Eckard joined Domain in 2001 as a partner. He specializes in creating companies around promising new pharmaceutical products and has led Domain’s initiatives in Japanese in-licensing.

One of the exciting aspects of healthcare venture investing is to help turn ideas into products that can make a real difference in improving people’s health and lives.

Eckard currently serves as chairman of the board at Ocera Therapeutics and Tragara Pharmaceuticals. Eckard is a board member of Adynxx.

He has been founding CEO of multiple biopharmaceutical companies in the Domain portfolio, including Acea Pharmaceuticals, Ascenta Therapeutics, Calixa Therapeutics, Cytovia, Domain Anti Bacterial Acquisition Corporation, NovaCardia, Novacea, Novalar Pharmaceuticals, Ocera Therapeutics, Orexigen Therapeutics, Sonexa Therapeutics, Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Tobira Therapeutics and Tragara Pharmaceuticals.

Eckard was chairman of a number of Domain portfolio companies until their successful exit, including Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (sold to Johnson & Johnson, 2005), Cerexa (sold to Forest Laboratories, 2007), NovaCardia (sold to Merck, 2007), Calixa (sold to Cubist Pharmaceuticals, 2009). He was also a board member of Conforma Therapeutics (sold to Biogen-IDEC, 2006), Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals (sold to Pharmion, 2006) and Tobira Therapeutics (sold to Allergan, 2016).

Previously, Eckard was a tenured professor of pharmacology at the University of California at Irvine. He has more than 20 years of drug discovery and development experience and has been a consultant to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He is the inventor or co-inventor of numerous patents and patent applications, and he has published more than 130 papers in scientific periodicals.

Eckard completed his Abitur from Kolping Kolleg, Friedrichshafen, Germany and his M.D. from the University of Ulm Medical School, Germany. He received his postdoctoral training in neuroscience at Stanford University Medical School.