About Us
Treating, improving, and extending patients’ lives.
Our Vision
Renibus is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to treating, improving, and extending patients’ lives by developing products to prevent disease progression, improve outcomes and protect against organ damage associated with cardio, renal and metabolic diseases.
Renibus’ first-in-a-new-class lead program is RBT-1, which is in a Phase 3 pivotal trial to show a reduction in post-operative complications and improve outcomes following cardiac surgery. The drug has received FDA Breakthrough and Fast Track Designations.
Veverimer is an oral, non-absorbed hydrochloric acid binder that was acquired from Tricida. We are targeting several indications where Veverimer’s mechanism of action as a hydrochloric acid binder within the gastrointestinal tract may provide benefit in treating orphan diseases with an unmet medical need.
Our Leadership Team
D. Jeff Keyser, RPh, JD, PhD
- Co-founder and COO at ZS Pharma, acquired by Astra Zeneca in 2015 for $2.7 billion.
- Inventor of the Mucinex product line for Adams Respiratory Therapeutics. He developed and executed the R&D and Regulatory strategy as VP of Development and Regulatory Affairs, which subsequently was acquired by Reckitt Benckiser for $2.3 billion in 2007.
- Senior positions at Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Medeva Americas, Marion Merrell Dow and Abbott Laboratories. He is currently serving as the Chairman of the Board for Lantern Pharma.
Bhupinder Singh, MD
Dr. Bhupinder Singh is one of the co-founders of Renibus Therapeutics. He serves as the Chief Medical Officer and Board Director of the company. Dr. Singh is an Internist, Nephrologist, and a Clinical Specialist in Hypertension.
He is an adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. He has an extensive background in Clinical Practice, Research, and Development for almost 30 years. He graduated from Armed Forces Medical College and obtained further training at Henry Ford Health System and SUNY Upstate Medical University.
He was previously Vice President of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Allakos, Scientific Advisor to Cricket Health, Executive Director of Research and Medical Affairs at ZS Pharma (AstraZeneca), Chief Medical Office at Apex Research, Co-founder and Vice President of Clinical Affairs and Head of Research at Southwest Kidney Institute. He is also a Founder of Nephcentric, and an Evidence-Based Nutraceutical Company in the Kidney and Electrolyte Space.
Jamie A. Donadio
Asha Ramdas
Asha joins Renibus from Amgen, where she spent nine years in various senior leadership roles, most recently as Vice President, Commercialization, Program and Portfolio Management. In that role, she was responsible for prioritization of the portfolio, as well as guiding early and late-stage product teams in the development and execution of their strategies. While at Amgen, as Global Product General Manager of tezepelumab, she successfully led the severe asthma asset through its critical Phase 2/3 transition and development of the Phase 3 clinical program approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December 2021. Prior to Amgen, Asha held senior operational roles at several small and large companies including Geron Corporation, Zosano Pharma, and Johnson & Johnson. Ms. Ramdas holds an M.A., Chemistry, from Mount Holyoke College and an M.S., Polymer Chemistry, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Board of Directors
Henrik Rasmussen, MD, PhD
He was the Senior Vice President for Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs at British Biotech and Global Study Director for Cardiovascular Drug Development at Pfizer Central Research. Dr. Rasmussen has led numerous global development programs and regulatory filings worldwide, including INDs, clinical trial applications (CTAs), NDAs, supplemental new drug applications (sNDAs), biologic license applications (BLAs), and MMA filings. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in the therapeutic areas of Nephrology, Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Gastroenterology and Diabetes.
Carlos Guillem, MBA, PhD
Dr. Guillem started his professional career as a pilot, and then served 20 years as a pilot and Director of Operations, overseeing regulatory compliance of safety and standards. He later transitioned into entrepreneurship by founding North Texas Distillers and developing a number of consumer products, which led to a successful transaction a few years later.
He later joined the founding team at Western Son Distillery, where he serves as the Chief Operations and Finance Officer, managing $40mm in revenue, 200+ employees, multiply sites, with domestic and international operations. The team has developed Western Son Distillery to being one of the best performing brands in the industry while winning multiple HOT Brand and HOT Impact awards.
