Management Team

Dr. Javitt has been a founder of seven successful healthcare IT and biopharma startups with public exits. He has additionally led drug-development engagements for Merck, Allergan, Pharmacia, Novartis, and Pfizer. He was appointed to healthcare leadership roles under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush. In the latter role he was commissioned by President Bush to Chair the Health Committee of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) and to lead the development of Executive Order 13335, establishing the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. In the aftermath of 9/11, Dr. Javitt was appointed a Senior Fellow in the National Security Health Policy Center of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies to focus on biosecurity preparedness and appointed by President Bush to the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense. He is a graduate of Princeton University, Cornell University Medical College, Harvard School of Public Health, the Wills Eye Hospital, and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The Harvard Chan School awarded him the Alumnus of Merit award in 2016 and he continues to serve as Adjunct Professor of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Javitt has published more than 200 scientific works in the areas of health outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics that have been cited by more than 29,000 scientists. In his role as Chief Scientist of NRx Pharmaceuticals he continues to lead NRx on Scientific matters to advance and expand our pipeline of lifesaving medicines.

Michael Abrams is a senior finance professional with almost three decades of experience as an executive officer, investment banker, director and senior advisor, which includes serving as the Chief Financial Officer of Arch Therapeutics, RiseIT Solutions. and FitLife Brands. Mr. Abrams has deep experience across multiple functional areas including, but not limited to, financial operations, accounting, mergers and acquisitions, financial engineering, capital raising and shareholder communications. He earned his MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business following his BBA with Honors from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he was named a William F. Field alumni scholar.

Rick is currently the SVP of CMC at BridgeBio Pharma. Prior to joining BridgeBio, Rick served as VP of Pharmaceutical Development Services at WuXi STA, where he provided scientific leadership in formulation development and GMP manufacturing. From 2004 to 2015, Rick served as Global Head of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Profiling (CPP) at Novartis. His responsibilities included all small molecule therapeutics across the Novartis portfolio. He also led and developed novel drug delivery technologies for small molecules and biologics. Rick has also led R&D groups at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Symbollon Pharmaceuticals, Biogen, and Bausch & Lomb. Rick earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Toronto and did a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Martin Brecher, MD, DMSc, MBA, has more than 30 years of experience in psychiatric drug development and clinical psychiatry. He served as an FDA medical officer where he led reviews of numerous psychiatry drugs, following which he led the development of novel psychiatry drugs for Hoechst Roussel (iloperidone), Janssen (risperidone), and AstraZenica (Seroquel). He subsequently served as Senior Medical Director for Global Product Development at PPD, a global contract research organization. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BA), State University of New York, MD, and Wharton School of Management (MBA).