Three decades of senior management and deal execution in the biopharma industry.
- Managing Partner, EIR Healthcare Consultants (2006 - Present)
- Partner, Signet Healthcare Partners (2017 – Present)
- CEO and/or Executive Chairman, Leon Nanodrugs GmbH, Impopharma Inc, Cedarburg Hauser Pharmaceuticals, Planet Biopharmaceuticals, and CyDex Pharmaceuticals (2008 - 2017)
- EVP and COO, Astellas / Fujiwara (1992 – 2006; various roles)
Since 2006, Dr. Odlaug has been the Managing Partner of EIR Healthcare Consultants LLC, which provides consulting services to pharmaceutical companies. Since 2017, he has served as a Partner at Signet Healthcare Partners, a growth-stage healthcare investor with aggregate capital commitments of over $400 million and investments in more than 50 companies. He has since 2019 served as a Board Member and fundraiser for the Dravet Syndrome Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising research funds and offering research grants for syndrome-specific research with a novel approach for Dravet syndrome, a rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy. Since 2021, Dr. Odlaug has served as a Board Member of Ascendia Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing enhanced formulations of existing drug products and enabling formulations for pre-clinical and clinical stage drug candidates.
Dr. Odlaug has also served from 2015 to 2017 as CEO and Managing Director of Leon Nanodrugs GmbH, an early-stage nano-technology formulation company, and as a member of its Supervisory Board from 2017 to 2020. From 2017 to 2018, Dr. Odlaug also laterally served as Executive Chairman and Acting CEO of Impopharma Inc, a provider of development services for nasal and pulmonary drug products. From 2014 to 2016, he also served as a Board Member of Apicore US LLC. From 2013 to 2014, Dr. Odlaug also served as Executive Chairman of Cedarburg Hauser Pharmaceuticals Inc, a privately held active pharmaceutical ingredient contract manufacturer. Prior to joining Signet Healthcare Partners, Dr. Odlaug served from 2011 to 2013 as Executive Chairman and CEO of Planet Biopharmaceuticals Inc., a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company focused on allergy extracts and other allergy control products and portfolio company of Aisling Capital. Prior to joining Planet Biopharmaceuticals, Dr. Odlaug served from 2008 to 2011 as COO, President, and CEO of CyDex Pharmaceuticals Inc., a privately held portfolio company of Signet Healthcare Partners, delivering pharmaceutical products and licensing its technology based upon the Captisol drug formulation technology platform. One product highlight was the completion of the Phase II clinical study of a Captisol formulation of melphalan, now marketed as Evomela.
From 1992 to 2006, Dr. Odlaug held roles including EVP and COO, at Astellas, a global pharmaceutical company formed by the 2005 merger of Fujisawa and Yamanouchi. Under his watch at Fujisawa, the company launched three hospital products AmBisome, Adenoscan, and Mycamine, and the dermatology product Protopic. He led the team for the divestiture of the generic drug division to APP in 1998 as part of a successful strategy to focus on branded drugs in the USA. Prior to Astellas /Fujisawa, he held a senior leadership role at Bayer AG. Dr. Odlaug earned a PhD in Environmental Health from the University of Minnesota and an MS and BS in Biology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.