James Breitmeyer

Dr. James Breitmeyer has been President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. — formerly Tokalas, Inc. — since September 2015. Dr. Breitmeyer is a veteran biotech executive with experience successfully starting and growing biotechnology organizations. He has been responsible for both the development and implementation of both operational and drug development strategies, as well as supervising and managing both large organizations and emerging biotechnology companies. Dr. Breitmeyer was President of Bavarian Nordic, Inc. and Executive Vice President of Bavarian A/S, a multinational corporation headquartered in Denmark, from February 2013 to July 2015 where he oversaw business operations and development strategy both for Bavarian Nordic, Inc. and Bavarian A/S. He has been a director of Zogenix, Inc., a public pharmaceutical company, since March 2014 and was their acting Chief Medical Officer from August 2012 to February 2013 where he was responsible for clinical development and regulatory strategy. He previously was the Executive Vice President of Development and Chief Medical Officer of Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc., a public pharmaceutical company, from August 2006 to August 2012 and the Chief Medical Officer of Applied Molecular Evolution Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Co., a global pharmaceutical company, from December 2001 to August 2006. Dr. Breitmeyer was also the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Harvard Clinical Research Institute, and Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research & Development for North America at Serono Laboratories Inc., an international biopharmaceutical company. Dr. Breitmeyer was a founding collaborator and scientific adviser to Immunogen Inc., a biotechnology company, and held clinical and teaching positions at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Currently, Dr. Breitmeyer serves as a director on two public boards, Zogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGNX) and Otonomy, Inc. (NASDAQ:OTIC). Dr. Breitmeyer received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University School of Medicine, with postgraduate training at Washington University and Harvard Medical School. He is board-certified in internal medicine and oncology.