cloudbreak therapeutics logo

About Us

Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focusing on ocular drug development.

Founded in September 2015 in Irvine, California, USA, Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical quickly advanced our first drug candidate through lead selection, pre-clinical IND-enabling studies and successful IND submission.

After a successful EOP2 meeting with the FDA in May 2019, Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical will proceed with Phase III clinical trial to develop a drug candidate which is a disease modifying, first-in-class, and the first drug therapy to treat pterygium.

Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical operates a capital efficient business model based upon VIC + 505b(2). We repurpose approved systemic drugs for ocular delivery to treat eye diseases and quickly advance drug candidates to complete proof-of-concept (POC) Phase II clinical trials and carry out Phase III clinical trials, product registration, and commercialization. Fully embracing the pharmaceutical development ecosystem, we utilize contract research organizations (CRO) for non-clinical, CMC and clinical development to efficiently maximize capital for drug development.

The Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical management team extensive experience with ocular drug discovery and development. In addition, Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical is supported by seasoned advisers and consultants.

Management

Jinsong Ni, PhD Cloudbreak Therapeutics Founder and CEO

Jinsong Ni, Ph.D

Founder, Chief Executive Officer

View Bio
Van Dinh MBA Cloudbreak Therapeutics Co-Founder and COO

Van Dinh, MBA

Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer

View Bio
Rong Yang, PhD Cloudbreak Therapeutics Chief Scientific Officer

Rong Yang, Ph.D

Chief Scientific Officer

View Bio
Greg Brooks

Greg Brooks, B.Sc

Chief Business Officer

View Bio
WenKui Fang

WenKui Fang, Ph.D

Chief Innovation Officer

View Bio
Greg Brooks

Greg Brooks, B.Sc

Chief Business Officer

View Bio
Houman Hemmati

Houman Hammati, MD, Ph.D

Chief Medical Officer

View Bio
WenKui Fang

WenKui Fang, Ph.D

Chief Innovation Officer

View Bio
Bing Leng

Bing Leng, MD

VP of Clinical Operations

View Bio

Scientific Advisory Board

Scott Whitcup MD Cloudbreak Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Board

Scott Whitcup, MD

View Bio
John Hovanesian MD Cloudbreak Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Board

John Hovanesian, MD

View Bio

Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focusing on ocular drug development. Our mission is to help people see life better through medicine.

Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical FCOI

Contact Info

15615 Alton Parkway
Suite 450
Irvine, CA 92618, USA

View Map

Jinsong Ni, Ph.D

Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Jinsong Ni has over twenty years of pharmaceutical industry and academic research experience in drug discovery and drug development.

Prior to founding Cloudbreak Therapeutics, Dr. Ni was Scientific Director at Allergan for 15 years and Senior Scientist at Wyeth/Pfizer for 3 years. During his tenures at Allergan and Wyeth/Pfizer, Dr. Ni has been:

Member of project teams for the successful launch of many ocular and dermal products, including AlphaganP®, Combigan®, Lumigan®, Tazorac® and Ozurdex®
Member of scientific teams for marketing support of Lumigan®, Allergan P® and Ozurdex®.

Member of scientific teams for the successful legal defense of billion dollar franchise products Lumigan® and Restasis® at Allergan and multi-billion dollar franchise product Premarin® at Wyeth

Dr. Ni has served as non-clinical subteam lead and compound manager to advance numerous drug candidates to various development stages including IND and NDA submission for small and large molecule drugs across multiple therapeutic areas including CNS (neuropathic pain), ophthalmology (glaucoma, ocular surface disease and retinal disease) and dermatology (actinic keratosis, acne, rosacea), womens’ health, oncology and infectious disease.

Dr. Ni obtained his B.Sc. from Nanjing University, M.Sc. from Brock University, Ph.D. from University of Toronto and performed his Post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Utah.

Van Dinh, MBA

Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer

Van Dinh is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Cloudbreak Therapeutics. Mr. Dinh has over twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

He has worked in various scientific disciplines such as pharmacokinetics, toxicology, pharmaceutical development, and analytical sciences. Through these different disciplines, he has gained a vast amount of experience in the drug development processes. During his 18 years with Allergan, he was involved in many drug development projects and helped to bring these projects to successful commercial approvals such as Lumigan®, Combigan®, Acuvail®, Zymaxid®, Tazorac®, Ozudex®, Alphagan P®, Restasis®, Latisse®, and Lastacaft®. While at Allergan he managed departments such as In Vivo Science, Scientific Operations and Formulations and Analytical Sciences.

Mr. Dinh obtained his Master of Business Administration degree from Webster University and his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine.

Rong Yang, Ph.D

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Yang joined Cloudbreak Therapeutics in May, 2016. He serves as Chief Scientific Officer of the company. Prior to joining Cloudbreak Therapeutics, Dr. Yang had 16 years of drug discovery and development experience with expertise in pharmacology.

Dr. Yang worked in the fields of ophthalmology, dermatology, and neurosciences at the specialty pharmaceutical company Allergan. During this time, he led multidisciplinary teams and collaborated with other companies. 

Dr. Yang participated in several drug development projects including the Taz microsphere project (reached phase I), the PDE project (reached early development) and the GABA modulator project (reached phase II).

Dr. Yang holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a B.S.c in biology from Peking University, and performed his post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles Cancer Center.

