Dr. Johnson joined their Board in January 2018. He is the founder and Chief Scientist of Glycyx PharmaVentures Ltd., a biopharma investment and development company. In 1989, he co-founded Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLXP), a specialty pharmaceutical company specializing in gastrointestinal products, and held senior leadership positions prior to its $15.8 billion acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSEA: VRX) in April 2015. Prior to Salix, Dr. Johnson served as Director of Scientific Operations and Chief Scientist at Scios, Inc. (formerly California Biotechnology, Inc). Since June 2019, he has been a board member of Edesa Biotech, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDSA), a biopharmaceutical company in the fields of inflammation, infectious disease and gastroenterology. He is also a board member of Glycyx MOR, Inc. (Delaware) and Kinisi Therapeutics, Ltd. (Isle of Man), as well as Intact Inc. (California). All are GI specialty drug development companies. In addition to his career in industry, Dr. Johnson has served as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Stanford University Medical Center and held academic positions at Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco. He is the co-author of 75 journal articles and book chapters and is the co-inventor on 22 issued patents. Dr. Johnson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.