Amir Elhasid, Marketing Advisor

Amir has 25 years of experience in the pharma industry in numerous therapeutic areas, including marketing and sales managerial roles in Israel.  He has taken part in many international and global forums.  Since 2006, Global Marketing Director, Respiratory Products, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, and a member of Teva's global commercial/R&D respiratory team.   Amir leads a global respiratory brand for Teva and acts as a global alliance manager with a partner company.  Previously, Amir worked with many of the companies involved in the respiratory field, including: GSK, AstraZeneca, Boeringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Pathogenesis and others.  Amir has vast experience in evaluating and consulting for Start-Up companies, mainly in the respiratory devices market in which he specializes.  Amir has a BA in Psychology from Haifa University in Israel and studied Marketing, Sales and Product Management in the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK, and the Israeli Institute of Productivity. 

Prof. Robert Sievers, Scientific Advisor

Prof. Robert Sievers is an entrepreneur in the inhaler field, and a Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, in the field of powders and aerosol science. In 2002 he co-founded Aktiv-Dry LLC, a Boulder biotech company in the dry powder inhaler (DPI) field, specializing in the development of useful microparticle and nanoparticle powders. Sievers and his co-inventors have been awarded 39 US and foreign patents, and he has co-authored 200 scientific publications. In 1985, he co-founded Sievers Instruments, a company that grew to 160 employees and was purchased in 1996 by Ionics, Inc. which subsequently was sold to G.E. in 2005. Professor Sievers has performed research on developing improved vaccines, anti-virals, antibiotics, and ant-inflammatories, and DPI's for their delivery.

Dr. Steven Nichols, Industry Consultant

Dr. Nichols is a consultant to the pharma industry, specializing in inhalation.  He has 27 years experience in product development, principally of inhaled and nasal drug products and delivery.  At Rhone-Poulenc Rorer he was responsible for MDI Analytical Development and Respiratory Physics and then became Head of Drug Delivery Research, focusing on the appraisal and the development of new inhalation systems.  Since 2000 he has held a number of positions within Aventis (subsequently sanofi-aventis), including: Manager of Materials Science, focusing on API characterisation and formulation selection; New Technology Coordination Manager, assessing new inhalation delivery technologies and focusing on inward and outward licensing opportunities of inhalation delivery platforms; and Technology Manager, leading a team working on a late phase DPI product development program and regulatory strategy.  Dr Nichols has published over 40 peer reviewed articles and regularly presents at major conferences and seminars on drug delivery focusing on nasal and pulmonary delivery.  Dr. Nichols is familiar with many of the key players in the DPI field, and is active in introducing Aespira’s technology to them.

Dr. Shmuel Kivity, Medical Advisor

Professor Kivity is the medical advisor to the group. He is the head of allergy asthma and immunology at Tel Aviv Medical center, Tel-Aviv. He is specialist in the field of allergy as well as pulmonary medicine. He is the author of more than 120 articles, asthma being the major topic of his publications. He was trained at the National Jewish Hospital for Allergic and Respiratory Diseases, where he was also engaged in research as well as in teaching. Prof. Kivity has been involved in multiple drug research programs in the field of asthma and allergy, including research in Phase I and Phase II trials.