As a co-founding member of CarGin Enterprises, Dr. Guillem has helped raise over $100mm in capital rounds of financing and co-invested in a number of companies in the pharmaceutical industry. He has also served on a number of boards, transitioning out as teams are built and the business is developed.
Dr. Guillem holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management, a Masters in Business Administration, and a doctorate in business administration, and is currently in his third year of law school as he pursues his Juris Doctorate.
Scientific Advisors
Alpesh Amin, MD
Alpesh Amin, MD, MBA, MACP, SFHM, FACC, FHFSA, FRCP (Lond) is with the University of California–Irvine (UCI) in the capacity of the Tom and Mary Cesario Chairman, Department of Medicine. He is Professor of Medicine, Business, Public Health, Nursing, and Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine. He is also founder and executive director of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Amin has served as Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Quality for 12 years, Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine for 6 years, Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program for 14 years, and Medicine Clerkship Director for 14 years. Dr. Amin obtained his MD degree at Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois, and later he completed his internship and his residencies in internal medicine, including a chief residency, at UCI. Also at UCI, he earned a healthcare MBA. Dr. Amin is the first Hospitalist to be named Chief of a Division of GIM, and then subsequently the first Hospitalist to be named Chairman of a Department of Medicine nationally.
Dr. Amin started his career as a Biomedical/Process/Implementation Engineer at Cholestech designing the drying machine and package insert for an office-based cholesterol measuring device. He also served as co-Founder, Board of Director, and Chief Financial Officer of Power Savers Electronics for 3 years. Throughout his medical career, Dr. Amin has been innovative in clinical, quality, and educational program development. He advised the Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar on Quality Improvement efforts across eight hospitals under the national health ministry council. He has developed processes to improve patient care delivery looking at ways to reduce readmission and avoidable admissions, as well as improvements in length of stay, mortality, and customer service. Dr. Amin is an expert in implementation science and measuring outcomes to improve sustainable long-lasting results. He is founder of UCI’s Empowering Patient Progression initiatives. He also applies information technology to improve the delivery of care through development of projects such as NHCPlus, eConsults, Apps for Safe Anticoagulation Use, VSS Covid-19 Risk Stratification Tool, and others. He is one of the co-founders and Associate Director for ITEQC, Program of Research in Translational Technology Enabling High Quality Care.
During his career, Dr. Amin has served as principal investigator, co-investigator, and faculty sponsor on clinical trials and research projects focusing on clinical topics such as VTE, pneumonia, heart failure, and Covid-19. His research interest is in health outcomes related to patient safety & quality improvement and medical education. Dr. Amin’s leadership in integrating clinical care, innovations in delivery of care, and outcomes of care was demonstrated by his leading the Covid-19 efforts across UCI Health to the lowest mortality for Covid-19 patients nationally. He is a member of professional organizations as the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), the American College of Physicians (ACP), the Society of General Internal
Medicine (SGIM), Academic Chiefs and Leaders of General Internal Medicine (ACLGIM), Academic Alliance of Internal Medicine (AAIM), and Association of Professors of Medicine (APM). Dr. Amin has authored or co-authored over 270 peer-reviewed articles. He is the co-editor/co-author of the Core Competencies for Hospital Medicine by SHM. He served as Chair of SHM’s Education Committee for 4 years, the 2006 SHM Annual Meeting Course Director, and was on the SHM’s Board of Directors. Dr. Amin was Associate Editor of Hospital Medicine Secrets. Dr. Amin is also co-editor of the book Contemporary Hospitalist Guide to Anticoagulation and OB/GYN Hospital Medicine. Dr. Amin has also served as President of the California/Hawaii Region of SGIM, Councilor of ACLGIM, Governor of ACP, and President of APM. Dr. Amin has served as President of UCI Medical Center Medical Staff.
