Executive Committee

Dr. Clayman is a co-founder of Flexion Therapeutics and has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer, and as one of our directors since our inception in 2007. Dr. Clayman also serves on the Board of Directors of Akebia Therapeutics and Anokion, both biopharmaceutical companies. Previously, Dr. Clayman had a lengthy career at Eli Lilly and Company, a global pharmaceutical company, where he was most recently Vice President, Lilly Research Laboratories, and General Manager of Chorus, Lilly’s early-phase development accelerator. During his career at Lilly, Dr. Clayman also led its Global Regulatory Affairs division; the Cardiovascular Discovery Research and Clinical Investigation, Research and Development at Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, a medical device subsidiary of Lilly; the Internal Medicine Division; the Lilly Clinic, Lilly’s dedicated Phase 1 unit; and served as Chair of Lilly’s Bioethics Committee. Prior to his tenure at Lilly, Dr. Clayman was an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where his research centered on the immunopathogenesis of renal disease. Dr. Clayman is the recipient of the Physician Scientist Award from the National Institutes of Health. He earned a BA, cum laude, from Yale University and an MD from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Following an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Moffitt Hospitals, Dr. Clayman completed clinical and research fellowships in Nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Bodick is a co-founder of Flexion, where he served as our Chief Medical Officer from 2007 through 2016. In that capacity, he developed the Intellectual Property estate underpinning Flexion’s first therapeutic, ZILRETTA^® (triamcinolone acetonide extended-release injectable suspension), and guided its clinical development through submission to the FDA. With the launch of ZILRETTA, Dr. Bodick has transitioned to the role of Chief Scientific Officer, overseeing the development of Flexion’s portfolio of new therapies for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. Previously, Dr. Bodick was at Eli Lilly, where he founded Chorus, a business unit conducting translational clinical research; in that organization, he served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer from 2000 through 2007. Prior to that, Dr. Bodick was responsible for Program Phase Clinical Investigation at Lilly Research Laboratories, overseeing translational medicine for five therapeutic areas. Before entering industry, Dr. Bodick was Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; his research centered in two areas: the development of computer-based systems to support image-intensive diagnosis and the characterization of the pathophysiology of neuro-degenerative disorders. Dr. Bodick holds 16 patents in the areas of musculoskeletal therapeutics, neurodegenerative therapeutics, and computer science. He has published widely in these areas, and also has made original contributions on the design of R&D organizations. He is the recipient of the Biomedical Research Service Award and the New Investigator Research Award from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bodick earned an AB from Cornell University, a PhD in neuroscience from Columbia University, an MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Arkowitz brings more than 25 years of finance and operations leadership experience in the life sciences and biotechnology industries. Prior to joining Flexion, Mr. Arkowitz served as Chief Operating Officer and CFO at Visterra, Inc., where he led the finance, business development, corporate planning, and other functions. Since 2014, Mr. Arkowitz has also served on the board of directors and as chair of the audit committee of Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company. Previously Mr. Arkowitz was CFO at Mascoma Corporation, AMAG Pharmaceuticals and Idenix Pharmaceuticals and held additional leadership positions within each company. Preceding his tenure at Idenix, Mr. Arkowitz spent more than 13 years at Merck & Co., Inc. where he held roles of increasing responsibility, including Vice President and Controller of the U.S. operations, Controller of the global research and development division, and CFO of the Canadian subsidiary. He obtained his BA in mathematics at Brandeis University and his MBA in finance at Columbia University Business School.

