Failed presidential candidate Gareth Sheridan returns to his company as CEO

Nutriband said Mr Sheridan would guide the company through the rest of the year with the target of a new drug filing for the US Food and Drug Administration in 2026 for its fentanyl patch

Gareth Sheridan with his wife Heidi. 

Failed presidential candidate Gareth Sheridan has returned to working as the chief executive of his firm of Nutriband, the company has announced.

In early August, Mr Sheridan announced he was stepping aside as chief executive from the company he founded for a three-month period while he sought to contest the Irish presidential election. In his stead, the company chairman and president Serguei Melnik took over as interim chief executive.

Mr Sheridan was seeking a nomination to contest the election through the county councils and was successful in securing the backing of two — Tipperary and Kerry. However, he still fell short of the four needed.

Following the election of Catherine Connolly over the weekend, Nutriband announced Mr Sheridan had returned to the company as its chief executive effective immediately.

The company said Mr Sheridan would guide the company through the rest of the year with the target of a new drug filing for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2026 for its AVERSA fentanyl patch.

Nutriband claims its AVERSA product is an abuse-deterrent transdermal patch that incorporates aversive agents to prevent misuse and accidental exposure to drugs.

Mr Sheridan is originally from Terenure in south Dublin. He studied business and management at Dublin Institute of Technology before graduating in 2012.

In April 2011, he founded Nutriband, which seeks to use transdermal patches to deliver medication through the skin.

By 2016, Mr Sheridan was living in Florida while working on Nutriband. After several failed attempts, he was able to list the company on the Nasdaq in December 2021.

Mr Sheridan’s work on Nutriband became a talking point during the initial days of his campaign for the presidency when it was revealed the businessman and his company reached a cease and desist agreement with the US government in 2018, which included a $25,000 fine for the businessman.

According to the 2018 document, Nutriband never obtained authorisation from the FDA before marketing its products — transdermal patches for the delivery of vitamins and drugs — in the US.

An investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission found Nutriband’s transdermal patches consist of a drug and a delivery device, and such drug-device combination products would require FDA approval.