Our mission is to advance the treatment paradigm for mucus mediated lung diseases.

Jogging patient on beach

The Company

Aer Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel inhaled approach to treat lung disease with excess mucus and mucus plugs. We are focused on treating respiratory diseases with significant unmet needs, such as COPD, cystic fibrosis and asthma.

Our technology was developed and spun out of Dr. John Fahy’s airway biology lab at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in collaboration with Dr. Stefan Oscarson’s glycochemistry lab at University College Dublin and Dr. Anne Marie Healy’s pharmaceutics lab at Trinity College Dublin. The efforts of this research consortium has led to over $18M in NIH funding, resulting in the identification of our lead therapeutic candidate (AER-01), establishment of preliminary safety and efficacy profiles, and the production of clinical trial API.

Leadership

We are led by a globally experienced management team and scientific advisory board with an established track record in the discovery, clinical development and commercialization of respiratory therapies.

Management Team

Jim Shaffer

Jim Shaffer MBA

President and CEO
Eiger Biopharma, Halozyme, InterMune, GSK

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John Fahy

John Fahy MD MSc

Board Chair and Founder
UCSF — Director, Airway Clinical Research Center Director, Faculty Practice in Severe Asthma

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Irina Gitlin

Irina Gitlin PhD

VP, Clinical Development
UCSF, Arsenal Medical, Harvard

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Kathleen Lopiano

Kathleen Lopiano

Advising CFO, CPA MBA
Ernst & Young, Smith and Nephew, BioVentus

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Scientific Advisory Board

Advisors


Bruce Montgomery, MD

CEO – Avalyn Pharma

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Sally Wenzel, MD

University of Pittsburgh

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Chris Goss, MD, MS

University of Washington

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Colin Reisner, MD

Astra Zeneca

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Mario Castro, MD

University of Kansas

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Maarten Kraan, MD

CMO – AM Pharma

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Mark Eisner, MD

CMO – Fibrogen, Genentech

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Academic Founders

Ireland

Anne Marie Healy, PhD

Trinity College Dublin

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Stefan Oscarson, PhD

University College Dublin

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Jim Shaffer

Jim Shaffer

President and CEO
Eiger Biopharma, Halozyme, InterMune, GSK

Jim is a seasoned biotech executive with over 25 years of experience working for emerging biotechnology and large pharma companies. Jim joins us from Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, a publicly traded company, where he served as Chief Business Officer from August 2014 to July 2021.

Jim initially led corporate development and the IPO process for Eiger raising over $200M from 2015-2019. He was also responsible for Global Business Development/ Alliance Management, Commercial Analysis and Manufacturing for five orphan drug programs and four separate products including small molecules, a large molecule and a peptide. Jim was responsible for negotiating multiple technology and product licenses from Stanford, UPenn/CHOP, Merck, BMS, JNJ, and Nippon Kayaku.

Additionally, Jim served as Chief Commercial Officer at Clinical Data and Halozyme Therapeutics from 2007 to 2011 and 2011 to 2014, respectively. While at Clinical data, Jim was responsible for creating and executing the plan that led to the company’s sale to Forest Labs in 2011 for $1.2B. Prior to joining Clinical Data, Jim served as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for New River Pharmaceuticals wherein led the launch plan for Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) for the treatment of ADHD. He supported the sale of the company to Shire for $2.6B in 2007. Jim earned an M.B.A. from the Fisher School of Business as well as a B.S. from The Ohio State University.