Management Team

Shalabh Gupta, MD, is the founder of Unicycive and has served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and director since August 2016. Previously, Dr. Gupta served in various other roles, including founder and Chief Executive Officer of Biocycive Inc.; a commercial strategy role at Genentech, Inc.; equity researcher covering US pharmaceutical companies at UBS Investment Bank; and as an equity researcher covering biotechnology companies at Rodman & Renshaw (currently HC Wainwright). Dr. Gupta previously served as a medical advisor to Synageva BioPharma Corporation and as an advisor to New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center’s Office of Technology Transfer. Dr. Gupta is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Globavir, which had licensed diagnostic technology from Stanford university, which was then partnered with global commercial diagnostic companies. Dr. Gupta is an advisor to the UCSF Innovation Center, a role he has held since 2020. Since 2012, and has also been an advisor to SPARK, Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Gupta previously served on the board of directors for the Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of California Irvine, Paul Merage School of Business.  

Before his roles in business and finance, Dr. Gupta was an attending physician at NYU Medical Center and a clinical faculty member at the NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Gupta was a board-certified physician, and he currently holds a license from the California State Medical Board. Dr. Gupta completed his internship in Internal Medicine, medical residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and research fellowship in Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation at NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Gupta received his MPA in Health Care Finance and Management from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and his MD from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, India. 

Dr. Gupta has been in several leadership roles throughout his academic and professional career. He was elected president of the Resident Physicians Council during his residency training, representing approximately 1,500 resident physicians in physical medicine and rehabilitation across the US. He also served on the Board of Directors at the Wagner Alumni Association, and was elected to the Board of Directors of the UC Irvine Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2018.

John Townsend is Chief Financial Officer at Unicycive Therapeutics Inc. Previously, he has served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer in a consulting role for Unicycive. He has over 25 years of public and private company experience in industries including biotechnology, medical devices, and high-tech electronics manufacturing. Before joining Unicycive, Mr. Townsend worked at Guardion Health Sciences, a medical foods company from 2016 to 2020. From 2005 until 2015, he worked at Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., a stem cell therapy company. From 1996 to 2005, he worked at several high-tech companies.  Mr. Townsend started his career at Deloitte (formerly Deloitte and Touche) after graduating from San Diego State University in 1993. Mr. Townsend is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California.

Douglas Jermasek joined Unicycive in 2021 as Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy. Mr. Jermasek is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with over 25 years of commercial leadership experience in both U.S. and international markets. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Strategy at Akebia Therapeutics, a role he assumed after the merger with Keryx Biopharmaceuticals. Previously he spent over a decade at Genzyme (a Sanofi Company) culminating as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Head of Renal Global Business Unit. In that role, he drove sales of over $1 billion, establishing Renvela® as the standard of care for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and achieving “blockbuster” status globally. Earlier, he held management positions of progressive responsibility at Intercept Pharmaceuticals,  Prometheus Laboratories, Agouron Pharmaceuticals, and Abbott Laboratories. Mr. Jermasek holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University and a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Science also from BYU.

Guru Reddy, PhD, joined Unicycive in 2022 as Vice President of Preclinical R&D. Dr. Reddy has more than 25 years of R&D experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Unicycive, he worked at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals for 15 years, where he held R&D roles with increasing responsibilities serving most recently as the Vice President of Preclinical R&D. At Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, he was responsible for the preclinical development and clinical pharmacology of a large product pipeline culminating in multiple NDA submissions and full regulatory approval of 4 drugs from the US FDA.

Dr. Reddy has a wide range of experience in drug development, including preclinical research & development, early clinical development, regulatory strategy.

Dr. Reddy earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Poona/National Chemical Laboratory in India and obtained his post-doctoral training at Yale University. He is an inventor on 17 granted US patents and co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications.

Pramod Gupta, PhD, serves as the Executive Vice President of Pharmaceutical & Business Operations at Unicycive Therapeutics Inc.  Previously, he worked as SVP of Pharmaceutical Operations at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Global VP at Bausch & Lomb, Senior Director of R&D at Baxter Healthcare, Director of R&D at TAP Pharmaceuticals (a joint venture of Abbott & Takeda) and R&D Project Leader at Abbott Pharmaceuticals.

During this time, Dr. Gupta developed, received regulatory approvals from US FDA and other international agencies, and commercialized over 40 pharmaceutical products.  He received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Otago in New Zealand.  He holds 12 granted patents and has published over 50 scientific papers.