Among Dr. Amin’s numerous awards and honors include the American College of Physicians Special Recognition Award, a Masters of the ACP, a Senior Fellow of SHM, Fellow of ACC, Fellow of HFSA, and Fellow of RCP (London), named as one of “America’s Top Physicians” by the Consumers’ Research Council of America, Orange County Physician of Excellence Award, and ACP’s Top 10 Hospitalist Award. Dr. Amin has won the Physician of the Year Award for the Indian Medical Association of Southern California (IMASC) and for the Orange County Medical Association (OCMA). Dr. Amin is also the recipient of the Alfred Soffer Award from the ACCP, the Venous Research Award for Quality Improvement and Implementation of Best Practices from the Venous Disease Coalition (VDC)/Vascular Disease Foundation (VDF), Exceptional Leadership Award by ALCGIM, CDC’s HA-VTE Prevention Champion, and HMC’s Stars of Excellence Award. He founded and directs the UCI Anticoagulation Clinic which is recognized nationally as an AC Forum Center of Excellence for many years repeatedly. Dr. Amin has also been selected as a nominee for Modern Healthcare’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.
Rakesh Arora, BA, MD, PhD
University Hospitals (UH) Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute has a rich history of providing the highest level of care for patients. Continuing as leaders in this field and elevating cardiac surgery patient care to a new level, UH announces the addition of Rakesh Arora, MD, PhD, FRCSC, FACS, a world leader in perioperative care and management of cardiac surgery patients. Dr. Arora serves as Director of UH Harrington HVI Perioperative and Cardiac Critical Care and as Research Director in the Division of Cardiac Surgery.
Javed Butler, MD
Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, is the President of the Baylor Scott and White Research Institute and Senior Vice President for the Baylor Scott and White Health. He is also the Distinguished Professor of Medicine at University of Mississippi in Jackson, MS. Prior to joining Baylor Scott and White Health, he served as the Patrick H. Lehan Chair in Cardiovascular Research, and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi, where he was also Professor of Physiology. Prior to joining the University of Mississippi, he was Charles A. Gargano Professor and Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Co-Director of the Heart Institute at Stony Brook University, New York. He had served as the director for heart failure research at Emory University and director of the heart and heart-lung transplant programs at Vanderbilt University prior to that.
He received his medical degree from the Aga Khan University and then completed residency training at Yale University, cardiology fellowship and advanced heart failure and transplant fellowships at Vanderbilt University, and cardiac imaging fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital at the Harvard Medical School. He has completed Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University and a Master in Business Administration from the Emory University.
Dr. Butler is board certified in cardiovascular medicine and advanced heart failure and transplant medicine. His research interests focus on clinical trials in patients with heart failure. He serves on several national committees for the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health, and the Heart Failure Society of America. He is the recipient of the Simon Dack Award by the American College of Cardiology as well as the Time, Feeling, and Focus Award by the American Heart Association.
Dr. Butler has authored more than 875 peer-reviewed publications. He serves on the editorial board of several peer reviewed cardiovascular journals. He has been cited numerous times in America’s Best Doctors list.
Norman S. Coplon Satellite Healthcare Professor in Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Stanford University School of Medicine
Glenn M. Chertow, MD, MPH
Dr. Chertow, MD, MPH, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, Dr. Chertow served with distinction on the faculties at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (1995-98) and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) (1998-2007). Dr. Chertow has established a successful career as a clinical investigator and continues to maintain a productive research program focused on improving care for persons with acute and chronic kidney disease. Recent projects include several NIDDK-sponsored initiatives: Acute Renal Failure Trials Network (ATN) Study, the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Special Studies Center in Nutrition, the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study and the Frequent Hemodialysis Network (FHN) study. Dr. Chertow was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015, one of the only nephrologists among the academy’s more than 2,000 distinguished members who are elected in recognition of professional achievement and commitment to service. He was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 2004 and appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Kidney Foundation in 2007. He was Vice Chair and member of two workgroups for the Kidney Disease Quality Outcomes Initiative (K/DOQI) and Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Dr. Chertow has authored more than 400 medical publications, and is an editor of the 9th edition of Brenner & Rector’s The Kidney. Dr. Chertow also received the 2007 National Torchbearer Award from the American Kidney Fund for his career-long contributions toward improving the lives of persons with kidney disease. Dr. Chertow received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, his Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in epidemiology and biostatistics, performed his residency and fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and is board certified in nephrology. His major medical research interests include clinical epidemiology, health services research, decision sciences, and clinical trials in acute and chronic kidney disease.
