About Us

Our vision

We are focused on redefining the treatment of obesity and metabolic disease through targeted modulation of the melanocortin receptor (MCR) system, a central regulator of energy balance, metabolism, and inflammation.

Leveraging a data-driven platform, we are advancing novel selective MC4R agonists, both small molecules and peptides, with a strategic focus on rare neuroendocrine disorders such as hypothalamic obesity and Prader-Willi syndrome, where current treatment options are limited and unsatisfied patient need is profound.

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Leadership

Our management exemplifies the powerful combination of science and business. We support a fast-paced, efficient, nimble, and collaborative working environment that focuses on developing innovative treatments that work with the melanocortin system.

Carl Spana, PhD

Chief Executive Officer, President, and Director

CARL SPANA, PhD, co-founder of Palatin, has been our Chief Executive Officer and President since June 14, 2000. He has been a director of Palatin since June 1996 and has been a director of our wholly owned subsidiary, RhoMed Incorporated, since July 1995. From June 1996 through June 14, 2000, Dr Spana served as an executive vice president and our chief technical officer. From June 1993 to June 1996, Dr Spana was vice president of Paramount Capital Investments, LLC, a biotechnology and biopharmaceutical merchant banking firm, and of The Castle Group Ltd., a medical venture capital firm. Through his work at Paramount Capital Investments and The Castle Group, Dr Spana co-founded and acquired several private biotechnology firms. From July 1991 to June 1993, Dr Spana was a research associate at Bristol-Myers Squibb, a publicly held pharmaceutical company, where he was involved in scientific research in the field of immunology. Dr Spana received his PhD in molecular biology from The Johns Hopkins University and his BS in biochemistry from Rutgers University.

Stephen T. Wills, CPA, MST

Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Treasurer and Secretary

STEPHEN T. WILLS, CPA, MST, currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer (since 1997), Chief Operating Officer (since 2011), Treasurer and Secretary of Palatin. Mr. Wills has served on the board of directors of MediWound Ltd. (Nasdaq: MDWD), a biopharmaceutical company focused on treatment in the fields of severe burns, chronic and other hard to heal wounds, since April 2017, and as Chairman since January 2018, and also has served on the board of directors of Gamida Cell Ltd. (Nasdaq: GMDA), a leading cellular and immune therapeutics company, since March 2019 (audit, compensation, and finance committee member), and of Amryt Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and delivering treatments to help improve the lives of patients with rare and orphan diseases, since September 2019 (chairman of audit committee and member of the compensation and finance committee). Mr. Wills also serves on the board of trustees and executive committee of The Hun School of Princeton, a college preparatory day and boarding school, since 2013, and as its Chairman since June 2018. Mr. Wills served as Executive Chairman and Interim Principal Executive Officer of Derma Sciences, Inc., a provider of advanced wound care products, from December 2015 to February 2017, when Derma Sciences was acquired by Integra Lifesciences (Nasdaq: IART). Previously, Mr. Wills served on the board of directors of Derma Sciences as the lead director and chairman of the audit committee from June 2000 to December 2015. Mr. Wills served as the Chief Financial Officer of Derma Sciences from 1997 to 2000. Mr. Wills served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Wills, Owens & Baker, P.C., a public accounting firm, from 1991 to 2000. Mr. Wills, a certified public accountant, earned his Bachelor of Science in accounting from West Chester University, and a Master of Science in taxation from Temple University.

Stephen Slusher

Chief Legal Officer

Stephen A. Slusher is Chief Legal Officer and Assistant Secretary of Palatin Technologies, Inc. Previously he was a partner in a boutique intellectual property law firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Peacock Law PC, where he remains of counsel. Earlier in his career he was involved in the creation of several biotechnology companies. He is a registered patent attorney and licensed attorney and has developed the intellectual property strategy for Palatin. Mr. Slusher received his B.A. degree from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and his J.D. degree from the University of New Mexico.

John Dodd, PhD

Senior Vice President, Preclinical Development

John Dodd, PhD, has 40 years of experience in the discovery and development of clinically relevant drugs. Prior to joining Palatin, Dodd was a director in immunology chemistry at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and before that rose to research fellow at the Robert Wood Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute (J&J).

Dodd has authored or co-authored over 100 papers, patents, and presentations mostly specializing in inflammation and immunology with contributions in metabolic and cardiovascular disease also. In addition to his current role at Palatin, Dr Dodd serves as a senior graduate advisor at the Pennsylvania State University, where he received his PhD in chemistry for work on the total synthesis of olivomycin.

James Hattersley

Senior Vice President, Business Development

James E. Hattersley serves as our SVP, Business Development, with primary responsibility for establishing strategic alliances and partnerships in therapeutic areas, including inflammatory disease, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, and endocrine/metabolic categories.

Before Palatin, James served as VP of Business Development at Santen, LTD (ophthalmology).  Santen was preceded by Adherium, LTD, a global digital health asthma/COPD outcomes organization, where James was appointed SVP Business Development responsible for establishing Adherium North America (respiratory). Prior to Adherium, Mr. Hattersley held the position of Vice President of Business Development at Nektar Therapeutics and served for several years as Vice President of Business Development at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries.

Mr. Hattersley has over 25 years of successful leadership experience in life sciences, with a proven track record of identifying and executing deals of significant value. During the course of his career James has successfully completed numerous revenue generating transactions involving small, midlevel, and major biotech/pharma organizations. Mr. Hattersley completed graduate and undergraduate scientific degrees in biochemistry and neurobiology, respectively, from the University of California. In addition, James completed post-graduate education in financial analytics, business administration and management at University of Chicago GSB.

