Curanex Pharmaceuticals Expands Scientific Advisory Board With Two Industry Veterans Bringing 75 Years Of Combined Experience

Curanex Pharmaceuticals Inc., a development-stage pharmaceutical company working on botanical drugs for inflammatory diseases, announced the addition of two highly experienced life sciences leaders to its Scientific Advisory Board. The new members, Dr. Daniel Pascheles and Dr. Nicholas A. Meanwell, bring a combined 75 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 50 years spent at major companies such as Merck & Co. and Bristol Myers Squibb. Their guidance will support Curanex across commercial strategy, product portfolio planning, and future go-to-market decisions.

Dr. Pascheles is a veteran pharmaceutical executive and strategic consultant with more than 25 years of experience developing competitive intelligence capabilities within global life sciences organizations. He previously served as CEO and Partner at Molekule Consulting LLC, where he advised biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on competitive strategy and market insights.

Before joining Molekule, he spent 12 years at Merck & Co./MSD as Vice President and Head of Global Competitive Intelligence. His earlier career includes 14 years with Aventis and its predecessor companies, during which he held senior roles such as Global Head of Competitive Intelligence, European Head of Sales and Marketing Administration, European Head of Strategic Planning, and General Manager for Switzerland.

Dr. Pascheles studied Pharmacy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, where he also completed his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Technology. He is Past-President and a current Board member of the Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence & Research Group, and an active member of SCIP and the Licensing Executive Society. He also serves as a Visiting Professor at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, has contributed to the Editorial Advisory Board of Pharmaceutical Executive magazine, and frequently speaks at global conferences focused on competitive intelligence.

Dr. Meanwell is an accomplished medicinal chemist with a long track record in drug discovery. He spent 40 years at Bristol Myers Squibb, where he worked across cardiovascular, neuroscience, and virology research. Over his career, he and his team advanced 33 clinical candidates. Several of these became approved medicines, including fostemsavir (Rukobia), daclatasvir (Daklinza), asunaprevir (Sunvepra), and the combination therapy Xymency.

His scientific contributions include more than 300 publications and book chapters, over 250 invited lectures worldwide, and 145 issued U.S. patents. He served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry from 2017 to 2023. Dr. Meanwell has received numerous honors, such as the Philip S. Portoghese Medicinal Chemistry Lectureship Award, induction into the ACS Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame, two ACS “Heroes of Chemistry” Awards, the Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry, appointment as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the Antonín Holý Memorial Award from the International Society for Antiviral Research, and the Scientific Achievement in Drug Discovery and Development Award from ASPET.

He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield and completed postdoctoral research with Professor Carl R. Johnson at Wayne State University. Jun Liu, Chief Executive Officer of Curanex, said the company is delighted to welcome both Dr. Pascheles and Dr. Meanwell to its Scientific Advisory Board. He noted that their combined knowledge, strategic insight, and decades of experience will significantly strengthen the company’s direction as it continues to advance its growing portfolio of botanical drug candidates.