Management
Astex's management team has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry encompassing commercial management, drug discovery and development, finance and business development.
Harren Jhoti, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Harren Jhoti co-founded Astex in 1999 and was Chief Scientific Officer until November 2007 when he was appointed Chief Executive. Dr. Jhoti was recently named by the Royal Society of Chemistry as ‘Chemistry World Entrepreneur of the Year’ for 2007. He has published widely including in leading journals such as Nature and Science and has also featured in TIME magazine after being named by the World Economic Forum a Technology Pioneer in 2005. Dr. Jhoti was also a non-executive director of Iconix Inc. and is currently a member of the SAB for Cellzome Ltd. Before setting up Astex in 1999, he was Head of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics at GlaxoWellcome in the UK (1991-1999). Prior to Glaxo, Dr. Jhoti was a post-doctoral scientist at Oxford University and received his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry in 1985, and PhD in Protein Crystallography from the University of London in 1989.
John Aston, MA ACA
Chief Financial Officer
John Aston joined Astex as Chief Financial Officer and was appointed to the Board in January 2007. Before joining Astex, John was Chief Financial Officer of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) for ten years. He played a central role in the development of CAT into one of Europe's most important biotechnology companies, including the successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange, secondary offering in 2000 raising over £90m, listing on NASDAQ, and eventual sale to AstraZeneca in June 2006 at a valuation of $1.3 billion. Prior to joining CAT John was a director in investment banking with Schroders in London and previously worked for British Technology Group (BTG) and Price Waterhouse. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has a degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University.
Martin Buckland, DPhil MBA
Chief Business Officer
Martin Buckland joined Astex as Chief Business Officer in September 2004 and was appointed to the Board in July 2008. He has more than 20 years of commercial and business development experience in the pharmaceutical industry and joined Astex from Elan Pharmaceuticals where he previously held the position of VP Global Business Development. His prior experience includes a variety of business development and commercial management roles with Quintiles, Xenova and Celltech. He has a BA in Chemistry and a DPhil from the University of Oxford, and an MBA from the Open Business School.
Neil Thompson, PhD
Senior VP Biology
Neil Thompson is Senior VP Biology with overall responsibility for the biology and translational research functions within Astex. Neil joined Astex as VP Biology in January 2002 from GlaxoSmithKline where he was Director of the Immunology Platform responsible for specialist cellular and molecular immunology employed in the drug development process. Previously, as Head of the Cellular Immunology Unit, he provided support for both small molecule and therapeutic vaccine programs and has led several drug discovery projects in a variety of therapeutic areas. Prior to this, he was a senior biochemist with Wellcome Research Laboratories. He received his doctorate in Biochemistry from King's College, London in 1985.
David Rees, PhD
Senior VP Medicinal Chemistry
David Rees joined Astex in January 2003 and is Senior VP Medicinal Chemistry. He is a co-recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize 2007 for the discovery of the anaesthesia drug sugammadex whilst at Organon. Sugammadex (Bridion) received regulatory approval in Europe in July 2008. Prior to Astex, he had 19 years experience as a medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, working with Parke-Davis, Organon and, most recently, AstraZeneca where he held the position of Director and Head of the Medicinal Chemistry Department with some 140 staff at the research and development laboratories in Mölndal, Sweden. He is a co-author of over 75 publications and patents and has served as an honorary Professor at Glasgow University and as a member of the RSC Organic Division Executive.
Lyn Leaper, EPA PhD
VP Intellectual Property
Lyn Leaper is a European Patent Attorney who joined Astex as VP Intellectual Property in October 2002 from StratagemIPM where she provided IP management and strategic advice to medical and biotechnology companies. Previously she worked at Akzo Nobel NV and from 1999 was Director of Patents at Janssen Pharmaceutica NV (a Johnson & Johnson Company). She obtained a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology before commencing a career in intellectual property at The Wellcome Foundation Ltd in 1988.
John Lyons, MSc PhD
VP Translational Research
John Lyons joined Astex as Director of Oncology in October 2003 and in 2007 was named VP of Translational Research with responsibility for the development of biomarker strategies for all of Astex’s clinical oncology programmes. He has 19 years of industrial experience of cancer biology and clinical development and joined Astex from SuperGen Inc., where, as Senior Director of Scientific Development, he was responsible for the development of Dacogen™ approved for MDS, a form of leukemia. Prior to this, he spent 8 years at Onyx Pharmaceuticals were he led the team that discovered Nexavar, a molecule approved in the US and Europe for renal cell carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma. He also worked at Pierre Fabre Medicament in Castres, France and at Cetus Corporation in the US. Dr Lyons is a member of AACR and obtained his PhD in 1989 from the University of Ulm, Germany.
Chris
Murray, PhD
VP Discovery Technology
Chris Murray joined Astex from Protherics (previously Proteus Molecular Design), a UK-based biotechnology company, where he lead the developmental team working on virtual screening docking codes. He became leader of the Molecular Design group and played a key role in the design of the Factor Xa lead compound that was subsequently licensed to Eli Lilly. Dr Murray obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1989 and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Indiana University, Bloomington, USA and the University of Cambridge, UK.
Jeff
Yon, PhD
VP Structural Biology
Jeff Yon joined Astex from Janssen Research Foundation in January 2001. Prior to this he had over 10 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with positions at Janssen (a Johnson & Johnson company) and Pfizer, working mostly in the area of recombinant protein production for structural biology and high throughput screening. Graduating from Cambridge, he obtained a PhD from Birmingham University and undertook postdoctoral research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund before beginning his industrial career.
Murray Yule, BMSc MB ChB MRCP PhD
VP Clinical Development
Murray Yule joined Astex in August 2006 from Zeneus, a UK-based biotechnology company, where he was Director of Oncology. During the last ten years he has worked in all phases of oncology clinical drug development both small molecule and biologicals including several years defining the phase III and IV programs for trastuzumab and capecitabine within Roche UK and supervising early phase development on a global basis for Eisai. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry he worked as an oncologist in Cambridge in the UK and he remains on the United Kingdom paediatric oncology specialist register. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom and has a doctorate in the pharmacology of anti-cancer drugs from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Neil Jones, BSc FCA
Financial Controller
Neil Jones joined Astex in May 2000 from Sapient Corporation. He has significant financial experience working within Bioscience, CRO and consultancy organisations. He obtained an honours degree in Economics from Loughborough University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1991.