Mr. Deardorf has more than 18 years of commercial biopharmaceutical experience encompassing marketing, business development, market development, program management and sales. Most recently, he provided strategic commercial guidance to biopharmaceutical start-up companies as an independent consultant. Prior to that, he spent 14 years at Genzyme Corp. working on a variety of biomaterial, cell-based, and small molecule products in the orthopedic market. Most notably, Mr. Deardorf was Vice President of Marketing for the Synvisc^® franchise and led the extremely successful launch of Synvisc-One, an injectable product for osteoarthritis of the knee. He holds a BS in Biochemistry from California Polytechnic State University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kelley has over 25 years of clinical, academic and industry medical affairs experience. Most recently, Dr. Kelley served as Flexion’s Vice President of Medical Affairs. Before joining Flexion in 2016, Dr. Kelley held the position of Vice President, Global Medical Affairs at Sanofi where he oversaw global data generation, data dissemination and KOL engagement strategy for the Biosurgery portfolio including Synvisc^®, an injectable product for osteoarthritis of the knee. Prior to Sanofi, Dr. Kelley led medical affairs functions at Covidien Respiratory & Monitoring Solutions and at Aspect Medical Systems. Dr. Kelley earned his BS and MS from Stanford University and his MD from University of California, San Francisco. He completed his residency and fellowship in Anesthesiology at UCSF and obtained board certifications in Anesthesiology and Pain Management. Dr. Kelley maintains a clinical practice at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Mr. Leblanc has extensive experience in pharmaceutical development and operations with an emphasis on novel drug delivery systems. Most recently, Mr. Leblanc spent over four years as the Director of Pharmaceutical Development at Merck Serono in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was globally responsible for drug product and process development of all large molecule programs throughout the development life cycle. Prior to this, he spent 11 years at Alkermes, Inc. in various positions, specializing in the characterization and development of manufacturing processes for PLGA based drug delivery programs as well as the start-up and operation of Alkermes’ internal manufacturing processes for Nutropin Depot^®, Vivitrol^®, as well as Risperdal Consta^®. He holds a BS from Syracuse University in Chemical Engineering and a joint MS from University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and the Wharton School in Technology Management.

Mark Levine has more than 20 years of experience counseling companies on general corporate matters, including: strategic corporate development; complex commercial transactions; mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; licensing agreements and corporate partnerships; financings; securities law; corporate governance; and regulatory compliance. Prior to joining Flexion, Mr. Levine served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and a member of the executive management team of Minerva Neurosciences, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company. Mr. Levine has also served in senior legal positions at athenahealth, Inc., a network-based health internet technology company; Clinical Data, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company acquired by Forest Laboratories, Inc.; Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., a renewable energy company; and Xpedior Incorporated, an internet consulting company.

Mr. Levine holds a BA from Binghamton University, SUNY, and a JD from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

Dr. Muzikant joins Flexion with 18 years of hands-on leadership experience in biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals companies, and consulting firms. Most recently, he was Vice President, Business Development at Synta Pharmaceuticals, where he led the strategic transaction process culminating in a merger with Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, and subsequently negotiated out-licensing agreements for Synta’s oncology programs. Prior to Synta, Dr. Muzikant held business development leadership positions at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inotek Pharmaceuticals, EPIX Pharmaceuticals, and Predix Pharmaceuticals, and also performed transaction/strategic advisory work for biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients with Locust Walk Partners. Prior to moving into business development, Dr. Muzikant led an anti-arrhythmia drug discovery program at Predix targeting ion channels. He received his PhD in biomedical engineering from Duke University, and a BS in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Ms. Wentworth brings more than 20 years of experience in both domestic and international Regulatory Affairs that spans early and late development across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Flexion, Ms. Wentworth served as Vice President, Clinical, Regulatory and Quality at Agenus, Inc., where she was responsible for leading all global regulatory and clinical development efforts for nearly 10 years. Previously, Ms. Wentworth led the Regulatory and Quality function for Genelabs Technologies, Inc., where she was responsible for advancing their lead program through Phase 3 development and into the registration phase with FDA and EMA. Ms. Wentworth also held positions of increasing responsibility within Regulatory Affairs at Genzyme.   Ms. Wentworth holds a BS in pre-veterinary medicine from the University of New Hampshire.

Ms. Willwerth has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development. She joined Flexion Therapeutics from Viacell, where she was a member of the company’s Executive Management team and served as Vice President, Product Development, with management responsibility for the company’s interdisciplinary cellular therapy and fertility preservation development programs. Ms. Willwerth previously served as Senior Director, Product Development at The Medicines Company, where she focused on cardiovascular therapy clinical and product development. Prior to that, she held a number of ascendant clinical operations positions at Astra Pharmaceuticals and Biopure Corporation. Ms. Willwerth holds a BS in Biology, with high distinction, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.