Artios | Artios Pharma

Naseem Amin MD

Non Executive Director

Naseem Amin currently serves as Executive Chairman of Arix Bioscience plc and Chief Executive Officer of GMP-Orphan. He has broad life sciences experience in both the US and Europe, having held senior positions in major healthcare businesses in R&D, business development, marketing, and in venture capital. Naseem has been a Venture Partner at Advent Life Sciences, Chief Scientific Officer of Smith and Nephew plc and led Business Development at Biogen and at Genzyme Therapeutics, where for both of these companies, he initiated and executed a number of acquisitions and partnerships. Naseem started his career at Baxter Healthcare where he had executive roles in marketing, product development and clinical research.

Naseem is a qualified medical doctor, from the University College Medical School, London, and holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.

René Kuijten

Director

René joined LSP in 2001 and is currently a Managing Partner and co-owner of the firm. His prime focus and responsibility is to invest in private companies and the general management of LSP. Prior to joining, René was a senior consultant for eight years at McKinsey & Company in Amsterdam, Brussels and Zurich, where he was responsible for McKinsey’s European Healthcare Practice.

René has founded and supported many life sciences companies as a supervisory board director, eleven of which have been acquired or have listed on international stock exchanges. René initiated the Oncode Institute, uniting top cancer research and valorisation, where he is currently a supervisory board member. René is also a board member of the Dutch Venture Capital Association (NVP), in which role he initiated the Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI), a EUR 150 million government-backed fund-of-fund that invests in top-tier Dutch Venture firms.

Furthermore René is amongst.others, a member of the national Topsector Life Sciences & Health; chairman of the Emma Children’s Hospital charity; and treasurer of the board of the Vereniging Rembrandt. René studied at the University of Utrecht, Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinics for his Medical Doctor degree. He obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam on research performed at the University of Pennsylvania as a WHO fellow, and he authored several scientific articles a.o. in The New England Journal of Medicine. In addition, René obtained an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. René lives in Baarn with his wife and four children.

Niall Martin

Chief Executive Officer

Niall has extensive experience in the DDR field and in cancer therapeutics in general, both in small companies and pharma.

Prior to joining Artios, Niall was a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at MISSION Therapeutics, a company focused on the commercialisation of expert research into ubiquitin pathways for the treatment of cancers and other diseases. During his time at MISSION, Niall helped establish the deubiquitylating enzyme (DUB) inhibitor platform, and raise more than £80 million in Series A and B financing.

Prior to that, Niall worked as Head of KuDOS Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, UK (a subsidiary of AstraZeneca) from 2008 to 2010, delivering a number of DDR projects into the AstraZeneca oncology pipeline, including ATR and ATM. Niall also previously held the role of Director of Drug Discovery, where he established the drug-screening capabilities that underpinned all KuDOS’ drug discovery programmes. Niall’s most notable achievement was establishing KuDOS’ programme against the DDR target PARP, which resulted in the discovery and development of Lynparza™ (olaparib), the first PARP inhibitor to market.

Niall also worked in thrombosis research at Fournier (Dijon, France) and in non-lipid cardiovascular research at Zeneca. He gained his PhD in Zoology from Aberdeen University.

Graeme Smith

Chief Scientific Officer

Graeme has more than 25 years’ experience in oncology research, with significant expertise and in-depth knowledge in the field of DDR.

He joined Artios from AstraZeneca, where he held the position of Senior Director of Bioscience within the Oncology Innovative Medicines and Early Development (IMED) division. In this role, Graeme was responsible for leading a group of approximately 100 bioscientists in target validation and the discovery and development of novel anti-cancer agents. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he was Head and Research Director at KuDOS Pharmaceuticals where he played a key role in the discovery and development of Lynparza™ (olaparib), the first targeted DDR inhibitor to reach the market.

Graeme gained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and subsequently worked as a Research Fellow at the Wellcome/CRC Institute at the University of Cambridge in the laboratory of Professor Steve Jackson, FRS.

Andrew Muncey

Chief Operating Officer and Company Secretary

Andrew brings over 30 years’ experience in finance and management to Artios. He previously served as Co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of Acacia Pharma, and Chief Executive Officer of Amura Therapeutics. Andrew has been Chief Financial Officer or Finance Director of several healthcare companies, including MISSION Therapeutics, Bicycle Therapeutics, Kymab, Virttu Biologics and PhoreMost.

Andrew has raised significant amounts of equity and debt funding, including $500 million in private equity, and has completed many acquisitions, disposals and restructuring deals in the healthcare market. He has over 18 years’ corporate finance and capital markets experience from PricewaterhouseCoopers and UBS.