Michael E. Jessen, MD
Dr. Jessen directs an active basic research laboratory that has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the Texas Advanced Technology Program. His research examines myocardial metabolism, which examines the ways the heart burns fuel during heart surgery as well as ways to preserve the heart longer. His lab also investigates the effects of cardiopulmonary bypass and a novel technique for long-term cardiac preservation for transplantation. This work has yielded a broad array of publications in the literature.
Dr. Jessen has been included in D Magazine’s Best Doctors list several times and has been named a Super Doctor by Texas Monthly. In 1994 he received the Lyndon Baines Johnson Research Award of the Texas Affiliate of the American Heart Association.
He is the Director of the Residency Program in Thoracic Surgery at UT Southwestern and teaches in the Biomedical Engineering Program at UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He has an active clinical practice that focuses on cardiac surgery, surgical electrophysiology, aortic surgery, and cardiac transplantation.
Dr. Jessen’s professional affiliations include the American Association for Thoracic Surgery; American Heart Association; Council on Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery; Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; Society of Thoracic Surgeons; and the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association.
Ashish K. Khanna MD, MS, FCCP, FCCM, FASA
Dr. Ashish Khanna is professor of anesthesiology and vice-chair of research with the department of anesthesiology, section on critical care medicine at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. He is also a member of the Wake Center for Artificial Intelligence Research, Center for Healthcare Innovation, and the Wake Forest Hypertension and Vascular Research Cardiovascular Science Center. He serves as the inaugural director for the Perioperative Outcomes and Informatics Collaborative (POIC) a large perioperative and critical care outcomes collaborative research program that is staffed with several research nurses, fellows, technicians, students, data scientists and administrative staff and is a center of excellence for clinical trials across specialties.
His research interests include prediction of post-operative respiratory and cardiac events on the regular nursing floor using wearable monitoring, use of large datasets for perioperative outcomes research, effects of hypotension in critically ill patients and use of novel vasopressors in shock states in the ICU. Dr. Khanna has more than 200 peer reviewed papers, two dozen book chapters, editorials, invited non-peer reviewed articles, and has been invited to talk about this work at prestigious national and international forums. He is heavily engaged with the Society of Critical Care Medicine and currently chairs the Discovery research network, was program co-chair for the 2023 congress and Discovery liaison to the 2024 congress and will serve on the SCCM council from 2025 onwards. He chairs the ASA committee on critical care medicine, and on the board of directors for the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists (SOCCA) and the American Society for Enhanced Recovery and Perioperative Medicine (ASER-PM). He has been awarded funding by FAER, NIH/NCATS KL2, NIH/NHLBI, Wake Forest intramural CTSI and several industry and foundation grants.
V. Seenu Reddy MD, MBA, FACS
V. Seenu Reddy MD, MBA, FACS is a Board Certified Cardiac & Thoracic surgeon at HCA/TriStar Health Centennial Medical Center. He is Chief of Cardiac Surgery and a National Medical Director for the Cardiovascular Service Line of HCA Healthcare.
He graduated from Amherst College, magna cum laude, with a BA in Neurosciences. He has worked at Bain & Company in management consulting and at the Real Estate Investment Banking group of Salomon Brothers in NYC. He went on the graduate with clinical honors from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham and did his internship and residency in General Surgery at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. He trained in Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery at Emory University in Atlanta and completed a fellowship in Endovascular aortic surgery. Dr. Reddy then served on the faculty of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio where he was the Director of Thoracic Aortic Surgery, Director of Cardiac Surgery at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Medical Center, and an associate residency program director. In addition he was an Associate Professor of Surgery on the faculty. While in San Antonio, he served on the Advisory Board of San Antonio National Bank and on the Board of Directors of the American Heart Association as well as on the Board of the McNay Art Museum. He was chosen as a Top 40 Under 40 for San Antonio.
