Senior Management

Eupraxia founder James Helliwell holds a medical degree from UBC, a Fellowship Certification in Cardiac Anesthesiology and transplantation, and board certification in Perioperative Echocardiography. Prior to founding Eupraxia, he worked in a clinical practice at a quaternary academic cardiac center in St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver. He also served as Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and was the President of the provincial body guiding anesthesiology care in British Columbia.

Dr. Helliwell is a physician-entrepreneur who holds many granted patents and created a medical device, built a company around it and sold it to a large strategic partner.

Eupraxia co-founder Dr. Malone has worked on the development of drug delivery systems for nearly 15 years. Dr. Malone has worked on 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 15 publications related to bone function and polymer-based drug delivery, as well as authoring five distinct patent families with patents granted in the US, EU and Oceania. She has been a Principal Investigator on studies awarded more than US$11 million in grant funding from both the US and Canadian governments and was a National Science Foundation Fellow.

While at Eupraxia, she has guided the scientific programs through pre-clinical and manufacturing development, the regulatory process in multiple jurisdictions and into the clinic. Prior to joining Eupraxia, Dr. Malone was the VP and COO of a drug-delivery focused biotech company, Auritec. She graduated with High Honors from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California with a degree in Engineering, received her master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and was the inaugural PhD student in Stanford’s Bioengineering Department, where she received a BioX Fellowship.

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.

Ash Bassett has over 15 years of management, accounting and finance experience in both public practice and technology startups in Canada and Australia. In his previous role as Director of Finance at Pulse Energy, he managed the finance and administrative functions of a rapidly growing software development company. This led to its successful acquisition by EnerNOC in late 2014. Since joining Eupraxia in 2016, Ash has developed and overseen all facets of the finance, outsourcing, human resources and information technology functions.

Mr Bassett has a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Accounting & Finance from Curtin University of Technology and also maintains his CPA designation with CPA Australia.

Vik Peck has close to 25 years of experience in global pharmaceutical development. Prior to joining Eupraxia, Ms. Peck was the Head of Global Project Management at Vifor Pharma, where she directed flagship products and initiatives, from lead identification through development, approval and global launch. She holds a Combined Honours degree in Biology and Journalism from Carleton University and is a longstanding, certified Project Management Professional.

Jim Price has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry as a Statistician, Pharmacometrician and mathematical consultant. He has worked in a broad range of therapeutics areas at large pharma (Pfizer and AstraZeneca) and small biotechs, predominantly within early phase and non-clinical research. Mr. Price holds a Master of Science in Medical Statistics and Information Technology from Leicester University and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Warwick.

Nicola Price has more than 20 years of experience in designing, managing and executing clinical trials. Ms. Price was previously Director of Clinical Development at Xenon Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the management and oversight of Clinical and Regulatory. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biological Sciences from the University of Warwick.

Dr. Murray Webb has more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development in both industrial and academic settings, with a focus on the conduct and management of translational preclinical studies supporting the entry of novel drugs into clinical trials. Dr. Webb holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia.

Troy Loss has developed and manufactured drug delivery systems for 20 years, both at Northern Lipids and Angiotech Pharmaceuticals. At Northern Lipids, he rose from Manufacturing Associate to GMP Facility Manager and oversaw all operations of their GMP manufacturing facility, which produced sustained release lipid-based formulations.

At Angiotech, he contributed to the development of drug coated medical devices and formulations designed for local drug delivery. Mr. Loss received a BSc. (Hon) in Chemistry rom the University of British Columbia.