Tania Dimitrova

Chief Business Officer

Tania brings 15 years of bio-pharma business and corporate development, capital markets and investing experience to Artios. She joins Artios from Pfizer Inc. where she was a Director in Worldwide Business Development, leading partnership, licensing, M&A, and externalisation transactions. Prior to Pfizer, Tania was a member of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Corporate M&A group, where she managed all stages of the origination, due diligence, and execution of M&A and divestiture activities, including multiple buy-side commercial assessments.

Prior to entering industry, Tania spent 8 years on Wall Street researching and investing in healthcare companies. She began her career with Credit Suisse Investment Banking as an equity research analyst, where she conducted analyses of private life science companies as they pursued the public markets. Tania holds an MBA degree with focus in Healthcare Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA degree in Economics & Mathematics from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts.

Gillian Langford

VP of Clinical Development

Gillian has over 25 years research and development experience in both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Gillian joined Artios from Bicycle Therapeutics where she was part of the Leadership team and was VP of Clinical and Project Management and responsible for moving Bicycle’s lead compound into the clinic. Prior to joining Bicycle Gillian was Director of Programme Management at Boyd Consultants and worked with European and North American companies developing oncology products and gene based medicines.

Gillian also worked at Alizyme Therapeutics, Ark Therapeutics and Imutran Ltd, a Novartis Pharma AG company. At Ark Therapeutics Gillian was responsible for all aspects of the company’s lead gene therapy product, including non-clinical studies, manufacturing, regulatory and clinical trials (Phases 2 and 3).

At Imutran Gillian worked in the field of xenotransplantation, initially as Unit Head of Molecular Biology and subsequently as Unit Head of Retroviral research. Gillian was responsible for internal research projects and collaborations with academic groups.

Gillian graduated from Imperial College London and obtained her Ph.D. in molecular biology at York University.

Simon Boulton

VP of Scientific Strategy

As VP Science Strategy at Artios, Simon plays an important role in assisting the business development team in the identification andevaluation of new pipeline opportunities from the global academic and industrial DDR network. Simon is an award-winning British scientist at the Francis Crick Institute in London who brings over 20 years’ experience of working in the DNA damage response field, and 15 years as an independent group leader studying the mechanisms of DNA repair and their impact on human disease.

Simon’s principal position is a Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute and he is also an honorary Professor at University College London. Over the last 15 years his lab has discovered novel DNA repair genes and provided molecular insights into their impact on human diseases. As a result of his ground-breaking work, Simon has received a number of prestigious accolades, notably the EMBO Gold Medal and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. He has also given numerous prize lectures, most notably the Royal Society Francis Crick Prize lecture and the Mendel Lecture.

Simon previously established the DNA Damage Response Laboratory at Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, Clare Hall Laboratory having completed postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School, Boston, with Prof. Nick Dyson (MGH Cancer Centre) and Prof. Marc Vidal (Dana Faber Cancer Institute).

Simon gained his PhD at the University of Cambridge with Prof. Steve Jackson (Gurdon Institute).

Peter Harris

Clinical Consultant

Peter has vast experience in the development cancer treatments, including DDR programmes, and particularly their translation to the clinic. Prior to joining Artios, Peter served as Vice President Oncology and Renal Medicine and Site Head for Genzyme Europe Research, with global responsibility for oncology translational research.

He previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Algeta (acquired by Bayer AG in 2013) where he initiated the successful global registration study of Xofigo, formerly alpharadin, the first alpha-emitter approved to market.

Peter was previously Development Director at KuDOS Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, UK where he was responsible for the preclinical and clinical development of DDR modifiers including Lynparza ™ (olaparib).

He also served as Head of Medical Affairs and chair of the global clinical operations group at ICI Pharmaceuticals (now AstraZeneca).

After his BSc (Hons) at UCL, Peter gained his medical qualifications at the University of London.

Harry Finch

Medicinal Chemistry Consultant

Harry works with Artios as an independent chemistry consultant, Harry has a proven track record in drug discovery and development within the pharmaceutical industry. He has worked across a broad range of therapeutic areas including oncology and has notable expertise in respiratory medicine, where he most notably co-invented GSK’s successful asthma drug salmeterol (Serevent™).

He is currently an independent consultant working with a number of small biotech companies and investors, primarily in the oncology field. Alongside his board role at Artios, he is also a non-executive director of Pulmocide Therapeutics and C4X Discovery Holdings.

Harry previously worked at several biotechnology companies in the UK including Ribotargets, Vernalis, Argenta and Pulmagen Therapeutics, following a distinguished career in pharma which included Roche and Ciba-Geigy AG (now Novartis AG), and GlaxoWellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) where he latterly became Director of Chemistry.

Harry gained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Manchester.

Pierre Legault

Chairman

Pierre, who is based in the US, is a highly accomplished leader in the global biopharmaceutical industry with over 35 years’ experience leading companies through high phases of growth to deliver significant shareholder value.

Pierre currently serves as Chairman of the Board for Artios Pharma Limited, Bicycle Therapeutics, Amolyt Pharma and Poxel SA Biopharmaceutical. He is also a Board Director at Syndax Pharmaceuticals and Lead Director at Urovant Sciences. In the past, he was a Board Director at Armo Biosciences, Tobira Therapeutics, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Forest Laboratories, Regado Biosciences, lroko Pharmaceuticals, Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Eckerd Pharmacy and NephroGenex, a biotechnology focused on kidney diseases, where he served from 2012 to 2016 as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. From 2010 to 2012, he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Prosidion Ltd., specialized in the treatment of diabetes and obesity.

From 2009 to 2010, he served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of OSI Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Legault also served as the President of Eckerd Pharmacy and Senior Executive Vice – President of Rite Aid Corporation. Between 1989 and 2005, he held various roles, such as President, CEO and Chief Financial Officer, at legacy companies of the Sanofi – Aventis group.

Pierre holds an M.B.A. in Marketing from McGill University and a Bachelor’s degree from HEC (France). He also studied at Harvard Business School. He holds an MBA, BAA, CA, CPA and Six Sigma Green Belt diplomas.

Raphael Wisniewski

Director

Raphaël joined the Life Sciences Team of Andera Partners (formerly Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners) in 2001. Previously, he worked in Healthcare Corporate Finance at Goldman Sachs starting at Salomon Smith Barney.

He worked in the Finance Department of Health in London and in the finance department of General Healthcare in London, the private hospital group. Raphaël is a graduate of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales and holds a postgraduate diploma in Economics and Finance from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (IEP), Paris. Raphaël is a Director of Axonics, Poxel, ReViral, MedDay and Grey Wolf.

Barbara Dalton

Director

Barbara joined Pfizer in 2007 to manage the Pfizer Ventures Investments team within the Worldwide Business Development organization. She is responsible for growing their corporate venture activities, managing the corporation’s private equity portfolio, advising on structured equity transactions and driving novel transactions to achieve corporate objectives.

Barbara has over 15 years of corporate venture capital experience in the pharmaceutical industry supporting and managing teams involved in direct and indirect healthcare investing. She has managed over 30 fund investments and 80 diverse company investments in the US and Europe and has had direct investing responsibility for biotechnology therapeutic and platform companies, as well as some healthcare IT and service businesses. For example: Alere, Ciphergen, Corixa, Genset, Gliatech, Gryphon, iJet, Lexicon, OGS, Third Wave, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals. In her current role, Barbara serves as the Chair of the board for Celladon.

Barbara began her pharmaceutical career as a research scientist in Immunology at SmithKline and French Laboratories and joined their venture capital group, S.R. One, Limited in the early 1990’s. Barbara was also a founding member and General Partner with EuclidSR Partners, a private venture capital firm, where SmithKline (now GSK) was a leading limited partner.

Barbara is a graduate of Penn State and received her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from The Medical College of Pennsylvania (now the Drexel University College of Medical School).

Hakan Goker

Observer

Hakan is a Senior Investment Director at Merck Ventures, the corporate venture arm of the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA, having joined the company in 2013. Previously, he was a partner at Aescap Venture in Amsterdam and prior to that at Atlas Venture in London.

Hakan has global investment and deal flow experience, and was instrumental in the creation, financing and development of business and R&D strategies for various companies including Orphazyme-DK, f-Star NL, Protaffin- Austria/UK, Bicycle Therapeutics -UK, Nimbus Discovery -US, Lumavita -CH, Nitec now Horizon Pharma -CH/US, and Egalet -DK. He is currently a board member of Asceneuron, Forendo Pharma, Raze Therapeutics, Tocopherx, Synaffix, and Storm Therapeutics.

Hakan gained his PhD in oncology from the Institute of Cancer Research/ University of London, UK and was post-doctoral fellow at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Centre/Royal Marsden Hospital.

Lisa Patel

Observer

Lisa is a partner in the LS Team at IP Group and sits on several portfolio groups. With 10 years’ experience at GSK, starting at SB in product lifecycle, and post merger into the CV CEDD where she led programs from target ID to candidate and beyond. Lisa had responsibility for strategic initiatives in 7TMs and NRs and led, and was part of several candidate selections during this time.

