Scott Thacher, CEO and founder of Orphagen Pharmaceuticals, has over 30 years of experience in life sciences research and pharmaceutical R&D. At Orphagen, he has pioneered first-in-class small molecule drug discovery for several orphan or underexplored nuclear receptors, creating innovative therapeutic programs in oncology and autoimmune disease. Orphagen’s most advanced program is for the steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1) antagonist OR-449, an IND-ready small molecule for treatment of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) and broader precision indications in oncology where SF-1 is highly expressed, representing a potential U.S. market of $2 B/year. As a first mover, Orphagen created and continues to explore the field of SF-1 antagonist pharmacology with its academic partners. A second major Orphagen development under Scott’s leadership has been characterization of innovative selective antagonists to a retinoid receptor subtype which inhibit mucosal inflammation in mouse models of colitis and represent an entirely new potential class of oral drug for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Orphagen’s commitment to early-stage innovation has been supported by more than $12 M from 20+ federal NIH/SBIR grants to Scott and co-workers. In addition, Orphagen has negotiated several industry partnerships generating total company non-dilutive revenue exceeding $40 M. Orphagen’s earlier ROR-gamma antagonist program for blocking TH17 cell function as a treatment of autoimmune disease led the pharmaceutical industry and was partnered in 2008. Prior to Orphagen, Scott directed dermatology and metabolic disease programs at Allergan (now AbbVie), contributing to the NDA filing for Tazorac® and the discovery and characterization of the first receptor-specific retinoids. He holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard, a B.S. in Physics from Stanford, did post-doctoral work in toxicology at the Harvard School of Public Health, and was on the biochemistry faculty at the Texas A&M College of Medicine. An author of 30+ publications and locally recognized biopharma leader, Scott also co-founded the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange.