Dr Steve Brannan

Dr. Brannan is the former CMO at Karuna Therapeutics and a neuroscience drug development expert who has held senior positions overseeing both clinical development and medical affairs with more than 15 years of industry experience.  Previously, Dr. Brannan was the Therapeutic Head of Neuroscience at Takeda and Vice President for Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at Forum Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Brannan has been active in the development of multiple important central nervous system treatments including Cymbalta, Exelon Patch, Trintellix, and VNS for Treatment Resistant Depression while holding various senior roles at Forum, Takeda, Novartis, Cyberonics, and Eli Lilly. His experience includes drug development, registration, medical affairs, launch and lifecycle management in the areas of anxiety, depression, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, schizophrenia, migraine, cognition, and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Dr. Brannan is a member of several scientific societies and groups, including ACNP, ISCTM (Member of both the Scientific and Executive Committees), ISCDD, AARR, IOM Neuroforum, and CNS Summit (founding member). Prior to joining the Pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Brannan worked on the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) where he specialized in seeing Mood and Anxiety disorder patients, ran a clinical research unit, and did neuroimaging research at the Research Imaging Center.  Dr. Brannan trained in psychiatry at UTHSCSA and holds a M.D. degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas (Southwestern Medical School). He has over 50 publications and routinely gives invited talks and presentations at industry conferences.