Management Team

Dr. Allen Davidoff (15 years drug development experience) is the founder and CEO of XORTX. Allen has a broad range of clinical and regulatory experience and senior management experience in pharmaceutical R&D including two investigational new drug (“IND”) applications or supplemental IND’s, two phase I studies (four of which were multi-country), seven phase II studies, and one NDA. Prior to forming XORTX, Allen was the Chief Scientific Officer, VP Product Development and co-founder of Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. (seven years) ( Trillium TRIL:NASDAQ) and Senior Scientist and Head of Pharmacology at Cardiome Pharma Corp.

Mika Grasso is an Investment Director at a family office, where he oversees the firm's direct investment and co-investment activities, driving portfolio construction and capital deployment across private markets.

Prior to his current role, Mika held positions at Goldman Sachs, Paulson Investment Company, and Zions Bancorporation. He began his career as a healthcare investment banker, where he developed deep expertise advising early- to growth-stage biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies on capital markets transactions and strategic financing solutions. Over the course of his career, Mika advised a broad range of companies navigating the full continuum drug development, from preclinical research through clinical-stage programs and commercialization. His work spanned companies pursuing novel prescription therapeutics, products with FDA Orphan Drug Designation ("ODD") targeting rare and underserved disease populations, and assets across multiple therapeutic areas seeking to access the capital necessary to advance their pipelines and reach patients.

Mika holds an MS in Finance with a concentration in Investment Management and a BS in Business Administration, both from the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business.

Dr. Haworth brings to XORTX 25+ years of successful global drug development and senior leadership in both start up and Fortune 500 pharmaceutical firms in both the US and Europe. Stephen has a broad clinical and regulatory experience that ranges from infectious disease through nephrology, cardiovascular disease and most recently on programs for treatment and prevention of SARS-CoV infection. He has held key roles in numerous FDA and EMA submissions and has been involved in several licensing and M&A transactions. Dr. Haworth holds a medical degree from University College Hospital Medical School, University of London having graduated with Honors.

Dr. MacDonald has an over 30-year record of achievement in drug development and leadership in pharma and biotech, achieving critical, value-inflection milestones for those companies. Prior to XORTX, Dr. MacDonald held positions as CTO and later President of MSI Methylation Sciences Inc. a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company (“MSI”). As CTO David led R&D, pharmaceutical product and clinical development. Prior to his position at MSI, David acted as President and CEO of Active Pass Pharmaceutics. In addition, he has held leadership positions in several small and large pharma biotech companies during which he was responsible for a broad range of technical departments and stages of development covering basic research, IND-enabling studies, formulation, CMC, clinical trials, intellectual property, and regulatory submissions and inspections. Dr. MacDonald is an inventor on over 20 patents issued globally and has published 14 manuscripts in peer reviewed journals. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Alberta where his research was focused on enzymology.

Stacy Evans, M.D., MBA, is an executive consultant with nearly 25 years of commercial development and business development experience, including 12 years at Pfizer where he led multiple transactions for Pfizer, including significant deal experience in the rare disease space. For the past seven years, Dr. Evans has consulted at an executive level with small to mid-size private and public biopharmaceutical companies, including acting as Chief Business Officer for many clients. Dr. Evans holds a M.D. from McGill University and an Executive MBA from Columbia University. 

Dr. Bumby, DVM, MBA, is currently a director and audit committee chair of MediPharm Labs following their successful acquisition of VIVO Cannabis Inc. where Dr. Bumby was CFO for six years. Dr. Bumby brings over 20 years of finance and leadership experience in the biotech/pharma industry. He had a 14-year career at Eli Lilly, including roles in corporate finance and investment banking at Lilly’s global headquarters in Indianapolis leading international business development activities for early- and late-stage assets, as well as working as a regional CFO in Europe. He left Lilly to move back to Canada and began working as a public company CFO, initially at Antibe Therapeutics which he helped take public via an Initial Public Offering in 2013, and more recently as the CFO of Merus Labs, an international specialty pharmaceutical company where he co-led that company’s acquisition by Norgine B.V. in 2017 for $340 million. Dr. Bumby has experience with TSX, TSX-V and NASDAQ listed companies and has led Human Resources, IT, Legal, and operations functions as well as acted as corporate secretary for a number of public companies.

Dr. Bumby holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Guelph, a lean six-sigma blackbelt, and an MBA from the University of Toronto.