Mr. Sam Backenroth joined VBL as chief financial officer in October 2021. Before joining VBL, Mr. Backenroth was the chief financial officer at NeuBase Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NBSE), a novel genetic medicine platform company focused on rare genetic diseases and oncology. While at NeuBase, Mr. Backenroth helped build the finance and operations functions, took the company public, and raised approximately $100 million in equity capital.

Prior to his tenure at NeuBase, Mr. Backenroth was the CFO of Ohr Pharmaceutical, where he was instrumental in the company’s growth from startup to a public market capitalization of several hundred million and helped move its lead program from preclinical into late-stage clinical development. He is also a founder of Orphion Therapeutics, a company focused on one-time gene therapy treatments for ocular and central nervous system manifestations of ultra-rare diseases, and DepYmed, Inc., a pharmaceutical company focused on a novel phosphatase inhibition technology platform for rare diseases and cancer, where he currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Backenroth began his career as an investment banker with The Benchmark Company LLC, where he raised capital and provided advisory services for biotechnology companies. Mr. Backenroth earned a bachelor of science degree in finance from Touro College in New York.