Highly Experienced Leaders

Richard Baxter is Senior Vice President of Investment Operations and a member of the Investment Committee at Ligand. He has worked across the healthcare landscape and brings to the firm decades of commercialization and investment experience, including control equity and minority equity investments, senior secured debt financings, royalty financings, public bank debt and bond transactions. Mr. Baxter is a co-founder of the healthcare group for the Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund at Fortress Investment Group, which invested approximately $1 billion in emerging life sciences companies. He also previously served as co-head of the healthcare team at Hayfin Capital Management LLP, which deployed $1.4 billion in capital over four years. Before starting his investment career, he held senior roles in the pharmaceutical industry as Head of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development at PathoGensis Corp., ViroPharma Inc., and Marketing leadership at SmithKline Beecham. He earned an AB (cum laude) from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

John M. Gay serves as the Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary of Pelthos. Mr. Gay has over 25 years’ experience in public company finance and accounting, including various acquisitions, divestitures, integrations, initial public offerings and raising nearly $300 million in capital. Prior to joining Pelthos in July 2025 as Senior Vice President, Finance & Accounting, Mr. Gay served as Chief Financial Officer of LNHC, Inc. (then, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), after the acquisition of ZELSUVMI® in September 2023. Prior to joining LNHC, Mr. Gay served as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary for Novan. Previously, Mr. Gay held the Corporate Controller position at Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical development company, from its initial spin-out transaction on the NASDAQ to a sale to Forest Labs for $1.1 billion; and director-level positions at MaxPoint Interactive Inc., a digital marketing technology company, from its IPO on the NYSE to its successful sale for nearly $100 million. Prior to joining Furiex, Mr. Gay served in roles of increasing responsibility at Deloitte and Arthur Andersen, registered public accounting firms. He is a North Carolina certified public accountant and holds Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and History and a Master’s in Accounting degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Scott M. Plesha serves as Chief Executive Officer of Pelthos. Mr. Plesha joined Pelthos in November 2023. He has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including two decades building and leading specialty pharma commercial organizations. Prior to joining Pelthos, Mr. Plesha was President and Chief Commercial Officer at BioDelivery Sciences (BDSI) until it was acquired by Collegium Pharmaceutical in 2022. Under Mr. Plesha’s leadership, BDSI sales grew from $5 million to $160 million. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Gastrointestinal Sales at Salix Pharmaceuticals. During his fifteen-year tenure at Salix, Mr. Plesha led a nationwide salesforce that grew product sales to more than $1.5 billion annually. Before Salix, Mr. Plesha was a Regional Sales Manager for Oclassen Dermatologics, a division of Watson Laboratories, and in commercial roles of increasing responsibility at Solvay Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Plesha earned a BA in Pre-Medicine and Pre-Medical Studies at DePauw University and pursued graduate studies in Dentistry at Indiana University Dental School.

Robert H. Dworkin received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD from Harvard University. He is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Neurology, and Psychiatry and Professor in the Center for Health + Technology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Dworkin is Director of the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks (ACTTION) public-private partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a Special Government Employee of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He is an Associate Editor of Pain and a member of the Editorial Boards of the Canadian Journal of Pain and the Journal of Pain. Dr. Dworkin’s major research interests are (1) methodologic aspects of analgesic clinical trials and (2) treatment and prevention of chronic and acute neuropathic and musculoskeletal pain. The primary focus of his current research involves the identification of factors that increase the assay sensitivity of clinical trials to detect differences between an active and a placebo control or comparison treatment. In ongoing studies, he and his colleagues are examining the relationships between clinical trial results and their research designs, patient characteristics, statistical methods, and outcome measures.