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Draft:Stephen L. Hurst

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  • Comment: Too many press releases, which are not reliable independent sources. Theroadislong (talk) 21:34, 16 February 2026 (UTC)

Stephen L. Hurst (born 1955) is an American businessman, registered patent attorney, and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Mind Medicine (MindMed), Inc. (Nasdaq: MNMD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on psychedelic-derived therapies, and served on the independent committee that selected the target disease for the Pneumococcal Advance Market Commitment (AMC), a global health financing initiative administered by GAVI and the World Bank.

Early life and education

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Hurst was born in 1955 in Oakland, California. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Conservation of Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley in 1978, and a Juris Doctor from Golden Gate University School of Law in 1984. He is a registered patent attorney.[1]

Career

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Early scientific research

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In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hurst worked as a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Radiation Oncology. His published work during this period includes peer-reviewed studies on brachytherapy for brain tumors and the effects of radiosensitizers during radiation therapy.[2][3]

Biopharmaceutical industry

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Hurst joined Inhale Therapeutic Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: INHL; subsequently renamed Nektar Therapeutics) in 1994 and served in progressively senior roles through 2002. His titles during this period, as documented in the company's annual SEC proxy statements (DEF 14A), included Vice President of Intellectual Property and Licensing (1997–1998), General Counsel and Secretary (1999–2001), and Vice President of Human Resources (2002). He appeared as a Named Executive Officer in six consecutive proxy filings from 1997 to 2002.[4][1]

During Hurst's tenure, the company raised substantial capital through public and private offerings. Major transactions documented in the company's SEC filings include the 1994 initial public offering (approximately $15 million net proceeds), a $40 million public offering in 1997, $230 million in convertible subordinated debentures in 1999, an additional $230 million in convertible notes in 2000, and a $40 million strategic equity investment from Enzon, Inc. in 2002. The company's 10-K annual report for fiscal year 2001 reported an aggregate non-affiliate market capitalization of approximately $704 million.[5][6]

Inhale's business model and technology platform during this period are documented in a Harvard Business School case study, "Inhale Therapeutics: Executing and Growing the Business Model" (Case 9-602-132), by Henry W. Chesbrough and Gillian Morris (2002).[7]

Hurst subsequently founded Sequential, Inc. and later served as Chief Business Officer for the Immune Tolerance Institute.

Pneumococcal Advance Market Commitment

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From 2005 to 2009, Hurst served as a consultant to the World Bank and BIO Ventures for Global Health on the development of Advance Market Commitment (AMC) mechanisms for vaccines.[1] The Advance Market Commitment is a financing mechanism under which donors commit funds to guarantee the price of vaccines in order to incentivize manufacturers to develop and supply products for low-income countries. In 2006, an independent committee convened to select the target disease for a pilot AMC. According to GAVI, the committee comprised internationally recognized experts in public health, epidemiology, industrial economics, vaccine development, financing, and law, and selected pneumococcal disease from among several candidate conditions.[8][9]

The Pneumococcal AMC was formally announced in February 2007 and launched in June 2009 with $1.5 billion in commitments from Canada, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, administered through the World Bank and GAVI.[9]

Savant HWP

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From approximately 2009 to 2019, Hurst served as founder and CEO of Savant HWP, a Bay Area biotech startup developing 18-methoxycoronaridine (18-MC), a non-hallucinogenic ibogaine derivative investigated as a broad-spectrum anti-addiction treatment.[10]

Hurst partnered with Dr. Stanley Glick, former head of the Department of Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience at Albany Medical College, who had developed 18-MC after nearly two decades of research into ibogaine's mechanism of action. Glick and chemist Martin Kuehne of the University of Vermont had tested approximately 60 ibogaine-related compounds before settling on 18-MC, which retained ibogaine's anti-addiction properties while eliminating the hallucinations, nausea, and cardiac risks that had led NIDA to halt ibogaine research in 1995. In animal models, 18-MC reduced self-administration of cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine, alcohol, and nicotine. It also showed potential as an obesity treatment. The drug works on nicotinic receptors and an indirect reward pathway to dampen the dopamine response to addictive substances without directly blocking dopamine release—a mechanism distinct from prior failed approaches.[11]

With Hurst's involvement, Savant secured a $6.5 million NIDA grant in September 2012 to advance 18-MC toward human clinical trials. After the FDA placed a clinical hold on the company's Investigational New Drug application, Hurst negotiated its removal in July 2014. Preliminary results from the first double-blind, placebo-controlled human safety study, announced in September 2014, indicated the drug was well tolerated by healthy volunteers with none of ibogaine's harmful side effects.[11]

Concurrent trials were initiated in Brazil, where 18-MC also showed promise as a treatment for leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease—a dual indication that potentially qualified the drug for orphan disease status under FDA regulations.[11]

