Management

Dr. Fruchtman joined Onconova in January 2015 as Chief Medical Officer.  He was promoted to President in July 2018 and to CEO in January 2019.  He has extensive experience in large and small biopharmaceutical companies and has led successful clinical development programs while serving in senior positions at Ortho Biotech Products, Novartis, Allos Therapeutics, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and Syndax Pharmaceuticals.

Previously, Dr. Fruchtman was on the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Director of the Stem Cell Transplantation and Myeloproliferative Disorder Programs at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is an author of more than 170 lectures, presentations, books, chapters, and abstracts and serves as an external reviewer for multiple medical journals.

Dr. Fruchtman received his medical degree from New York Medical College with the distinction of membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha honorary medical fraternity.

Mr. Guerin joined Onconova Therapeutics in September 2013 to augment the financial reporting, forecasting, and internal controls capabilities of the company following the IPO in July 2013. He was promoted to Chief Operating Officer and CFO in June 2022.  Prior to joining Onconova, Mr. Guerin worked as an interim senior finance & accounting executive facilitating the post-acquisition integration activities of newly-acquired private equity portfolio companies.  Previously, Mr. Guerin was the VP Finance & CFO of Cardiokine, Inc. through that company’s filing of a New Drug Application and the sale of the company.  Prior to joining Cardiokine, Mr. Guerin was Director, Financial Reporting & Internal Controls at Barrier Therapeutics, Inc. during Barrier’s IPO and follow-on offering.  Mr. Guerin started his career at Coopers & Lybrand in Philadelphia.  He received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting from DeSales University and has earned the CPA, CMA, and CFM professional certifications.

Dr. Gelder joined Onconova Therapeutics in June of 2021 as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). He has more than 35 years of experience in clinical development, medical affairs, and medical marketing and expertise that specifically covers the development of kinase inhibitors as cancer therapeutics. He was most recently the CMO of Elevar Therapeutics, where he led the company’s clinical development, medical affairs, regulatory affairs, and preclinical teams. Prior to his time at Elevar, Dr. Gelder served as the CMO of Pierian Biosciences (formerly DiaTech Oncology), Accelovance, Inc., and Heron Therapeutics, Inc.

Dr. Gelder also has extensive experience at large pharmaceutical companies, as he previously worked in global medical affairs and led therapeutic oncology programs for Pfizer, Wyeth, and Bayer. Dr. Gelder has led successful early- and late-stage global clinical trials and has been involved in the approval and launch of several cancer therapeutics. Prior to his career in the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Gelder was an investigator in multiple clinical trials and authored numerous scientific papers in the areas of women’s health and oncology. He earned his M.D. from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed a fellowship in gynecologic oncology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

In his role as Onconova’s CMO, Dr. Gelder leads ON 123300’s clinical development, facilitates the progression of rigosertib’s investigator-initiated trials, and evaluates potential product candidates for in-licensing.

Dr. Makovski Silverstein joined Onconova in December 2021 as Director, Corporate Development, and was promoted to Senior Director and Head of Corporate Development in June 2022. Previously, Dr. Makovski-Silverstein worked at Amgen as Sr. Licensing Associate, Business Development, External R&D. She was responsible for evaluating external scientific opportunities across all therapeutic areas and managing processes within business development and cross functional teams. Prior to her time at Amgen, Dr. Makovski Silverstein interned as a member of the Research Program Management Team at Regeneron. She also worked as a marketing analyst graduate student consultant at Roche Sequencing Solutions. Dr. Makovski Silverstein earned her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the City of Hope in Duarte, California.

Mr. Parris joined Onconova Therapeutics in August 2018 as Senior Director, Clinical Operations, and is responsible for overseeing and managing the Clinical Operations team and the cross functional project teams. He was promoted to Vice President, Clinical Operations in January 2021.

Mr. Parris has clinical development experience in multiple therapeutic areas, with a focus on Oncology and Hematology indications across a wide variety of therapeutic agents. He has over 24 years of industry experience, initially in Europe and since 2003 in the United States, holding management positions in contract research organizations as well as small pharma companies.

Previously, Mr. Parris served as Director of Clinical Operations for Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Vice President of Clinical Development for Eleison Pharmaceuticals, and Director of Clinical Operations at Aegerion Pharmaceuticals. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree, with honors, from Imperial College in London.
 

Dr. Stephen Cosenza joined Onconova Therapeutics in January 2021 as Lead Scientist and Study Monitor. He is presently involved in the development of all compounds in Onconova’s pipeline, participates in business development activities, and assists with clinical operations. He has been a preclinical drug development consultant for Onconova since its inception in 1998. He has 36 years of experience in molecular biology, specializing in the regulation of the normal mammalian cell cycle and the initiation and progression of cancer cell growth. He has participated in preclinical and IND-enabling work for all of Onconova’s compounds that have been approved for clinical trials. Dr. Cosenza has extensive experience in cell culture and working with the in vitro and in vivo animal models required for the study and development of small molecular weight compounds as cancer therapeutics.

Previously, Dr. Cosenza worked at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai in the Department of Oncological Sciences and The Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology as Senior Researcher under the mentorship of Dr. E. Premkumar Reddy, one of Onconova’s founders. Dr. Cosenza has served as an external reviewer for various scientific journals and is an author of over 45 peer-reviewed articles.

Dr. Cosenza received his doctorate degree in the department of Microbiology and Immunology at Temple University School of Medicine. He performed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Wistar Institute and The Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology.