Board of Directors

Shane J. Schaffer, PharmD is a Co-Founder of Cingulate Therapeutics and has served as the Chairman and CEO since its inception. Dr. Schaffer is a 25-year pharmaceutical industry veteran with experience in pharmaceutical drug development, commercialization and biotech commercial operations. During his career, he has held positions at Pfizer, Novartis and Sanofi (including predecessor companies).

Dr. Schaffer has broad functional and therapeutic expertise through the development and commercialization of several billion dollar brands including the ADHD Franchise of Ritalin® & Focalin®, Lipitor®, Lyrica®, Eligard®, Arixtra®, Hyalgan® and Avapro®/Avalide®. He has led the strategic brand planning, franchise resource allocation and managed care & reimbursement strategy for numerous products.

Dr. Schaffer received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Kansas. He served as Chief Fellow and completed a Post-Doctoral Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship at Rutgers University, College of Pharmacy in conjunction with Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis, now Pfizer.

Peter J. Werth is Founder and CEO of ChemWerth Inc., a privately held Connecticut-based corporation founded in 1982.  ChemWerth Inc. is a full-service generic drug development and supply company providing high quality Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients to regulated markets worldwide. Through exclusive development and partnerships with API manufacturers, ChemWerth Inc. provides expertise in product selection and development, analytical and regulatory services, and strong project management to ensure the highest standards of quality.

With operations in China and India, ChemWerth was one of the first companies to recognize China’s potential to be a major supplier of generic APIs to the U.S.  By 1986, ChemWerth received FDA approval for its first product from China.

Mr. Werth began his career working on the chemical side of the generic drug business from its inception in 1975 in the areas of Research and Development as well as Sales and Marketing.  From 1965 to 1975, he worked in Research and Development for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, now Pfizer.  Prior to starting ChemWerth he was with Ganes Chemicals, a subsidiary of Siegfried Chemicals, where he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for their U.S. operations.

Mr. Werth envisioned the ability to develop and implement a successful business model for project selection which he believed was the heart of a successful generic company.  Following this business model, ChemWerth has successfully introduced over 130 generic APIs.

Mr. Werth earned a BS degree in Chemistry and Math from Fort Hays State University and a MS degree in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University. He serves as a board of director for the following companies: VM Pharma LLC, VM Therapeutics LLC, VM Oncology LLC, Likarda LLC, Altos Therapeutic, Alzeca, Nuance, Perseus and Cingulate Therapeutics LLC. Mr. Werth has formed LLCs to develop commercial projects using specific technologies which reflect his strong entrepreneurial interests and contributions toward start-ups.   Mr. Werth was the lead investor in the first two companies that targeted generics for companion animals – Putney and Piedmont.

Along with his family, he has established the Werth Family Foundation to support various philanthropic causes, specifically in educational, cultural, and medical-related causes globally. Mr. Werth financed the formation of The Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Connecticut, the Werth College of Science, Technology and Mathematics at Fort Hays State University and the Werth Center for Coastal & Marine Studies at Southern Connecticut State University.

Curt Medeiros has over 20 years of healthcare leadership experience throughout the payer, provider, and life science markets. He worked for nearly 10 years at Optum, a leading information and technology-enabled health services business that is part of UnitedHealth Group, including several leadership roles with significant P&L responsibility. From 2014 to 2016, Medeiros was Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Senior Vice President of Optum Life Sciences, which drives client value by providing best-in-class real-world data, analytics, consulting, and collaborations aimed at improving the health care system for all stakeholders.

From 2016 to 2019, Medeiros was President of both Optum Analytics and Optum Advanced Data & Analytics, growing during that time to oversee a 1,200-employee group that served the analytical needs of external payers, providers, and life science companies. Most recently, Medeiros served as President and COO of publicly traded Ontrak Inc. (NASDAQ: OTRK), a leading AI-powered and telehealth-enabled healthcare company, from December 2019 to June 2021. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Gallagher is a Co-Founder of Cingulate Therapeutics and serves as a member of the Board of Directors.

Currently a Senior Managing Director at Laidlaw & Co., Mr. Gallagher is an accomplished Capital Markets executive, advisor, and investor with a distinguished record of success in both public and private markets. His day-to-day duties include frequent interaction with institutional investors, C-level corporate executives, KOL’s and industry thought leaders.

Prior to joining Laidlaw & Co. Mr. Gallagher was a founding partner and CEO of BDR Research Group, LLC., a healthcare-focused management consulting and investment research boutique specialized in providing advisory services for healthcare investors and their portfolio companies. He began his career with positions at investment and research firms Kidder Peabody, PaineWebber and New Vernon Associates.

Mr. Gallagher’s leadership and strategy initiatives have included business development, go-to-market planning and execution, and identifying new market opportunities for legacy businesses and product lines at several Biotechnology and Medtech companies, including Cingulate, Athenex (f.k.a. Kinex Pharmaceuticals), BioSig Technologies, Protea Biosciences and Evermore Global Advisors. Mr. Gallagher earned an MBA from Penn State University and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Vermont.

Gregg Givens has more than 36 years of diverse financial and operational experience across domestic and international FinTech processing, Healthcare processing, manufacturing, asset management, and real estate business environments. For more than two decades, Givens served in finance and accounting leadership roles for publicly traded DST Systems Inc. (NYSE: DST), a provider of advisory, technology, and operations outsourcing to the financial and healthcare industries, with 16,000 employees worldwide and more than $2.2B in revenue.

From 2014 to 2018, Givens served as DST’s Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Treasurer through its sale to SS&C Technologies. Prior to DST, Givens, a certified public accountant, worked for nearly 15 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has a B.S. in accountancy from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Scott Applebaum is currently Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at VectivBio (NASDAQ:VECT), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative treatments for severe rare conditions with high unmet medical need.

Mr. Applebaum brings considerable ADHD expertise to Cingulate having spent a decade at Shire, now Takeda. At Shire he worked in various roles critical to the success of its ADHD franchise (Adderall XR®, Vyvanse® and Intuniv®), including leading its global legal, regulatory and commercial functions at various points in his 10-year tenure.

Prior to his current position at VectivBio, Applebaum was the Chief Legal & Compliance Officer and Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Trevena, where he played a key role in gaining U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for their lead product, Olinvyk®. Previously, he served as President of Context Therapeutics and was General Counsel at Vitae Pharmaceuticals, where he was instrumental in their sale to Allergan. Formerly, he was Chief Legal Officer for Medgenics, a rare genetic disease company, and he began his pharmaceuticals career at Bristol Myers Squibb.

Before entering the biopharmaceutical industry, Applebaum was a lawyer at Dechert LLP. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.S. in Economics, Finance and Accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.