Senior Management

Dr. Helliwell is the Co-founder and CEO of Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals. A board-certified Cardiac Anesthesiologist, he previously maintained a busy quaternary clinical and academic practice with a focus on cardiac transplantation and held a double tenure as President of the Anesthesiologists of BC.

Dr. Helliwell’s experience in the operating room and ICU instilled an appreciation for the value of precision drug delivery to achieve successful patient outcomes. This led him to create Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals, a company developing precision medicines in areas of high unmet medical need. In 2021, Eupraxia became the first biotech to successfully list exclusively on the Toronto Stock Exchange in almost 20 years. The company’s lead product candidate – a long-acting corticosteroid to treat osteoarthritis pain – is currently in Phase 2 clinical development.

Dr. Helliwell has also applied precision delivery to the medical device space. As Co-founder and CEO of Accuro Technologies, he invented Arthrotap® – a medical device to improve the accuracy of intra-articular injections. After successfully transacting on Accuro, he moved on to serve as Chair of the Board for Guidestar Medical Devices – a company focused on precision medicines delivery for the epidural space.

Eupraxia co-founder Dr. Malone has worked on the development of drug delivery systems for more than 15 years. Dr. Malone has developed multiple complex extended-release products, including parenteral injections for the treatment and prevention of a wide variety of diseases, intravaginal rings releasing multiple drugs for the prevention of HIV, anti-infective films for the prevention of surgical site infections and topical co-drugs for the treatment of herpes. Dr. Malone has authored more than 25 publications related to bone function and polymer-based drug delivery, as well as authoring six distinct patent families that have resulted in over 70 patents and patent applications with patents granted around the world. She has been a Principal Investigator on studies awarded more than US$11 million in grant funding from the US and Canadian governments and was a National Science Foundation Fellow.

While at Eupraxia, she has built Eupraxia’s research, manufacturing, quality, non-clinical, regulatory, intellectual property and clinical functions. Under Dr. Malone’s leadership, the company has delivered a successful, potentially pivotal phase 2 study in osteoarthritis and launched a second clinical development program in eosinophilic esophagitis. Her duties include management strategies to support operational excellence, resource management, and cross-functional collaboration to drive the organization's business.

Prior to her tenure at Eupraxia, Dr. Malone served as the COO of Auritec Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company focused on drug delivery. She graduated with High Honors from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, with a degree in Engineering. She earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford University and became the inaugural PhD student in Stanford’s Bioengineering Department, receiving a BioX Fellowship. She also serves on the University of Victoria External Advisory Board for their Biomedical Engineering Department.

Bruce Cousins has more than 30 years life sciences company experience, in both financial and operational roles spanning organizations from large multinational corporations to emerging early phase companies. Formerly, Bruce was Executive Vice President & CFO at Arbutus Biopharma (NASDAQ:ABUS) from 2013 to 2018. During his tenure he was instrumental in raising significant equity financing for the company and completing a merger transaction with OnCore Biopharma, an emerging private company in Pennsylvania focused on Hepatitis B. Previously he was Chief Financial Officer of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ: ASPV) from 2004 to 2008. During his tenure the organization progressed from a small, private start-up to an inter-listed company with operations in Canada, US, UK and Switzerland, and a peak market cap of more than $700mm. In late 2007, Bruce was instrumental in leading the sale transaction of the company to the Galenica Group for $915 million, delivering a 24% premium to shareholders. Bruce started his life sciences career with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), where from 1991 to 2004 he worked in a variety of franchises globally including Orthopedics and Wound Closure, completing his tenure with the Wound Management franchise.

Prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Cousins was a chartered accountant with Deloitte & Touche in Toronto, Canada. Mr. Cousins completed a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) degree from McMaster University in 1987 and received a Chartered Accountant designation in 1989.

Mr. Brennan has more than 30 years experience in the pharma and biotech industries where he has held several executive positions in general management and/or business development including at NervGen Pharma, Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Arbutus Biopharma (formerly Tekmira Pharmaceuticals), Aspreva Pharmaceuticals and AnorMED.

He has participated in the development and/or commercialization of more than 10 products that have advanced from clinical development through to regulatory approval in either the U.S. or Europe and has been involved in several billions of dollars worth of business development and financing transactions.

Notable transactions involving Mr. Brennan include the sale of Aspreva to Vifor Pharma for $915 million, the sale of AnorMED to Genzyme for $580 million and the merger of Tekmira and OnCore Biopharma to form Arbutus Biopharma, valued at more than $1 billion.

He has also served in senior business development and regulatory affairs roles with AstraZeneca plc, working in Sweden, the United Kingdom and Canada. Mr. Brennan holds a master's degree in Neurophysiology from Queen's University in Kingston.

Dr. Kowalski has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. He is a clinical leader, developing regulatory strategy and global clinical development plans for a variety of product types including small molecules, biologics (monoclonals, immunoconjugates, siRNAs) and vaccines, while working in a range of indications, including oncology, infectious diseases, urology, analgesia, allergy, rheumatology and metabolic disorders.

He brings to Eupraxia experience with clinical study design, database design and authoring protocols for Phase 1 through 3 clinical trials, as well as medical monitoring and pharmacovigilance services for Phase 1 through 4 clinical trials, plus data analysis and writing of clinical study reports. Dr. Kowalski held multiple senior roles, including Chief Medical Officer, at Sierra Oncology, a public company acquired by GSK plc in 2022 for US$1.9 billion.