceuticals, Dynavax Technologies and Chiron. Mr. Happel has a BA in chemistry from Indiana University and an MBA from Indiana State University.
Eduardo Bruno Martins, MD, DPhil
Chief Medical Officer
With more than 20 years of experience as a widely known leader in the US and global biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Martins has worked in various therapeutic areas, including hepatology, vaccines, allergy and immunology, orphan diseases, and oncology, from translational research to Phase 4 clinical studies. He possesses a broad multicultural and academic background in clinical development and medical affairs. His previous experience includes leadership of large-scale multinational clinical trials as well as building and leading multifunctional global teams in large pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies. Most recently at AbbVie, Dr. Martins was vice president of clinical development and led the clinical development of cenicriviroc for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and a collaboration with Verily (an Alphabet company) on artificial intelligence and virtual staining applied to liver biopsy. Prior to joining AbbVie, Dr. Martins served as vice president of clinical development at Allergan. Previously, he was a member of the executive leadership team as senior vice president of liver and infectious disease drug development at Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on development of therapies for the treatment of chronic hepatitis D and orphan diseases. Prior to that, he held leadership positions at Gilead Sciences; Genentech; Dynavax Technologies; Intermune; SciClone Pharmaceuticals; University Hospital, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and the Organisation Mondiale d’Endoscopie Digestive. He holds a doctorate (DPhil) degree from the University of Oxford in the UK and an MD from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Dennis Hom
Chief Financial Officer
Dennis Hom has served as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Development since October 2017. From April 2014 until joining the Company, Mr. Hom was self-employed as a consultant, providing financial advisory services to a number of biotechnology companies. From January 2013 to March 2014, Mr. Hom was served as the vice president of finance and corporate development at Achaogen, Inc. From April 2011 to April 2012, he was the executive director of corporate development at Amgen Inc., a biotechnology company. From July 2005 to March 2011, Mr. Hom held various positions in mergers and acquisitions, business development and licensing and sales at Novartis, a pharmaceutical and healthcare products company. Prior to Novartis, he worked in investment banking at a number of firms, including six years at J.P. Morgan and predecessor firm Hambrecht & Quist. Mr. Hom holds a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Marie O’Farrell (PhD)
Vice-President of Research and Development
Marie O’Farrell (PhD) is Vice-President of Research and Development at Sagimet and was the Senior Director of Translational Sciences from 2013 to 2016. Dr. O’Farrell started her career in drug development in 1998 at Systemix (Novartis) working on stem cell based gene therapy. Since then she has taken positions of increasing responsibility at several companies, primarily in the areas of metabolic disease and oncology. Dr. O’Farrell has had a successful track record using innovative translational and biomarker strategies to guide clinical development. At Sugen, she lead the clinical oncology biomarker team for the kinase inhibitor sunitinib (SUTENT™). At Phenomix, she led the nonclinical and clinical pharmacology teams for the DPP4 inhibitor dutogliptin to late Phase 3 trials in Type 2 Diabetes and was a member of joint drug development teams with Plexxikon, Forest and Chiesi. Dr. O’Farrell has also led drug development programs at Pathway Therapeutics and Revitope.
Dr. O’Farrell has authored or co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed research articles. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry from University of Manchester (England), an Honors B.Sc. degree from University College Cork (Ireland) and did postdoctoral research at the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto.