Latterly she was in CPDM, reporting to Barbara Weber and then Perry Nisen with responsibility for translational medicine support for programs in the autoimmune/inflammatory and CV space. Lisa joined an IP Group company, Modern Biosciences in 2007, and since 2008 has been its sole employee, leading the development of its main project from lab hit to a recent PoC in RA. The company was rebranded 2 years ago to Istesso and is currently valued at £140m. She has a PhD in molecular Genetics and an MBA.

Adam Houghton

Observer

Adam is currently AbbVie Vice-President, Corporate Strategy and Head of AbbVie Ventures, prior to this, he was Senior Director and Head, Immunology Search and Evaluation, focused on AbbVie’s externally sourced Immunology pipeline, from early-stage venture investments and strategic partnerships to late-stage clinical collaborations. Adam has over 30 years of experience in the Pharma industry, his previous roles include external innovation positions at Biogen and Eli Lilly, and drug discovery positions at P&G Pharmaceuticals and Zeneca Pharmaceuticals (now AstraZeneca).

Professor Geoff Higgins

Scientific Advisor

Geoff Higgins graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University in 2000. He undertook specialty training as a Clinical Oncologist at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists in 2007. He subsequently moved to Oxford University and was awarded a D.Phil in 2010. For the last 9 years he has worked as a Clinician Scientist and Consultant Clinical Oncologist in Oxford. His laboratory research focuses on developing treatments that can selectively kill cancer cells when combined with radiotherapy. He previously demonstrated that disruption of POLQ induces tumour-specific radiosensitisation, and established the initial collaboration with Cancer Research Technology to develop inhibitors against this protein.

In the clinic, he has been the Chief Investigator of three clinical trials which have successfully translated new drug treatments into patient studies. Geoff also leads research relating to cancer imaging, and is joint-lead investigator of the CRUK funded National Cancer Imaging Translational Accelerator.

Dr Stephen V. Frye

Scientific Advisor

Stephen is currently the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the highest ranked school of pharmacy in the USA. As Director of the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at UNC, Stephen plays a key role in translational research through collaborative drug discovery projects with other UNC facilities.

Stephen has a broad background in drug discovery and development and most notably he was responsible for co-inventing the marketed product Avodart and created the department that discovered the FDA approved kinase inhibitor oncology therapies Lapatinib (Tyverb®) and Pazopanib (Votrient®), while at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Previously, Stephen was VP of Discovery Medicinal Chemistry at GSK. Stephen is currently Chair of Cancer Research UK’s Drug Discovery Committee, Member of A*STAR Project Review Committee of the Experimental Therapeutics Center in Singapore, Co-Founder and Vice President of the Academic Drug Discovery Consortiun and Member of the SAB for the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre/ Experimental Therapeutics Programme. Stephen received his PhD in organic chemistry from UNC Chapel Hill in the USA.

Dr Simon Boulton

VP of Scientific Strategy

Simon is Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute and VP of Scientific Strategy at Artios. He is also an honorary Professor at University College London and Kings College London, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Over the last 15 years Simon’s laboratory has discovered novel DNA repair genes and provided molecular insights into their impact on human diseases. As a result of his ground-breaking work, Simon has received a number of prestigious accolades, most notably the EMBO Gold Medal and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. He has also given numerous prize lectures, including the Royal Society Francis Crick Prize lecture and the Mendel Lecture. Simon previously established the DNA Damage Response Laboratory at Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, Clare Hall Laboratory having completed post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School, Boston. Simon gained his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

Professor Chris Lord

Scientific Consultant

Professor Chris Lord is Deputy Head of Division at The Institute of Cancer Research, Team Leader of the CRUK Gene Function Laboratory and Professor of Cancer Genomics and Deputy Director at Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre at the ICR, London. Professor Lord completed his D.Phil., working on complex disease genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford.

Chris carried out post-doctoral work at the CIMR, University of Cambridge, and at the ICR. Much of the focus of his work is in exploiting genetic concepts such as synthetic lethality and functional genomics approaches to understand the behaviour of tumour cells. The ultimate aim of this work is to use this information to design novel ways to treat the disease.

Professor Johann de Bono

Clinical Advisor

Professor Johann de Bono is Regius Professor of Cancer Research and a Professor in Experimental Cancer Medicine at The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden. He is also the Director of The Drug Development Unit, overseeing the conduct of Phase I trials.

Additionally he leads the Prostate Cancer Targeted Therapy Clinical Trials Team and the Cancer Biomarkers Laboratory Team.
He graduated from the University of Glasgow medical school in 1989, graduating as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in 1992. He trained in medical oncology, and was awarded an MSc (Cancer Sciences) from Glasgow University.

