OUR TEAM

PRANA BIOSCIENCES Inc.

Our executive Leadership Team has deep expertise in drug discovery, development including mAb design, biologics GMP manufacturing, regulatory filings (investigational and commercial), FDA, EMA interactions, IP, patenting, and successful exit.

Dr. Bharat Tewarie is a C-level executive with extensive experience in the BioPharma, Medical Devices and Digital Health industry.

After his training as medical doctor (MD) with an MBA, he has held roles with increasing commercial responsibilities in Europe and USA.These were at BioPharma companies such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Serono International, EMD Serono, Merck Serono, UCB and emerging biotech & digital health companies.

From 2015-2020, Bharat worked as the Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer and member of the Executive Committee of UCB. In January 2020, he founded Boston BioPharma Consultants advising executives of BioPharma and medical device companies about commercial topics. In January 2021 he became the CEO and Chairman of an early-stage antiviral development company ViroCarb Inc, and in June 2021 he joined Aveta Biomics as an independent
Board director.

He is mentoring CEOs of Biotech and Digital Tech companies at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Since September 2023, Bharat is the CEO of Prana Biosciences and
a member of the Board of Directors.

Theresa O’Keefe joined Prana Biosciences Inc. in 2022. Previously she had her own consulting firm, Silladar Consulting LLC, where she assisted multiple small companies, including Elicio Therapeutics, ONEighty C Technologies and Premas Biotech, develop their biotherapeutics and medical devices. Over the years she has worked for a number of biopharma and pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Critical Therapeutics and Millennium/Takeda where she created and led multiple antibody development groups and programs. During her time at Millennium, she invented nLDP02 that went on to be approved as Entyvio, Takeda’s antibody for Crohn’s and UC, as well as its high expression manufacturing system. Her postdoctoral training and early academic career were spent at the MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK, where she trained under Michael Neuberger and Caesar Milstein. Theresa currently teaches a class in biotherapeutic drug development at UMASS Medical School and is an inventor on over 30 issued patents and has 15 publications including multiple Tier 1 publications.
Theresa obtained an A.B. cum laude in Biochemistry and Biological Sciences from Mount Holyoke College, a M.S. in Veterinary Physiology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Tufts University’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Geevarghese Easo (“Gee”) is the SVP of Operations at PraNa Biosciences Inc., a Massachusetts based biopharma company. Gee received his Diploma and BS degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences in India from St. John’s College and Vivekananda College, respectively.

Gee started his pharma career at Kali Laboratories in 2001 as a R&D Chemist focused on Analytical Sciences.  At Kali Labs, Gee was involved in analytical development and testing of a large portfolio of products, which were successfully approved by the FDA. Kali Labs was acquired by Par Pharmaceuticals in 2004.  Gee continued his role at Par Pharmaceuticals with increasing responsibilities that also included Quality and Compliance activities.  Since 2009, Gee worked for Sun Pharmaceuticals before moving to Ranbaxy Laboratories in New Jersey where he spent 7 years in the QA function of increasing responsibilities related to regulatory compliance, product quality and data integrity.  Gee has successfully worked with several marketed generic products.

Gee has a passion for pharmaceutical problem solving and applying this innovatively in the fast-paced entrepreneurial setting.  In 2015, he decided to realize this dream by accepting the role of Head of R&D Operations at PraNa Biosciences.  At PraNa, he successfully established a fit for purpose R&D lab and carried out product development campaigns that have resulted in improved in-vitro performance and in-vivo performance in animals and human.  As the programs and project portfolio continue to evolve, Gee is taking on the responsibilities of product development for clinical studies leading to commercial production by growing the R&D Operations and managing the activities via internal and outsourced channels.  Gee is currently supporting operations involving complex biologics R&D activities.