Greg Brooks, B.Sc

Chief Business Officer

Greg Brooks

Mr. Brooks joined Cloudbreak Pharmaceutical on a part-time basis. He serves as Chief Business Officer of the company. Before joining Cloudbreak, Mr. Brooks had more than 30 years of marketing and business development experience in the pharmaceutical, biologic and medical device industries.

Previously, Mr. Brooks was the Vice President of Global Strategic Marketing at Allergan where he served three decades. During his tenure there, he was responsible for global product line launches including BOTOX® for neurologic, cosmetic, and urologic conditions, as well as both pharmaceuticals and medical devices for ophthalmic and dermatologic conditions. He oversaw Allergan’s BOTOX franchise, where his leadership efforts resulted in successful launches of BOTOX for the treatment of idiopathic and neurogenic overactive bladder.

Mr. Brooks also established Allergan’s Health Economics organization responsible for creating and developing the data required to support global reimbursement policies, and identified new business opportunities for specialty pipeline products and indications.

Prior to his position as Allergan’s VP Global Strategic Marketing, he served in various senior strategic and commercial roles across the company’s multiple product lines. Mr. Brooks received a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Rider University.

WenKui Fang, Ph.D

Chief Innovation Officer

WenKui Fang

Dr. Fang joined Cloudbreak Therapeutics in October 2020. He serves as Chief Innovation Officer of the company. Before joining Cloudbreak, Dr. Fang had 19 years of medicinal chemistry research experience designing new innovative drugs for treating cancer, metabolic diseases, neuropathic pain, CNS diseases, inflammation, ocular and skin diseases.

Previously, Dr. Fang worked at Allergan for 17 years, as principal scientist in the medicinal chemistry division. During this time, he led generation and optimization based on target selectivity, ADME, toxicology, preclinical safety, and in vivo pharmacology.

Dr. Fang has broad experience in preparation of patent applications and publication manuscripts with over 52 patents covering his research and innovations at Allergan.

Dr. Fang completed his postdoctoral fellowship in the Weinreb Lab at Penn State, his Ph.D in Chemistry in the Pearson Lab at the University of Michigan, and his M.S. and B.S. in Chemistry at Nankai University.

Houman Hemmati, MD, Ph.D

Chief Medical Officer

Houman Hemmati

Dr. Hemmati joined Cloudbreak Therapeutics in September 2020. He serves as Chief Medical Officer of the company. Before joining Cloudbreak, Dr. Hemmati had 16 years of clinical development experience with expertise in Ophthalmology.

Dr. Hemmati previously served as Director, Clinical Development at Allergan, as Clinical Scientist in the Ophthalmology Therapeutic Area on several Phase 1, 2, and 3 studies related to anterior segment indications.

Dr. Hemmati is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist, and is also presently Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at USC Keck School of Medicine, where he serves as Attending Physician at LA County USC Medical Center. Previously, Dr. Hemmati served as Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Vermont School of Medicine, and was a clinical/scientific consultant to Stemnion, Access BridgeGap Ventures, Boston Consulting Group, Griffen Rose, Kaplan, and DJF ePlanet Ventures.

Dr. Hemmati earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences at Stanford, an M.D. from UCLA , a Ph.D. in Biology from Caltech, and completed an Internal Medicine internship at Stanford Hospital, an ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Engineering and Drug Delivery at MIT, and a clinical fellowship in Cornea and Refractive Surgery at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.

Bing Leng, MD

VP of Clinical Operations

Bing Leng

Coming Soon!

Scott Whitcup, MD

Dr. Scott Whitcup is the Founder and CEO of Akrivista and Whitecap Biosciences, two companies focused on developing new therapies in ophthalmology and dermatology.

Previously, Dr. Whitcup was the Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at Allergan where he lead an organization focused on therapeutic areas including ophthalmology, CNS, urology, dermatology, medical aesthetics, anti-infectives, and surgical obesity. 

Before Allergan, Dr. Whitcup was the Clinical Director at The National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he led the intramural clinical research program.

Dr. Whitcup has 17 issued and 20 pending US patents. He is a Diplomate of both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Ophthalmology, a licensed M.D. in CA, and is on the Clinical Faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Whitcup serves on the Board of Semnur Pharmaceuticals, Menlo Therapeutics and NightstaRx. He served on the Board of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, and Questcor Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Whitcup has a B.A. in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University and an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the UCLA Medical Center, his residency in Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, and a fellowship in Uveitis and Ocular Immunology at the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

John Hovanesian, MD

Dr. John Hovanesian is a board certified ophthalmologist and a faculty member at the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute. He is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of corneal, cataract, refractive and laser surgery.

Dr. Hovanesian received his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed his fellowship in ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. He is currently a clinician at Harvard Eye Associates and a clinical faculty at UCLA.

Dr. Hovanesian is widely regarded as the leader in pterygium disease treatment. He is the editor of the textbook “Pterygium Techniques and Technology for Surgical Success” and lead author of 2017 Pterygium “White Paper”. He is the chairman of American Academy of Ophthalmology, Anterior Segment and an editorial board member for five other ophthalmology journals. He has been honored by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery for his contributions to the field.

Dr. Hovanesian is also the Principal Investigator for over 16 ophthalmology clinical trials and the member of over 20 scientific and medical advisory boards.