Meet Our Leadership Team

Dr. Jose Iglesias is Director of Apex Oncology, a clinical development consultancy focused in the areas of solid tumor oncology, and he is consulting Chief Medical Officer to Panavance Therapeutics. Dr. Iglesias brings 30 years of global experience in the pharmaceutical industry to Panavance, including large pharma and biotech. He has proven leadership in designing and leading all phases of oncology clinical trials, including large Phase 3 registration studies with over 2,000 patients. Since 2019 Dr. Iglesias has been an independent oncology consultant focused in the areas of solid tumor oncology, immuno-oncology and translational medicine, in early phase to mid-phase clinical development. Earlier in his career he held roles of increasing responsibility at Abraxix BioScience including Vice President of Global Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer where he was responsible for worldwide development of Abraxane and all other pipeline molecules. Dr. Iglesias also served as Vice President of Clinical Development at Celgene where he was responsible for Phase 3 development of Abraxane for pancreatic, lung and metastatic breast cancer. He has also held senior level medical roles at Bionomics, Biothera, and Apobiologix where he oversaw the global clinical development of its oncology biosimilars program. He is widely conversant with regulatory bodies worldwide, government reimbursement agencies, oncology cooperatives and patient advocacy groups. He has extensively published in the oncology literature with over 8,000 citations. Dr. Iglesias graduated from medical school in 1986, spent 2 years as a fellow at Duke University and 2 years in oncology clinics and in private oncology and hematology practice prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry. 

Dr. James Costin has an extensive career in drug development in the pharmaceutical industry and is an interventional cardiologist by training. He completed his MD at Emory University School of Medicine and his house officer training at Yale University School of Medicine consisting of internship, residency, cardiology fellowship. Thereafter, he joined the cardiology section’s academic staff at Yale where he was primarily involved with the cardiac catherization laboratory and research. Following his position at Yale, he joined ICI’s pharmaceutical division where he was involved with all phases of drug development with a focus on marketing and Phase 4 studies. Dr. Costin joined Carter-Wallace pharmaceutical company as Vice President of Medical Affairs, and quickly advanced to Vice President of Research and Development, and ultimately Corporate Vice President of Medical and Scientific Affairs and Chief Medical Officer. While at Carter Wallace, Dr Costin established a drug development partnership with Geistlich Pharma AG. Following Carter-Wallace’s sale, he was Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of a new company, Perosphere, Inc., where he directed the development of a drug in the anticoagulation field. For the past 6 years, Dr Costin has consulted again with Geistlich Pharma to head the research and development of GP-2250 program.

Hanns Möhler is Professor em. at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich and the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He has held a professorship in pharmacology in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, as well as in the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich, where he was director of the Institute of Pharmacology.

He was the first director of the Swiss National Center of Neuroscience Research and director of the Center of Experimental and Clinical Pharma Sciences at the University and the University Hospital of Zurich. Prior to his academic positions, Hanns Möhler was vice-director in the Research Department of Hoffmann-La Roche, Basle, Switzerland.

His discovery of the benzodiazepine receptor and his work on sleep disorders, the regulation of anxiety states, the gene therapy of epilepsy and the neuronal organization of memory was honored by numerous awards. In recent years, his work has been focused on cancer therapy. He is a member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and the European Academy of Sciences.

Lex Smith is an independent consultant working in all areas of CMC product development. Mr. Smith holds a total of 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, working with both small and large pharma companies, including Burroughs Wellcome/GlaxoWellcome, UCB Pharma, Serenex, Inc., Viamet Pharmaceuticals, Fulcrum Pharma Developments and G1 Therapeutics. Lex has significant pharmaceutical development experience with solid dosage forms, instant and modified release, and parenteral dosage forms. Mr. Smith received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from UNC-CH and an MS in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Lehigh University.

Over his career, Lex held positions of increasing responsibility in Pharmaceutical/Chemical Development, CMC Regulatory Affairs, and CMC project management. Previous roles include vice-president level positions in four companies, most recently, VP – Technical Operations for G1 Therapeutics with responsibility of drug substance and drug product development for three clinical stage compounds. Lex provided major scientific contributions for over 125 INDs and over 10 NDAs including Zyban® SR Tablets, Valtrex®Tablets, Retrovir® Capsules, Emtriva® Capsules, Keppra®Tablets and Trilaciclib Sterile Powder submitted June 2020. Additional experience includes GMP auditing and the preparation of Drug Master Files.

Ben Steinmetz comes to Panavance with a wealth of pharmaceutical launch experience and oncology expertise. Since 2018, he has been the Managing Director of the Steinmetz Advisory Group, specializing in the development and commercialization of oncology products. He serves as acting Chief Commercial Officer, as he is doing for Panavance, for pre-commercial stage oncology companies and is engaged with clients on projects ranging from development & commercial strategy for IND stage assets to market access strategy and execution for phase III and launch-stage products.