MindMed

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In May 2019, Hurst co-founded Mind Medicine, Inc. (MindMed) alongside Jamon Rahn.[12] The company initially focused on developing treatments for opioid withdrawal and use disorder using 18-MC, a non-hallucinogenic molecule based on the psychedelic alkaloid ibogaine, acquiring the drug development program previously funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.[12]

MindMed became the first psychedelic pharmaceutical company to go public, listing on the Canadian NEO Exchange on March 3, 2020 under the symbol NEO:MMED.[12] The company subsequently listed on NASDAQ under the ticker MNMD in April 2021.[13]

Hurst served as co-CEO until January 2021, and as a board director until his retirement in January 2022.[14] As of 2026, the company—rebranded as Definium Therapeutics in January 2026—continues to develop psychedelic-inspired therapies. In March 2024, it received FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for its LSD-based compound MM120 for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder.[15]

Venture capital and current activities

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Hurst is a managing partner at the 1864 Fund, a $10 million seed-stage venture capital fund managed by Granite Partners and affiliated with Nevada's StartUpNV ecosystem. The fund invests primarily in technology startups in underserved capital markets in the western United States.[16] He is also the founder and CEO of HEAT Fire, Inc., a company developing wildfire suppression equipment.

Personal life

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Hurst married Antonia in San Francisco in 1995. He has three children and resides in Nevada along the Truckee River.

Selected publications

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  • Gutin PH, Phillips TL, Hosobuchi Y, Wara WM, MacKay AR, Weaver KA, Lamb S, Hurst S (1981). "Permanent and removable implants for the brachytherapy of brain tumors". International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. 53 (5): 613–617. doi:10.3171/jns.1980.53.5.0613. PMID 6253607.
  • Fu KK, Hurst S, Begg AC, Brown JM (1980). "Effects of misonidazole during continuous low dose rate irradiation". American Journal of Clinical Oncology. 3 (3): 257–265. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0765.1980.tb00313.x. PMID 6449588.
  • Hurst SL (January 15, 2026). "Ignava Negatio - A Novel Taxonomy for AI Capacity Denial Failures". SSRN 6077146.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Day in the Life of a CEO — Stephen Hurst, Savant HWP". BioSpace. July 16, 2015.
  2. ^ Gutin PH, Phillips TL, Hosobuchi Y, Wara WM, MacKay AR, Weaver KA, Lamb S (1981). "Permanent and removable implants for the brachytherapy of brain tumors". International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. 53 (5): 613–617. doi:10.3171/jns.1980.53.5.0613. PMID 6253607.
  3. ^ Fu KK, Hurst S, Begg AC, Brown JM (1980). "Effects of misonidazole during continuous low dose rate irradiation". American Journal of Clinical Oncology. 3 (3): 257–265. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0765.1980.tb00313.x. PMID 6449588.
  4. ^ "Inhale Therapeutic Systems, Inc. DEF 14A Proxy Statements". CIK 0000906709 – via EDGAR.
  5. ^ "Inhale Therapeutic Systems, Inc. Annual Reports on Form 10-K, fiscal years 1994–2002". CIK 0000906709 – via EDGAR.
  6. ^ "Inhale Therapeutic Systems, Inc. Form 10-K, fiscal year ended December 31, 2001". CIK 0000906709 – via EDGAR. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  7. ^ Chesbrough, Henry W.; Morris, Gillian (February 2002). "Inhale Therapeutics: Executing and Growing the Business Model". Harvard Business School. Case 602-132. Archived from the original on 2024-11-02. Retrieved 2026-02-23.
  8. ^ "About the Pneumococcal AMC". GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
  9. ^ a b Cernuschi, Tania; Furrer, Eliane; Schwalbe, Nina; et al. (2011). "Advance Market Commitment for Pneumococcal Vaccines: Putting Theory into Practice". Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 89 (12): 913–918. doi:10.2471/BLT.11.087700. PMC 3260895. PMID 22271949.
  10. ^ "Stephen Hurst". Psychedelic Science Review.
  11. ^ a b c Hamilton, Keegan (October 9, 2014). "Meet The Scientists Who May Have Found The Cure For Drug Addiction". BuzzFeed.
  12. ^ a b c "MindMed Lists on NEO to Become World's First Psychedelic Pharmaceutical Company to Go Public". BioSpace (Press release). March 4, 2020.
  13. ^ "MindMed, Inc. SEC Form 8-K". SEC. April 27, 2021. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  14. ^ "MindMed, Inc. SEC Form 8-K". SEC. January 10, 2022. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  15. ^ Kuntz, Leah (April 24, 2024) [March 7, 2024]. "FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation to MindMed's MM-120 for Generalized Anxiety Disorder". Psychiatric Times.
  16. ^ "New Nevada-Based Seed Stage Venture Capital Fund Makes Its First Investment". Nevada Business Magazine (Press release). July 10, 2025. Archived from the original on July 23, 2025. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
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Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:American businesspeople Category:American venture capitalists Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:Golden Gate University alumni Category:People from Oakland, California Category:American patent attorneys Category:Global health Category:Psychedelic drug researchers

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