Robert Jordan

Senior Vice President, Program Operations

Robert Jordan, PMP, is Palatin’s Senior Vice President of Program Operations. Robert’s responsibilities during his 16 years with Palatin have included clinical and program development, alliance management, regulatory operations, data publication and communication strategy, key opinion leading relations, and business development.

Robert has successfully managed several drug programs, including Palatin’s development of Vyleesi® from phase 2 through NDA submission and FDA approval in 2019 as the only as-needed treatment for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). Robert oversees all of Palatin’s drug development programs as well as leads clinical operations.

Robert has extensive experience in the drug development industry for over 22 years. Starting out with a bachelor’s degree in biology from The College of New Jersey, he earned experience from clinical development and biotech companies before joining Palatin. With finance, marketing, and project management certifications earned throughout his career, Robert uses his breadth of education and experience to help develop novel treatments for patients with unmet medical needs.

J. Don Wang, PhD

Vice President, Product Development

J. Don Wang, PhD, serves as Vice President of Product Development. He is responsible for all chemistry, manufacturing, and control (CMC) activities including managing CDMOs and CMOs for drug substance and drug product formulation, analytical, manufacturing process, and supply chain development.

Don has almost 30 years of experience in the chemical, biotech, and pharmaceutical industry conducting research in materials, formulations, packaging, and manufacturing. Prior to joining Palatin, Don was Head of R&D at American Regent Inc. where he led the corporate internal and external injectables development efforts serving all manufacture sites of the company and CMOs.  Prior to that, his positions included VP at Tolmar Inc., as Research Director at Virtus, Endo-Qualitest, and Merial (Sanofi), and as hands-on Scientist at Actavis, KV, Alkermes, and Ferro.

Dr. Wang’s academic training was all in chemistry: B.S. from Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China, M.S. from California State University-Northridge, and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Board of Directors

Carl Spana, PhD

Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

John K.A. Prendergast, PhD

Director, Chairman of the Board of Directors

JOHN K.A. PRENDERGAST, Ph.D., co-founder of Palatin, has served as the non-executive Chairman of the board since June 14, 2000, and as a director since August 1996. While Mr. Prendergast has served as a member of the board, he does not, and has not, served in a management or operational role with the company. Dr. Prendergast has been president and sole stockholder of Summercloud Bay, Inc., an independent consulting firm providing services to the biotechnology industry, since 1993. Dr. Prendergast is lead director of Heat Biologics, Inc., a publicly traded clinical stage immunotherapy company, and a director and non-executive chairman of Recce Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a publicly traded Australian pharmaceutical company developing antibiotic drugs. He was previously a member of the board of the life science companies AVAX Technologies, Inc., Avigen, Inc., and MediciNova, Inc. From October 1991 through December 1997, Dr. Prendergast was a managing director of The Castle Group Ltd., a medical venture capital firm. Dr. Prendergast received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and a C.S.S. in administration and management from Harvard University.

Alan W. Dunton, MD

Director

ALAN W. DUNTON, M.D., has been a director of Palatin since June 2011. He founded Danerius, LLC, a biotechnology consulting company, in 2006. From November 2015 through March 2018, he was senior vice president of research, development, and regulatory affairs for Purdue Pharma L.P., with responsibilities for overall research strategy and development programs. From January 2007 to March 2009, Dr. Dunton served as president and chief executive officer of Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc. and he served as a managing director of Panacos from March 2009 to January 2011. Dr. Dunton is currently a member of the board of directors of the publicly traded companies Recce Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: RCE), CorMedix Inc. (NYSE: CRMD), and Oragenics, Inc. (NYSE: OGEN). He previously served on the board of directors of the publicly traded companies Targacept, Inc., EpiCept Corporation (as Non-Executive Chairman), Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Reckitt Benckiser Group plc), MediciNova, Inc. and Panacos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Dunton has served as a director or executive officer of various pharmaceutical companies, and from 1994 to 2001, Dr. Dunton was a senior executive in various capacities in the Pharmaceuticals Group of Johnson & Johnson, including president and managing director of the Janssen Research Foundation, the primary global R&D organization for Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Dunton received his M.D. degree from New York University School of Medicine, where he completed his residency in internal medicine. He also was a Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at the New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center.

Arlene M. Morris

Director

ARLENE M. MORRIS has been a director of Palatin since June 2015. Since May 2015 she has served as the chief executive officer of Willow Advisors, LLC. From April 2012 until May 2015, she was President and Chief Executive Officer of Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of an epigenetic therapy for treatment-resistant cancers, and was a member of the board of directors from May 2011 until May 2015. From 2003 to January 2011, Ms. Morris served as the President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the board of directors of Affymax, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company. Ms. Morris has also held various management and executive positions at Clearview Projects, Inc., a corporate advisory firm, Coulter Pharmaceutical, Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, Scios Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, and Johnson & Johnson, a publicly traded healthcare company. She is currently a member of the board of directors of Viveve Medical, Inc., a publicly traded female healthcare medical device company, Viridian Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded microRNA therapeutics company, and Cogent Biosciences, Inc., a publicly traded solid tumor cancer therapy company, and was a director of Neovacs SA, a publicly traded French company, Biodel Inc., a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company, from 2015 until its merger with Albireo Limited in 2016, and Dimension Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded gene therapy company, until its acquisition by Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. in 2017. Ms. Morris received a B.A. in Biology and Chemistry from Carlow College.

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Palatin works with leading experts who help shape our research and advise on our clinical development programs.

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