Management Team
David R. Elmaleh, PhD
Chairman, Director and Chief Scientific Advisor
Dr. Elmaleh, the scientific founder of FluoroPharma Inc., is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Contrast Media Chemistry at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is an inventor of three drugs that are in use in man or in late stage clinical trials including: The radiopharmaceutical preparation of (2FDG) which has been used in over a million PET imaging procedures, Beta-methyl modified fatty acid (BMIPP) a commercially successful cardiac SPECT agent, and Altropane which has completed Phase III clinical trials. His recent work has included extensive research on imaging compounds to improve the speed and effectiveness of cardiovascular disease diagnosis which constitutes the technology licensed from MGH to FluoroPharma. He is a co-author on over 120 publications and an inventor of over 40 issued and pending patents in a range of disciplines, including molecular imaging and pharmaceuticals. Dr. Elmaleh is a recipient of numerous NIH and DOE awards, and has participated as a reviewer for the National Institute of Health (NIH). He is the Scientific Founder of Biostream (changed name to Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals) and several other start-ups. He holds a BSc in Physics and Chemistry, and an MS and PhD in Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Thijs Spoor
Director, CEO & President
Mr. Spoor previously held the title of CFO for Sunstone BioSciences. Mr. Spoor holds a Nuclear Pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto as well as an M.B.A. from Columbia University with concentrations in finance and accounting. Mr. Spoor has been a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School, Kings College in London and the University of Newcastle in Australia and has presented at medical grand rounds and psychiatric grand rounds at various hospitals on the role of brain imaging.
Prior to joining Sunstone BioSciences, he worked as a consultant at Oliver Wyman focusing on helping pharmaceutical and medical device companies evaluate their global revenue potential given the complex interplay of regulatory approvals, the reimbursement environment, as well as the impact of physician preference within constantly evolving standards of care. He further specialized on the implications of healthcare reform on new product approval and health insurance reform.
Mr. Spoor has also been an equity research analyst at J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse covering the Biotechnology and Medical Device industries. Mr. Spoor worked in the pharmaceutical industry spending 10 years with Amersham / GE Healthcare where he worked in 7 countries in a variety of roles including setting up GMP facilities meeting ISO 9001 standards, accountability for the entire nuclear cardiology portfolio and most recently as the Director of New Product Opportunities leading the PET strategic plan.
Boyan Goumnerov, MD
COO & Vice President Clinical Trials
Prior to his appointment with FluoroPharma Dr. Goumnerov has held executive positions in the healthcare and biomedical research fields most recent of which are President of VasoStent, Inc. and managing director of CardioVas Inc.- start-up medical device companies targeting the field of intravascular cardiac imaging and therapy. His academic background includes research within the departments of Surgery and Molecular Biology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and The Shriners Burn Hospital for Children, Boston, where he held academic appointments with Harvard Medical School. Dr. Goumnerov also did extensive work within the Department of Pathology/Neuropathology at Children's Hospital Boston, in developing image analysis protocols for evaluation of neuromuscular diseases before moving to MGH. He is co-author of numerous scientific publications. Dr. Goumnerov obtained his M.D. from the Medical University of Sofia, Bulgaria, and worked as a clinician prior to relocating to the US.