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow then awarded him a travelling scholarship that allowed him to pursue further research on the challenges of clinical trial design at the SWOG statistical headquarters at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centre in Seattle, USA in 1999. Between 2000 and 2003 he then pursued further research developing novel anti-cancer drugs at the Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio.

Professor de Bono received the prestigious ESMO Award in 2012 and was part of the ICR/RMH team awarded the AACR Team Science Award. In 2015 he was named among the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”, and in 2016 named as Regius Professor of Cancer Research, a rare award bestowed by the Sovereign by Royal Warrant to recognise exceptionally high-quality research at an Institution.

Professor de Bono has been involved in the development of many novel agents, many now approved drugs, for example abiraterone, olaparib and afatinib. He has served as chief investigator of multiple drugs that have changed the standard of care for prostate cancer patients including abiraterone, cabazitaxel and enzalutamide.

He has led on the study of circulating tumour cells, whole blood expression profiling and plasma DNA in metastatic prostate cancer patients and pioneered the concept of patient molecular stratification in early clinical trials in the Pharmacological Audit Trail.

Professor Kevin Harrington

Clinical Advisor

Professor Kevin Harrington specialises in developing new treatments using biologically targeted agents (such as viruses, antibodies and small molecules) that selectively destroy cancer cells. He is Professor of Biological Cancer Therapies at The Institute of Cancer Research and an honorary consultant oncologist at The Royal Marsden. Professor Harrington was appointed as Joint Head of the ICR’s Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging in 2013.

Professor Harrington studied medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and began focusing on head and neck cancer while a PhD student at Hammersmith Hospital. He completed postdoctoral research in molecular medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, before joining the ICR in 2001 as Team Leader in Targeted Therapy within the Section of Cell and Molecular Biology.
https://www.icr.ac.uk/our-research/researchers-and-teams/professor-kevin-harrington

Professor Jonathan Ledermann

Clinical Advisor

Jonathan Ledermann, MD, FRCP is Professor of Medical Oncology and Clinical Director at UCL Cancer Institute, University College London, and a consultant medical oncologist at UCL Hospitals, London, United Kingdom (UK).

He specializes in the treatment of gynaecological cancers and has led several national and international trials in ovarian cancer. As Director of the Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre, one of the national cancer trials units in the UK, he is responsible for the conduct of a large portfolio of national and international academic trials, many in the field of gynaecological cancer. In 2018 he was awarded the position of Senior Investigator for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). He is on the council of ESGO (European Society of Gynaecological Oncology) and is chair of the Rare Tumour Group of the GCIG (Gynaecological Cancer InterGroup).

He is a member of the gynaecological cancer track of the ESMO ( European Society of Medical Oncology) guidelines committee. He is the past chair of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Gynaecological Cancer Studies Group. He has published widely in the areas of clinical trials in gynaecological cancers, experimental therapeutics, guidelines and education in gynaecological malignancies.

Dr Geoff Shapiro

Clinical Advisor

Dr Shapiro received his PhD in 1987 and his MD in 1988 from Cornell University, followed by postgraduate training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, where he served as chief medical resident. He completed a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, during which he investigated the role of cell-cycle-related proteins in lung cancer.

He joined the Dana-Farber faculty in 1994. Dr Shapiro is Leader of the Early Drug Development Center at the Dana-Farber, Clinical Director of the Dana-Farber Center for DNA Damage and Repair, and co-Leader of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC). He is the Principal Investigator on the NCI-CTEP grant supporting the activities of the DF/HCC in the Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN).

Dr Shapiro directs both basic and translational research on cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, as well as inhibitors of DNA repair. In addition, he also leads multiple early phase clinical studies of inhibitors of signal transduction, cell cycle and DNA repair, used alone, in targeted combinations or in combination with immune checkpoint blockade in patients with advanced solid tumours.

Professor Andrew Tutt

Clinical Advisor

Andrew Tutt is Professor of Breast Oncology, and Head of the Division of Breast Cancer Research and Director of the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research and Director of the Research Unit at King’s College London, Division of Cancer Studies.

He is a Clinician Scientist who leads two research laboratories and is Chief Investigator of various clinical trials, as well as a Consultant Clinical Oncologist. Professor Tutt has developed a translational laboratory for triple-negative breast cancer. He leads a clinical trial programme focusing on TNBC and cancers associated with functional deficiencies in BRCA1 and BRCA, having led international Phase II and III trials for BRCA1/BRCA2-associated malignancy. He qualified in medicine in 1990.

Professor Raj Chopra

Non-Executive Director

Raj Chopra is currently Venture Partner at Apple Tree Partners. He was previously Director of the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit and Head of the Division of Cancer Therapeutics at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. He has had experience of working both in academia and industry having been Director of Hematological Oncology, Christie Hospital in Manchester and subsequently in the Oncology Therapeutic area at AstraZeneca.