He relocated to Nashville where he was previously a Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt Medical School and is an active member of the staff of Centennial Medical Center, where he served on the Medical Executive Committee and is currently Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Reddy specializes in a variety of cardiac surgical procedures. He is the author of over 12 book chapters and dozens of articles in the peer reviewed medical literature. Dr. Reddy earned an MBA with honors from the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University. He serves on the Medical Advisory Board of First Tennessee Private Bank and is involved in a variety of local private equity ventures and boards. He has served as President of both the Nashville Surgical Society and the Nashville Academy of Medicine. Dr. Reddy also serves on the Board of The Memorial Foundation of Nashville.
Vinod H. Thourani, MD
He is Past- President of the Heart Valve Society (2020-2022), Past-President of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association (2019-2021), Past-President of the South Atlantic Cardiovascular Society (2019-2021), and the Past-President of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (2022-2023). He serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and is the Treasurer (2022-2025). He is on the Board of Trustees of ISMICS, Board of Directors of the Heart Valve Society, Heart Valve Voice, and is on the Surgeons Council of the American College of Cardiology. He was the adult cardiac tract co-chair of the 100th (2020) and 101th (2021) Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS, 2020-2021). He is co-chair of the STS/ACC National Transcatheter Valve Therapies (TVT) database and the chair of the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database Research sub-committee.
Dr. Thourani has authored over 720 peer-reviewed articles and is Principal Investigator or on the steering committee for 10 valve trials in the U.S. and the NIHLBI Cardiothoracic Surgery Network. He specializes in valve surgery and has a busy clinical schedule with over 300 cardiac cases per year. Specifically, he is passionate about working with a multidisciplinary team allowing options for traditional, minimally invasive, and transcatheter surgical options.
Laboratory of Basic
and Translational Research
Seattle, WA
Renibus’ translational lab, led by Dr. Richard Zager, keeps Renibus one step ahead of others in terms of innovating. This small, flexible and very efficient lab enables Renibus to get quick answers to important questions and explore new areas without the time and cost of outsourcing.
Richard A. Zager, MD
Dr. Richard Zager is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at UCLA and the University of Washington Medical School, and his Nephrology training at Boston University and Harvard Medical School. He served as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center for over 35 years, and he is currently a Professor Emeritus at both institutions. He is a board-certified internist and nephrologist and has had extensive clinical experience in internal medicine, nephrology, and ICU medicine.
For the past 35 years Dr. Zager’s research has focused on the pathophysiology and treatment of acute kidney injury. His work has been supported by 35 years of grant support from the National Institutes of Health as well as by sponsored research agreements with multiple pharmaceutical companies. His work has resulted in over 200 peer-reviewed articles which have been published in major nephrology, and basic science, journals (e.g., Journal of Clinical Investigation, Proceedings National Academy of Science.) This work has described injury-induced kidney tubular cell alterations which subsequently lead the emergence of the issue resistance to further damage (i.e., so called tissue “preconditioning”). Over the past 5 years, Dr. Zager has worked to translate this “preconditioning” phenomenon to the clinical arena. This effort has led to the development of both RBT-1 and RBT-3 which can evoke the preconditioning state. Through his work with Renibus Therapeutics, these basic laboratory observations are being tested in a variety of clinical settings.
Ali C.M. Johnson, MS
Ali Johnson is an experienced Staff Scientist with over two decades of experience in basic and translational research, clinical research, and nephrology-focused clinical research. Currently, Ms. Johnson is focused on designing therapeutic strategies which utilize the cytoprotective mechanisms of cellular preconditioning. Prior to Renibus, Ms. Johnson was a Staff Scientist and Research Technician Supervisor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle, WA. Ms. Johnson has also been an author on over 50 research publications, with particular expertise in nephrology. She holds a BS in Biotechnology from Eastern Washington University and a Masters of Science in Agriculture from Washington State University.
