Leadership

Ritter has recruited and assembled an outstanding team of talented and experienced individuals with extensive big pharma & biotech experience. In addition, Ritter has engaged Velesco Pharmaceutical Services for formulation and manufacturing development and Quantic Regulatory Services for regulatory expertise.

Andrew J. Ritter - President & CEO

Mr. Ritter has been studying the field of lactose intolerance for over 15 years and is considered a worldwide leading expert on the topic. Mr. Ritter has been at the forefront of lactose intolerance research, working and collaborating with other leading experts in lactose intolerance. In 1997, he invented a prototype program called Lactagen® to help reduce symptoms of lactose intolerance. He subsequently founded Ritter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2004 and engaged other leading lactose intolerance researchers to join his team in developing the first treatment for lactose intolerance.

Mr. Ritter received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a minor in Business from the University of Southern California. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan appointed Mr. Ritter to serve as a City Commissioner from 2000-2002. He is the youngest Commissioner to be appointed in the history of Los Angeles. In 2007, The Los Angeles Business Journal recognized Mr. Ritter as one of the "Top Twenty Entrepreneurs in their 20s" in Los Angeles.

Howard Foyt, M.D., Ph.D., FACP - Executive Vice President, Development & Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Foyt has over thirty years of clinical experience and has participated in over 300 clinical trials. Recently, he served as VP, Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer at Metabasis Therapeutics, where he was responsible for five drugs in clinical development over multiple therapeutic areas. Previously to working at Metabasis Therapeutics, Dr. Foyt worked at Pfizer for over ten years, where he served as Senior Director and Site Head – Diabetes & Obesity, and earlier at Parke-Davis (aquired by Pfizer) participating in the clinical development of multiple drugs mainly in the metabolic disease field. Prior to joining Parke-Davis, he was on the faculty at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX.

Dr. Foyt earned his medical degree and Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Baylor and an endocrinology fellowship at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health.

David Barnes, Ph.D. - Product Development & Manufacturing

Dr. Barnes co-founded Velesco Pharmaceutical Services in 2008. Velesco Pharmaceutical Services is a contract research organization which supports early stage drug development projects. Dr. Barnes worked for Pfizer for 19 years in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division of R&D. He is an accomplished scientist with broad expertise in product development, clinical supply provision and facility management.  He has extensive experience in managing complex scientific and technical projects many of them outsourced to contract research organizations.  

Dr. Barnes most recently led the group responsible for coordinating Pfizer’s global supply of materials for clinical trials.  He has a Ph.D. from The School of Pharmacy, University of London and is a licensed pharmacist and a registered chemical engineer.

Marilyn Carlson, D.M.D., M.D., RAC - Senior Regulatory Specialist

Dr. Carlson has more than 18 years of industry experience in the clinical development and post-marketing support of drugs, devices, diagnostics and biologics.  Her career in the pharmaceutical industry includes Procter & Gamble (OTC healthcare products and pharmaceuticals), XOMA (biologics), Advanced Corneal Systems (now ISTA, pharmaceuticals) and Prometheus Laboratories (pharmaceuticals and diagnostics).

In 2004, Marilyn founded entreMeDica, Inc. a San Diego-based consulting company that provides regulatory and chief medical officer consulting services to the biotechnology and life sciences community. She also serves as Vice-President of Medical and Regulatory Affairs at Synteract, Inc., a full-service contract research organization based in Carlsbad, California. 

Rebecca Bakker-Arkema RPh, MS, FAHA - Sr. Director, Clinical Scientist

Ms. Bakker-Arkema oversees Ritter’s drug development program. She brings with her over 24 years of pharmacological experience. She’s also involved in consulting work as a Clinical Project Manager of Medical Diagnostics with GE Healthcare where she coordinates Pathology/Imaging Data Packaging and Strategy and PET Radiopharmaceutical Development. Ms. Bakker-Arkema formerly acted as senior director of Clinical Research at Metabasis Therapeutics and held positions at Pfizer as the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Translational Medicine Site Head, and as the Director of both Exploratory Clinical Development and the Cardiovascular Department. Ms. Bakker-Arkema’s was an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for many years. She’s received honors such as the Bio-IT World Award for Strategic Application and PK/PD Modeling Simulation and the Fellow of the American Heart Association, the Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

Matthew O’Brien, Ph.D. - Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls

Dr. O’Brien, a member of Quantic Regulatory Services, has 40 years of experience in pharmaceutical product development within the Merck Research Laboratories, the Smith, Kline, French Laboratories and Otsuka Pharmaceutical America. In his capacity at Merck, he participated in the development of a continuous stream of over 100 INDs/CSAs and the registration of over 20 NDAs/MMAs within and outside the U.S. Dr. O’Brien is familiar with the business and regulatory thinking which surrounds the development of new processes that include specifications, test methods, container stability studies and quality systems necessary for the release of clinical study materials and market product. Dr. O’Brien received a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Villanova University.

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