From 2009-2016, he was leader of the Executive R&D Team and Corporate Vice President of Translational and Early Drug Development at Celgene Corporation, Summit, NJ, where he led a team of over 100 scientists in San Diego, San Francisco and Seville. There he was involved in a large number of drug discovery and development projects and part of a team that helped to define the mechanism of action of Thalidomide and its analogues. In addition, Raj was also involved in the New Drug Applications for pomalidomide (a second generation IMiD agent) and apremilast (a PDE4 inhibitor). Both drugs were approved in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Raj is a Non-Executive Director of Artios Pharma Ltd, which has been established to develop a next generation DNA Damage Response (DDR) target pipeline with the potential to transform cancer therapy and Co-Founder of Monté Rosa Therapeutics a Versant backed start up.

Beat Steffen

Observer

Dr. Beat Steffen is a Principal at NVF in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining NVF, he worked at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in commercial roles in the US and in Switzerland launching several products mainly in the cardiovascular area. Beat joined Novartis from Wellington Partners Venture Capital where he worked with biotech and medical device startup companies. Prior to that, he was at McKinsey & Company in Zurich working with clients in the pharmaceutical industry. Beat is a Swiss-trained physician having focused in cardiovascular surgery and intensive care. He graduated from the University of Zurich Medical School and qualified as a Medical Doctor in Basel. Beat holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD. He is a board member at Vivet Therapeutics and Binx Health.

Bryony Harrop

VP of Clinical Development

Bryony is a seasoned pharmaceutical industry professional with extensive experience through all stages of drug development in cutting-edge oncology clinical trials across a broad range of malignancies. She was previously Oncology Delivery Director at AstraZeneca where over a period of fifteen years she held various leadership positions in the Early Clinical Development and Global Medical Affairs units. Before AstraZeneca, Bryony worked at contract research organisations such as MDS Harris and Chiltern International Limited and in the NHS at Northampton Community Healthcare Trust. Bryony holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry from the University of Nottingham.

Mike Ross

Director

Mike Ross’ career spans over 15 years in venture capital, which followed 21 years in senior operating executive roles for leading biotechnology companies. He joined SV Health Investors as a Venture Partner in 2001 and became a Managing Partner in 2002.

Mike was the tenth employee at Genentech, where he worked for 13 years. He served as Genentech team leader for Humulin® (human insulin-Lilly), Roferon® (Interferon alpha -Roche), Protropin® (hGH), Vice President of Development during the development of Activase®, Nutropin® and Pulmozyme®. He then started Genentech’s protein engineering and small molecule discovery effort as Vice President of Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry. Mike was the Founding CEO of Arris Pharmaceutical, MetaXen, ExSAR and CyThera (now Viacyte). He was also Managing Partner in Didyma, LLC, a biotechnology management consulting firm. Mike served on the boards of Carta Proteomics, Epimmune, Genencor, MetaXen, and Xenova.

Ian Smith

Chief Medical Officer

Ian is the Chief Medical Officer of Artios Pharma and has a wealth of experience in the translational research and clinical development of medicines to treat cancer.

Ian has held leadership positions within the global clinical development organizations of both Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca and has held academic and clinical positions in the University of Aberdeen. Prior to joining Artios Ian served as Global Senior Medical Director within Eli Lilly where he led the worldwide clinical development, regulatory approval and subsequent commercialization of key successful breakthrough medicines for multiple indications.

While at AstraZeneca Ian lead both early and late phase clinical development of several novel cancer therapeutics for both adult and pediatric indications. Ian has served as reviewer for several oncology journals and sat on national grant awarding panels within the United States and the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry Ian was a Clinical Lecturer in the University of Aberdeen where he led research projects evaluating novel methods of predicting and assessing early treatment response of cancer therapeutics.

Abid Ansari

Chief Financial Officer

Abid is the Chief Financial Officer of Artios and leads the company’s financial, investor relations, and public relations operations. Abid brings 18 years of finance experience in life science businesses to Artios.

Prior to joining Artios, he was CFO of Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ: DTIL), a next generation genome editing company. There he helped the company raise over $300M in capital, including a $146M IPO and $110M Series B. Abid also worked at GlaxoSmithKline for five years in deal finance and portfolio management roles. There he worked on the divestment of Ofatumumab to Novartis for $1B, the acquisition of the BMS HIV portfolio for up to $1.4B, and the in-license cell & gene therapy deal with Adaptimmune. Abid also spent 5 years at MedImmune LLC in commercial and capital finance roles.

