Executives-in-Residence

GERALD D. CAGLE, Ph.D.
Dr. Cagle is a respected pharmaceutical executive with managerial, technical and business experience spanning more than 35 years.

Dr. Cagle provides general business consulting services to the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Prior to his consultancy practice he served in key leadership roles for Alcon Laboratories Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, for 33 years. Dr. Cagle’s career included positions as a laboratory scientist, followed by service in clinical research, regulatory affairs, and product development. During the last 13 years at Alcon he held the position of Senior VP and Chief Scientific Officer. While at Alcon, Dr. Cagle either directed or was personally a contributing author of numerous NDAs or PMAs from which more than 100 new Alcon products were achieved. Because of his extensive background in and knowledge of product development, he has frequently lectured at professional and business meetings on ophthalmic drug and device development, interactions with FDA and industry-academia working relationships. Before joining Alcon, Dr. Cagle was Assistant Professor of Microbiology at The Ohio State University. He continues with a number of start-up companies and gives time to philanthropic organizations such as Foundation Fighting Blindness/National Neurovision Research Institute, has helped to foster start-up high technology companies through the State of Texas Governor’s Emerging Technology Fund Committee and most recently, the Executives in Residence Program at the UNT Health Science Center.

Mr. Capetan is head of the UNT Health Science Center Executives in Residence Program, and he consults with many Life Science companies. He has helped raise over $35M for clients through venture capital, licensing and collaboration agreements. Prior to joining UNT Health Science Center Mr. Capetan was Vice President of Licensing and Business Development at Alcon Laboratories Inc., where he was instrumental in the identification, evaluation and licensing of more than 50 new surgical and pharmaceutical products and technologies. He established and maintained relationships on behalf of Alcon with key corporations, industry leaders, and physicians, resulting in a consistent and diverse flow of new opportunities. He also participated in the acquisition and integration of 10 companies with valuations ranging from $3M to $900M and has successfully introduced ten new advanced technology medical devices.

ALAN L. WEINER, Ph.D.
Dr. Weiner is a seasoned pharmaceutical company executive and founding scientist of two startup companies with innovations in pharmaceuticals or medical devices. He brings a track record of 30 years in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, having held senior managerial positions across multiple disciplines of pharmaceutics, clinical studies, project and R&D management and pharmaceutical marketing.

Dr. Weiner established and is currently President of DrugDel Consulting LLC, which provides a wide range of technical and business services related to formulation and drug delivery system research and development. Before his work as a private consultant, Dr. Weiner served as Senior Director, Pharmaceutics at Alcon Laboratories Inc., responsible for developing stable commercial dose forms involving pharmaceutical and surgical therapeutic products. In this position, he led groups developing formulations for over 30 new pharmaceutical and device products. Dr. Weiner also functioned in leadership roles within the Clinical Science and Pharmaceutical Marketing organizations, and he served as a project team head with responsibility for setting and executing R&D strategy, establishing timelines, managing project costs, and coordinating regulatory filings. Prior to that, as Vice President of R&D and corporate officer of Escalon Medical Corp., Dr. Weiner built the R&D operations, authored business plans and developed a unique pipeline encouraging start-up capitalization and mezzanine financing. Dr. Weiner negotiated deals with strategic partners and subsequently managed late stage R&D development and commercial approval of corresponding in-licensed surgical product candidates. In the early part of his career, Dr. Weiner held the position of Director of Novel Delivery Systems for The Liposome Company (later acquired by Elan Corp). There he managed drug delivery research on peptide, protein and synthetic molecules and established key intellectual property positions on micro, nano and receptor-targeted carriers.

PATRICIA ZILLIOX, Ph.D.
Dr. Zilliox is an experienced executive with over 30 years in the pharmaceutical Industry, particularly in global clinical development. She built, led and motivated multi-disciplinary global teams across cultures, countries and functions. She has fostered global partnerships in development and brought multiple new pharmaceutical agents through clinical trials to commercialization.

Dr. Zilliox serves as the Chief Drug Development Officer for the National Neurovision Research Institute, a support organization of the non-profit Foundation for Fighting Blindness with a mission to find cures for degenerative orphan diseases of the retina. In her position there, Dr. Zilliox serves a key role in accelerating development and clinical testing of new diagnostics and therapies for retinal degenerative diseases by rapidly identifying the most promising new therapeutic approaches, as well as by creating development plans for investment review. She also structures collaborative networks between research and technology organizations with experts from the scientific and medical communities to facilitate rapid preclinical testing, IND preparation and clinical trials of important new therapies. Previously, Dr. Zilliox had held positions of increasing responsibility at Alcon Laboratories Inc. over a period of 30 years, having joined the company through the acquisition of des laboratoires POS in France. Most recently at Alcon, she served as Senior Director for Pharmaceutical Clinical Development, where she had global accountability for planning, development, execution, and management of all pharmaceutical clinical programs for all eye diseases and subspecialties, in particular dry and wet AMD. Her responsibilities included global management across the US, Europe, Latin American and Asia territories. She is noted for having led the first clinical programs in the field of Exudative Age Related Macular Degeneration, evaluating the anti-angiogenic drug anecortave acetate and photodynamic therapy drug lutetium texaphyrin for treatment of Wet AMD. Earlier, Dr. Zilliox had been based in Paris, France, where she was responsible for conduct and execution of clinical trials in ophthalmology across all Europe.

MICHAEL V.W. BERGAMINI, Ph.D.
Dr. Bergamini is an experienced biomedical R&D executive and a leader of
pre-clinical and clinical functions and project teams. He has played key roles in the discovery, translation, development, registration, and US and International launch of a dozen pharmaceuticals, as well as several medical device products

Dr. Bergamini has served at the UNT Health Science Center as an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology & Neuroscience since the late 1990’s and became Director, Office of Clinical Trials (OCT) in 2009. While in that position he was responsible for executive oversight of all clinical trials. In this role he also provided development expertise (CMC, clinical & project management) for a start-up venture which was named a 2011 Small Business of the Year, and received $2 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Prior to his position at UNT Health Science Center, he served as Vice President, Glaucoma Development R&D at Alcon Laboratories Inc. At Alcon, his management responsibilities included leading groups of project teams and heading drug viability evaluation (translational medicine) and glaucoma and ocular anterior segment clinical sciences. This included oversight and execution of Phase I through Phase IV trials. Prior to its acquisition by Alcon, Dr. Bergamini was Chief Executive Officer of the R&D center for Laboratorios Cusí, S.A., the Spanish market leader in ophthalmic therapeutics & surgical adjuncts and a participant in dermatology and ENT markets. He directed the R&D center, overseeing operations across the multifunctional divisions of pharmaceutics, preclinical sciences, clinical sciences, regulatory affairs, government relations, quality assurance, project management, and technical information services. His role also included development of research contracts and multi-company international R&D collaborations. Before joining Cusí, Dr. Bergamini held leadership positions with three other pharmaceutical/medical device companies, including the positions of Vice President of R&D for SOLA/Barnes-Hind; Director of Ophthalmic Research for The Liposome Company, Inc.; and Manager of Pharmacology (Ophthalmic & Dermatologic) for Allergan.