Thomas Rossi, Ph.D.
Technical Advisor
Dr. Rossi has 26 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, in senior business and technical leadership positions. He is currently the Executive Chairman of Kore Pharmaceuticals, LLC, an early-stage company dedicated to the development of innovative women's health products based on the application of advanced drug delivery technologies.
Prior to founding Kore Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Rossi served as the Chief Executive Officer of Agile Therapeutics. In that role, he led the company's successful efforts to create and develop two innovative transdermal patches for contraception, advancing one into phase 3 development and the other into phase 1. He and his team raised multiple rounds of venture financing, culminating in a $45 million round in early 2010. Under his leadership the company established a collaboration with the NIH for development of its second product and transitioned the company to a more commercially oriented structure as the lead product approached market authorization.
In an earlier start-up effort, he co-founded SansRosa Pharmaceutical Development, Inc., a start up company focused on developing novel treatments for the erythema of rosacea. After securing seed funding and conducting a proof of concept clinical evaluation in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, he negotiated the sale of the company to Collagenex.
Dr. Rossi has held various roles in drug development organizations of two major pharmaceutical companies: Johnson & Johnson and SmithKline Beecham. At Johnson & Johnson, he served as Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical, Chemical and Preclinical Development, in which role he was responsible for all non-clinical activities in the development of products from pre-IND to NDA approval. Under his tenure his department successfully supported the development of Topamax antiepileptic, low estrogen dose oral contraceptives, oral hormone replacement therapies, the Ortho Evra® transdermal patch, Levaquin antibiotic, Regranex wound-healing agent, and the Tramadol line of prescription analgesics. He also served as Senior Vice President of Process Excellence and Change Management, a role in which he led a major company-wide R&D reengineering initiative and organized the merger of two prescription drug R&D units.
Dr. Rossi has also worked as a management consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, specializing in organizational improvement strategy, integration management, and process optimization. Dr. Rossi earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Texas A&M in 1980, and his B.A. in Chemistry from Western Connecticut State University in 1976. He is the author of numerous scientific publications, a frequent speaker at national and international scientific meetings and a member of the AAPS, ACS and DIA.