Management

Mr. Pascoe has served as a director of KemPharm since January 2014 and as KemPharm’s executive chairman from November 2021 to January 2023. In January 2023, Mr. Pascoe was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and remains a member of the Board of Directors. He served as lead independent director at KemPharm from November 2014 to November 2021. Mr. Pascoe served as the president and chief executive officer of Histogen Inc, a biologics company, from January 2019 to November 2021. From March 2013 to January 2019, Mr. Pascoe was the chief executive officer and a director of Apricus Biosciences, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company. From August 2008 to March 2013, Mr. Pascoe was the president and chief executive officer and a director of Pernix Sleep, Inc. (formerly known as Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), a specialty pharmaceutical company. Prior to Pernix, from 2005 to 2008, Mr. Pascoe worked for ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, where he was most recently senior vice president and chief operating officer. Mr. Pascoe also serves as a director of Seelos Therapeutics, Inc, a specialty pharmaceutical company. Mr. Pascoe received his B.S. degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Dr. Mickle co-founded KemPharm Inc. in 2006 with the discovery of the company’s LAT^® (Ligand Activated Therapy) prodrug technology. As President and Board Member he oversees KemPharm’s scientific strategy and is instrumental in the ongoing development of the company’s pipeline of proprietary prodrugs.

Prior to founding KemPharm, Dr. Mickle served as Director of Drug Discovery and CMC at New River Pharmaceuticals where he was the principal inventor of Vyvanse^®, a prodrug of amphetamine for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Today, Vyvanse is the branded market share leader in the estimated $17 billion plus ADHD market. The success of Vyvanse along with a robust pipeline of prodrugs targeting ADHD, pain and thyroid dysfunctions, which Dr. Mickle was responsible for creating, led to New River Pharmaceuticals being acquired by Shire Pharmaceuticals, PLC for $2.6 billion.

During his career, Dr. Mickle has been granted more than 80 US and EP (Europe) patents and has authored more than 100 patent applications US and worldwide, primarily focused on abuse-deterrent prodrugs in pain management and mental health, including multiple patents for prodrugs of hydrocodone, methylphenidate, and amphetamine. He is also the principal or secondary investigator on numerous published abstracts and scientific articles.

Dr. Mickle received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa and his B.A. degree from Simpson College.

As Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer, Mr. Clifton is responsible for the company’s financial, operating and compliance activities. Mr. Clifton brings to KemPharm significant public company experience, along with expertise in managed care contracting and strategic leadership covering operations, compliance, investor relations and business development.

Prior to joining KemPharm, Mr. Clifton served as the Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of The LGL Group, Inc., a publicly-held global producer of highly-engineered electronic components and services. Mr. Clifton also previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of a21, Inc., a publicly-held holding company with businesses in stock photography and the online retail and manufacture of framed art, as well as a variety of finance, medical cost analysis, and managed care provider contracting roles with Aetna, Inc.

Mr. Clifton was an auditor with KPMG, LLP, and received his B.B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of North Florida. Mr. Clifton is a certified public accountant licensed by the State of Florida.

As Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Guenther leads KemPharm’s research team and plays a central role in the advancement of the company’s pipeline of prodrugs and the development of new products that utilize KemPharm’s proprietary LAT^® discovery technology to improve one or more of the attributes of approved drugs.

Prior to joining KemPharm, Dr. Guenther served as a research scientist for New River Pharmaceuticals, where he was part of the development team for Vyvanse^®. He is an inventor on a number of patents and patent applications and author of several research papers.

Dr. Guenther received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa.

Ms. Mickle co-founded KemPharm Inc. in 2006 and has held a variety of positions at the company including Vice President and Group Leader, Secretary, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Vice President Operations and Product Development and her current position as Chief Product Development Officer.

Since KemPharm’s inception, Ms. Mickle has played an integral part in the start-up and ongoing growth and operations of the company. Today, as Vice President Operations and Product Development, Ms. Mickle oversees the development of each of KemPharm’s products through strategic collaboration across the various drug development disciplines including clinical, regulatory, non-clinical, and manufacturing enabling efficient use of funds and the ability to meet timelines and milestones.

Prior to founding KemPharm, she served as a Research Associate for New River Pharmaceuticals preparing compounds in the areas of ADHD, pain, and thyroid dysfunctions for further study.

Ms. Mickle received her M.A. degree from the University of Virginia and her B.A. and B.S. degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Joshua Schafer has served as KemPharm’s Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President of Business Development since January 2023. He brings to KemPharm over 25 years of pharmaceutical commercial, new product development and merger and acquisition (M&A) experience.  Mr. Schafer previously served as General Manager of the Autoimmune and Rare Disease business at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, and prior to that, he served as Chief Strategy and Business Officer.  During his professional career, he has successfully led over $16 billion in aggregate M&A transactions.  Prior to Mallinckrodt, Mr. Schafer served as Vice President and Oncology Therapeutic Area Head, Global Marketing and Strategy at Astellas Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for building the company’s global oncology franchise, and also held senior roles at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting), G. D. Searle & Co. (later acquired by Pfizer) and Cognia Corporation.  Mr. Schafer currently serves as a Board member of Pharnext SA and Shuttle Pharmaceuticals.  He received his B.A. in Biology and German at the University of Notre Dame, and both an M.S. in Biotechnology and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University.

Dr. Lauderback has served as KemPharm’s Vice President, Manufacturing since March 2016, having previously held the position of Vice President, Commercial Operations since September 2012. Prior to joining KemPharm, Dr. Lauderback was the Senior Manager of CMC Scientific Affairs at Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, from June 2009 to September 2012. From 2008 to 2009, Dr. Lauderback worked as the Director of Product Development at AirBase Therapeutics, LLC. Dr. Lauderback started his career at New River Pharmaceuticals, where he served as a Senior Scientist from 2001 to 2006 and as the Associate Director, CMC Development from 2006 to 2007.

Dr. Lauderback received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Kentucky and his B.S. degree from Emory and Henry College.

Dr. Braeckman has served as KemPharm’s Vice President, Clinical Development since April 2016. Prior to joining KemPharm, Dr. Braeckman was Vice President of Clinical Development for Amarin Pharma, Inc. where he led multiple successful IND and NDA filings and managed the strategic planning and design of two pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials. Prior to Amarin, Dr. Braeckman was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior VP of Operations for Reliance Clinical Research Services (RCRS), the U.S. subsidiary of Reliance Life Sciences. Additional career accomplishments include executive and senior level positions with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, RABpharma LLC, Pan Pacific Pharmaceuticals, Ceptyr, Inc., Chiron Corporation and Abbott Laboratories. Dr. Braeckman has more than 30 years of experience in drug development, and is the co-author of more than 50 publications and co-inventor on more than 20 patents.

He earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology/Pharmacokinetics from the University of Gent in Belgium.

Mr. Sangiovanni has served as KemPharm’s Vice President, Corporate Controller since February 2017, having previously held the position of Director, Financial Reporting since August 2015. Prior to joining KemPharm, Mr. Sangiovanni was the Internal Audit Manager at Tupperware Brands Corporation, a leading publicly-held marketer of home and personal care products, Audit Manager at KPMG LLP, a global network of professional firms providing audit, tax and advisory services, and Billing Analyst at Switch and Data Facilities Company, Inc. (today, Equinix, Inc.), a leading publicly-held provider of global colocation data center services.

Mr. Sangiovanni is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Florida and earned his B.A. in Accounting from the University of South Florida.