Abid holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering and a master of business administration, both from Purdue University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Dr Jos Jonkers

Scientific Advisor

Jos is Professor of Molecular Experimental Oncogenetics and Cancer Therapeutics, and the Head of Molecular Pathology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI). His laboratory specialises in the genetic dissection of human BRCA-associated hereditary breast cancer and E-cadherin mutated invasive lobular breast cancer through the use of genetically engineered mouse models and patient-derived xenograft models. In 2002 he visited the laboratory of Allan Bradley at the Sanger Institute to develop platforms for mouse array-CGH. He then became an Assistant Professor at the NKI in 2003 and a permanent staff member in 2008. Jos is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and gained his PhD and post-doctoral research in the group of Anton Berns at the NKI.

Dr Simon N. Powell

Scientific Advisor

Simon is the Enid A. Haupt Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Member of the Molecular Biology Programme of the Sloan-Kettering Institute, and Professor of Molecular Biology at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York, USA. He has been a Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on federal research grants since 1992. His primary interests are in DNA repair and breast cancer, particularly in the function of breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2.

The current focus of his work is elucidating the molecular mechanisms of BRCA1 recruitment to double-strand breaks and replication fork blockages, and the subsequent engagement of BRCA2. He is also interested in the discovery of synthetic lethal interactions in cancer cells lacking the function of the BRCA1-BRCA2 pathway, which has both mechanistic implications as well as applications for therapeutic strategies. Simon received his PhD from the University of London.

Dr KJ Patel

Scientific Advisor

KJ is a scientist and tenured Principal Investigator at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) at the University of Cambridge. Over the past 18 years, his laboratory has made crucial discoveries in the field of DNA crosslink repair and in identifying that alcohol derived and endogenous aldehydes are a potent source of endogenous DNA damage. KJ is also responsible for discovering a key role for the BRCA2 in DNA repair, stimulating his interest in DNA crosslink repair. KJ is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), a Fellow to the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and has a fellowship to the Royal Society (FRS). KJ trained in medicine at the University of London where he specialised in gastroenterology, and he completed his PhD in immunology at the LMB.

Florian Muellershausen

Observer

Florian is a Principal at the Novartis Venture Fund (NVF) in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining NVF, he worked as a Scientific Manager for the R&D Committee of the Novartis Board of Directors and, before that held various scientific and drug discovery roles at the Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research (NIBR) including as Laboratory Head in target discovery and in early clinical research as Translational Medicine Expert, Autoimmunity. Florian received his MSc degree in Biochemistry from Free University Berlin and his PhD degree with great distinction in Biochemistry from Ruhr University Bochum and completed his post-doctoral training at NIBR in Switzerland.

Hamish Cameron

Director

Hamish is an Operating Partner at SV Health Investors (SV), since 2014, having joined in 2008 as a Venture Partner. He is currently a Director at Affinium Pharmaceuticals, TopiVert Ltd (serving as Chairman) and VHSquared.

Prior to joining SV, Hamish was Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT). He previously served as Interim Chief Executive Officer at X2-Pharma, Delenex Therapeutics and TopiVert Ltd, and as Chief Commercial Officer at ESBATech. Hamish has held a series of senior R&D positions at AstraZeneca/Zeneca including Head of the Cardiovascular Therapy Area, Senior Vice-President Medical Research and was a member of the R&D Leadership Team.

Hamish started his industry career at Janssen, having initially worked in clinical practice and research in the UK. He is a member of the UK Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow and past Board member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Hamish holds MBBS and BSc (Hons) Pharmacology degrees from the University of London.

Dr Serena Nik-Zainal

Scientific Advisor

Serena is a Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Advanced Clinician Scientist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Her laboratory explores patterns of mutations or mutational signatures that arise in human cells to understand how DNA damage and DNA repair processes contribute towards aging and cancer. Serena is a Career Development Fellow (CDF) Group Leader in the Cancer Genome Project and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

In 2013, Serena was awarded a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship to pursue biological understanding of the signatures identified during her research training. She joined the Sanger Institute Faculty team in 2014 and leads the Signatures of Mutagenesis in Somatic Cells group. She qualified in medicine from the University of Cambridge in 2000 and trained as a physician specialising in Clinical Genetics. Serena undertook her PhD at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2009 with Mike Stratton, exploring breast cancer using next-generation sequencing technology.

Pfizer Ventures

Pfizer Ventures (PV), the venture capital arm of Pfizer Inc. was founded in 2004 and invests for return in areas of current or future strategic interest to Pfizer. PV seeks to remain at the forefront of life science advances, looking to identify and invest in emerging companies that are developing transformative medicines and technologies that have the potential to enhance Pfizer’s pipeline and shape the future of our industry.

www.pfizerventures.com.

