Michael K. Handley

Mike is successful life science business professional with over 23 years of cross-functional experience in drug/device commercialization, operations, mergers/acquisitions, regulatory/clinical affairs, venture formation/financing, market development and partnering/licensing. Mike has successfully assisted or led in the global commercialization of seventeen devices or drugs that account for over three billion dollars of sales annually. He has experience successfully leading management teams in a variety of capacities in high growth organizations and has secured millions of dollars in venture capital.

Currently, Mike is serving as Chief Executive Officer & Director of Cytocom, Inc. Cytocom has a pipeline of drugs that target immune disfunction, inflammation, cancer and viruses. Cytocom uses immune modulation as a cornerstone for mitigating and correcting disease. This new approach is focused on a systems biology approach in which multiple biological pathways are targeted simultaneously with the immune system thus increasing the efficacy and decreasing toxicity.

Prior to Cytocom, Mike was the CEO and Director of Armis Biopharma (aka CHD Biosciences). Armis is a multi-product development-stage healthcare company that has created a technology platform for the prevention and treatment of topical infectious disease. In his role, Mike was responsible for day-to-day operations, executing a profitable growth strategy, obtaining global product approvals, overseeing intellectual property strategy, product commercialization, business development and financing.

Prior to his work at Armis, Mike served in senior management roles at multiple life science companies. Specifically, Mike was one of the founders and on the management team of Vessix Vascular, Inc. in Laguna Hills California from 2011 to 2012. As a result of his work at Vessix Vascular the Company was acquired for $435M by Boston Scientific. Before his time at Vessix Vascular, Mike was Global Head of Regulatory at Acclarent that was acquired by Johnson & Johnson from 2010 – 2011 and assisted in the integration of the $785M acquisition of Acclarent and their five product lines and driving the global revenue growth of the Ethicon franchise for ENT products. Prior to working with Acclarent/J&J, Mike was the Global Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer at Spectranetics Corporation, a NASDAQ listed (SPNC) medical device company specializing in laser treatments of blocked arteries and removal of pacemaker leads from 2007 to 2010. Before his time at Spectranetics, Mike was the CEO and Vice President of Business development, Quality and Regulatory at a privately funded biosciences technology company, Accelapure Corporation, from 2005 – 2007. Mike expanded his executive skill set as a Senior Management Consultant in the healthcare field at Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) from 2004-2005. As a Senior Principal at PRTM, Mike assisted Genentech in the successful launch of Avastin (a multi-billion dollar bio-oncology drug) and Tarceva (a multi-million dollar cancer small molecule drug) and assisted in the successful commercial launch for these drug franchises.

Prior to his business career, Mike was a successful and active research scientist having developed multiple patents and written multiple peer reviewed publications. During part of his research career Mike worked at Amgen in their oncology group from 1999 – 2001 and was involved in the discovery and advancement of Motesanib or AMG706 (an oral, small molecule multi-kinase inhibitor that is currently in Phase III trials for lung cancer). Mike also worked at Gliatech (2006-2009), a public biotech company, in which he was instrumental the development of Cipralisant Maleate/Perceptin® (selective histamine H3 drug that is in development at Merck) that went from discovery to IND/Clinic in an industry record of 12 months.

Mike graduated cum laude from Colorado State University with Bachelor of Science degrees in Molecular Biology, Exercise Physiology and minors in Chemistry, and Neurobiology in 1995. Mike transferred to Colorado State University from University of Southern California (1989 – 1992) where he was a Presidential Scholar and Aerospace Engineering Major. Mike complemented his formal education by attending The Graziadio Business School at Pepperdine University Executive Management MBA Program 2000-2001. In Mike’s free time he is an avid triathlete, mountain biking enthusiast, and burgeoning private pilot. He has been married to his wife Lisa for 23 years and has two children, Regan and Mason.