Elysium Therapeutics – Limiting Opioid Use and Overdose

Greg Sturmer, President and CEO of Elysium Therapeutics discusses the company’s mission to reduce suffering from severe acute pain, opioid-use disorder, and fatal opioid overdose by developing first-in-class products with profiles that address the key limitations and dangers associated with opioids used today. 

Mr. Sturmer has worked in the healthcare industry for nearly 30 years, and has been Dr. Jenkins’ business partner and longtime colleague. After leaving Arthur Andersen & Co., where he was a Manager in the consulting and advisory services primarily to healthcare clients, he became CFO of Sonoma Valley Hospital District in Sonoma California. Subsequently, he was the controller at Vivus, Inc., which was a fast growth, publicly traded pharmaceutical company with first year commercial sales of $130M as it transitioned from development to commercial stage. As Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations at Theravance, Inc., Mr. Sturmer partnered with the head of business development to negotiate and execute two landmark deals with GlaxoSmithKline that enabled the company to go public at a value of ~$1 billion. While a private company, Theravance raised over $500 million in equity capital. Most recently, Mr. Sturmer was Vice President of Finance and CFO of Signature Therapeutics (Now Ensysce Biosciences), where in addition to his role in financing the Company (raised ~$70M), he was also responsible for business development. Mr. Sturmer has established long-term relationships with his business development counterparts at multiple pharmaceutical companies involved in the pain space. Mr. Sturmer is a CPA (inactive) and earned his MBA from Pepperdine University.