In 2015, Ben joined Churchill Pharmaceuticals as SVP Commercial, leading the launch of a new oral anticancer agent in a >$4 billion market. He established the product launch plan reflecting the competitive set, the differential timing of commercial and government payer reviews, the critical differences between physician dispensing and specialty pharmacy models, evolving US political and reimbursement environment, and the need to effectively deploy valuable human and monetary resources. Prior to Churchill, he was VP Reimbursement and Patient Access for GlaxoSmithKline and VP Policy and Payer Insight, Oncology/Biopharmaceuticals, in GSK’s US managed care division. Ben was VP Global Commercial Strategy, Oncology, and accountable for global product management, scientific communications, and health outcomes for GSK’s oncology portfolio. Product responsibilities included therapeutic and supportive care products such as Votrient^®, Tykerb^®, Arzerra^®, Arranon^®, and Promacta^® as well as many discovery and development stage products. Before joining GSK, he worked in senior roles at Exocell, a development stage biotechnology company, and Eastman Pharmaceuticals/Sterling Winthrop (now Sanofi).

Mr. Hess is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of experience in managing and leading teams as well as overseeing the financial and operational responsibilities of private and publicly traded life sciences companies. Mr Hess is currently serving as the part-time CFO of Hillstream Biopharma and Organova.  Over his career, he has served as CFO for several companies including most recently Genomind, Inc., The Keane Organization, Yaupon Therapeutics, Inc, and Adolor Corporation.  Mr Hess was a senior manager with KPMG and is a Certified Public Accountant.  He received his B.S. in accounting from The Pennsylvania State University and his MBA from Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. He also currently serves on the Board of Life Sciences PA and the Alumni Council of Penn State.  

Dr. Kathryn (Kate) Martin is the President of Glenmere Research, a consulting firm located in Franklin Lakes NJ, that has been providing regulatory and medical editorial services to the pharmaceutical industry for more than 30 years. After receiving her BS from Northeastern University and PharmD from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Kate was the Director of Oncology Pharmacy Services for the Albert Einstein Cancer Center in the Bronx, NY. Her experience in the industry began at Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, NY, in Medical Affairs and the Medical Research Division. Since founding Glenmere Research in 1995, Dr. Martin has provided regulatory and medical editorial services to large pharma and has assisted numerous small to mid-size companies with US, European, China, and Japan submissions. She has experience writing regulatory documents across the full product lifespan and is familiar with ICH guidelines, standardized templates, and electronic document management systems. Dr. Martin has written manuscripts that have been published in top tier journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Vaccine, Blood, and Contraception, as well as abstracts and posters at numerous domestic and international congresses including ASCO, ESMO, ACC, SABCS, and ASH. She has written content and developed internal medical education slide decks on topics including pathophysiology, therapeutic management, nonclinical and clinical data summaries, and competitive analysis. Her training and primary area of expertise is in oncology/hematology, including transplant and CAR-T therapy, and immunology.

Dr. Duane Sofia received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Pittsburgh. He has over 45 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry as an active employee and more recently as a consultant. During his career Dr. Sofia has held increasingly responsible positions from Senior Research Pharmacologist to Director of Pharmacology and Toxicology and ultimately to Vice President of Preclinical Research. He has been intimately involved in the successful submission of a number of INDs, some of which led to NDA approval. He has been an active member of several professional societies including the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Society of Toxicology, and the American Epilepsy Society. He has authored or co-authored over 200 research articles in peer-reviewed journals dealing with the pharmacology, toxicology, drug metabolism and mechanism of action of experimental and newly developed drug therapies. In addition, he has authored or co-authored 11 book chapters. He also is the holder of 11 U.S. patents. Dr. Sofia has presented papers at numerous scientific meetings with abstracts totaling greater than 150.

Dr. Robert Hrubiec is an intellectual property attorney with over 25 years’ experience in all aspects of intellectual property, specializing in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device/diagnostic patent management, strategic IP evaluation, litigation support, business development, mergers/acquisitions, licensing, FDA regulations, trademarks and patent preparation and prosecution. Dr. Hrubiec is currently the Consulting Intellectual Property Counsel for Panavance Therapeutics and is primarily responsible for providing general intellectual property consulting services, evaluating the company’s patents and patent applications, providing creative patent strategies to further protect key technologies and making intellectual property recommendations to upper management. Dr. Hrubiec is also the founder and President of Innoventiv IP, an intellectual property management and consulting company focused on advising high technology companies on legal matters, patent portfolio management, strategic planning, life-cycle management, licensing/acquisitions/confidentiality/clinical trial and other agreements, due diligence, maximizing value, cost reduction and litigation support. Prior to founding Innoventiv IP in 2012, Dr. Hrubiec was Vice President and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Cephalon, Inc., where he was responsible for creating, developing and managing the company’s global IP department as well as all IP aspects of business development. Prior to joining Cephalon in 1999, Dr. Hrubiec was an intellectual property attorney with GlaxoSmithKline and directed a research laboratory at Cytogen Corporation focused on cytotoxic agents conjugated to monoclonal antibodies for use in treating cancer. Dr. Hrubiec received his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Connecticut followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacology/molecular biology at the Yale Medical School Comprehensive Cancer Center. He obtained his law degree from the North Carolina Central University School of Law and is licensed in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and the USPTO.