Dr. Ellis joined DURECT in November 2011 and has over 45 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with companies such as Syntex, ALZA Corporation, Neurex Corporation, Elan Pharmaceuticals, ARYx Therapeutics and Relypsa. During his career, Dr. Ellis has been involved in 5 NDA submissions and approvals, and has extensive experience in clinical trial design, execution and reporting. Dr. Ellis has a B.S. in Chemistry from Colorado State University, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco.