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 and Executive Vice President until November 2007 when he was appointed Chief Executive Officer. He previously led the Structural Biology and Bioinformatics groups at GlaxoWellcome (1991-1999), applying protein structure analysis to drug discovery and was involved in structure-based drug design projects aimed at a variety of therapeutic targets. He received his PhD in Protein Crystallography from Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.
John Aston, MA ACA
Chief Financial Officer
John Aston joined Astex in January 2007 as Chief Financial Officer. John was formerly chief financial officer and a member of the board of directors of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) having joined CAT in September 1996, 6 months before the company’s Initial Public Offering. As CFO and a senior member of its executive management, he played a central role over a period of more than 10 years in the development of CAT into one of Europe's most important biotechnology companies, including the successful listing of CAT on the London Stock Exchange and subsequently on NASDAQ, and its sale to AstraZeneca in June 2006. John has a degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse subsequently joining British Technology Group (BTG) before gaining extensive experience in corporate finance during 14 years at Schroders, where he was appointed a director in 1989.
Martin Buckland, DPhil MBA
Chief Business Officer
Martin Buckland joined Astex as Chief Business Officer in September 2004. 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.
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.
Neil Thompson, PhD
VP Biology
Neil Thompson 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
VP Medicinal Chemistry
David Rees joined Astex as Director of Medicinal Chemistry in January 2003. 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, Mölndal, Sweden. He has over 70 publications and patents including the applications of peptidomimetic chemistry, combinatorial chemistry and supramolecular chemistry to drug discovery. He began his research career as an organic chemist at Cambridge University, UK, where he obtained his PhD, before moving to Prof. E. J. Corey's laboratory at Harvard University
John Lyons, MSc PhD
VP Translational Research
John Lyons joined Astex as Director of Oncology in October 2003 and has 16 years industrial experience of cancer biology and clinical development. He joined Astex from SuperGen Inc., where, as Senior Director of Scientific Development, he was responsible for the development of Decitabine (Dacogen™), currently in Phase III trials in leukemias. Prior to this he spent 8 years at Onyx Pharmaceuticals were he led the development of BAY 43-9006, a mixed VEGFR/Raf kinase inhibitor currently in multiple Phase III trials in renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and melanoma and Phase I/II studies in a number of other cancer indications. He has a PhD (1989) from the University of Ulm, Germany.
Trish Sweeney PhD
Director of Clinical Operations
Trish Sweeney joined Astex in October 2005 from Vernalis following its acquisition of Ionix Pharmaceuticals. She has held a variety of Project Director and Project Management positions during which she managed multiple NCE and biologics development programmes from inception through clinical development. Prior to joining Ionix, Dr Sweeney had worked with Vernalis, Xenova and SmithKline Beecham. She has a PhD from the University of Hertfordshire (1991) and a BSc in Biochemistry from University College, Galway, Ireland.
Chris
Murray, PhD
VP Computational Chemistry and Informatics
Chris Murray joined Astex from Protherics (previously Proteus Molecular Design). Dr Murray obtained a 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. Dr Murray joined Protherics to lead the developmental team working on virtual screening docking codes. He then became leader of the Molecular Design group and played a key role in the design of the Factor Xa lead compound, subsequently licensed to Eli Lilly.
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. He holds a PhD from Birmingham University and undertook postdoctoral research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund before beginning his industrial career.
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.