John Hey

Dr. Hey brings to Alzheon more than 20 years of drug discovery and development experience in both biotechnology and pharmaceutical drug development. He has held senior leadership positions in drug development at several biotechnology companies including CoMentis and NormOxys, focusing on Alzheimer’s disease and oncology, respectively. As Senior Vice President of Discovery and Preclinical Drug Development at CoMentis, Dr. Hey served as the pivotal senior leader and drug development officer responsible for the beta-secretase inhibitor drug development program for Alzheimer’s disease. In this role, he built a drug discovery and drug development team optimization facility, and led a team of over 25 scientists responsible for all key aspects of early drug development, including PK/PD, biochemistry, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, in vitro and in vivo ADME, bioanalytical, preclinical safety, safety pharmacology, translational medicine, medicinal chemistry, and early clinical development. This work culminated in the first clinically tested beta-secretase candidate, as well as a collaboration with a potential value of $1.1 billion with Astellas Pharma in 2008.

Prior to his tenure at CoMentis, Dr. Hey spent 18 years at the Schering-Plough Research Institute leading discovery, preclinical, and early clinical development teams in multiple therapeutic areas through Phase 2 development. During this time, he was also a divisional leader, managing preclinical discovery, lead optimization, early development activities, and strategic planning for over 50 scientists. Dr. Hey has developed new chemical entities (NCEs) in multiple therapeutic areas and has been directly responsible for the discovery and development of over 20 NCEs, including several that have advanced to the NDA stage and approval. Dr. Hey also had additional direct experience supporting Phase 3 and Phase 4 programs for Schering-Plough’s respiratory disease franchise portfolio, including Claritin®/Clarinex®, Asmanex®, and Nasonex®.

Dr. Hey holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and has authored more than 145 peer-reviewed scientific publications.