Novartis Venture Fund

Novartis Venture Fund is a financially driven corporate life science venture fund whose purpose is to foster innovation, drive significant patient benefit and generate superior returns by creating and investing in innovative life science companies at various stages of their development, independent from Novartis’ strategy.

www.nvfund.com.

Andera Partners

Andera Partners, was created in 2001 as part of the Edmond de Rothschild Group and is a leader in investments in unlisted companies in France and internationally. It manages over €2 billion in investments in life sciences (BioDiscovery), growth capital and OBO (Winch Capital for midcap and Cabestan Capital for small-cap) and sponsorless mezzanine debt (ActoMezz).

Wholly owned by its staff, Andera Partners’ core values focus on partnering with entrepreneurs and respect for its business partners. The company is also a signatory to the UNPRI, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, which aims to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into investment practice.

Andera Partners will continue to raise funds in its current segments. Andera Partners is an AMF-accredited asset management company and has 60 employees, 40 of whom are investment professionals. The firm has a partnership management structure and is run by a board of 10 partners.

The performance of the firm’s funds, its management structure and the range of its services have identified Andera Partners as a leader in its markets.

www.anderapartners.com.

LSP (Life Sciences Partners)

LSP is an independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life sciences companies. LSP’s mission is to connect investors to inventors, focusing on unmet medical needs. Since the late 1980s, LSP’s management has invested in about 100 innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life sciences industry. With over EUR1.7 billion (USD 2.0 billion) of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe’s leading life sciences investors. LSP also invests in public companies through its Euronext-listed LSP Life Sciences Fund (Bloomberg: LSP NA). Artios is the first investment of LSP’s latest flagship fund, LSP 6.

www.lspvc.com

IP Group

IP Group plc is a leading intellectual property commercialisation company which focuses on evolving great ideas, mainly from its partner universities, into world-changing businesses. The Group has pioneered a unique approach to developing these ideas and the resulting businesses by providing access to business building expertise, capital (through its 100%-owned FCA-authorised subsidiaries IP Capital and Parkwalk Advisors), networks, recruitment and business support. IP Group has a strong track record of success and its portfolio comprises holdings in early-stage to mature businesses across life sciences and technology. IP Group is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the code IPO.

www.ipgroupplc.com

AbbVie Ventures

AbbVie Ventures is the corporate strategic venture capital arm of Abbvie and a core component of AbbVie’s integrated approach to external innovation. AbbVie Ventures invests globally in early stage transformational life sciences companies that augment our core R&D areas within oncology, autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and hepatology. We build strong relationships with fellow investors, entrepreneurs and industry experts that provide us insights into novel technologies and biology as well as early exposure to potential business development opportunities. Our expertise in drug discovery, development, and commercialisation serves as a valuable resource to our portfolio companies. Our team is located at AbbVie headquarters in North Chicago, Boston/Cambridge, and the San Francisco Bay area.

www.abbvie.co.uk

SV Health Investors

SV Health Investors (‘SV’) is a leading international life sciences venture capital firm. SV’s affiliated funds have been investing in life sciences companies since the early 1980s and the firm closed its first dedicated life sciences fund in 1994.

The SV team manages six private venture capital funds with approximately $2.1 billion of capital under management. The firm employs a diversified strategy within life sciences in order to selectively capitalise on an expanding opportunity in biotech, medical devices and healthcare services. SV has offices in Boston, London and San Francisco.

www.svhealthinvestors.com

M Ventures

M Ventures is the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck. Its mandate is to invest in innovative technologies and products with the potential to significantly impact Merck‘s core business areas. From our headquarters in Amsterdam and offices in the US and Israel we invest globally in transformational ideas driven by great entrepreneurs. M Ventures takes an active role in its portfolio companies and teams up with entrepreneurs and co-investors to translate innovation towards commercial success. M Ventures has a significant focus on early-stage investing and company creation including the creation of spin-offs to leverage Merck‘s science and technology base.

www.m-ventures.com

Arix Bioscience

Arix Bioscience plc is a global healthcare and life science company. Headquartered in London and with an office in New York, Arix Bioscience plc sources and develops businesses addressing medical innovation at all stages of development and is supported with access to breakthrough academic science

Our extensive experience in academic science, clinical and commercial strategy, company operations, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance puts us in an especially strong position build and support a wide range of businesses and technologies.

Arix Bioscience plc has exclusive or privileged agreements with leading universities in the UK, Europe and Australia providing direct access to innovative new technologies. We also have access to a broad range of research projects from US academic institutions.

www.arixbioscience.com

Artios - Targeting DDR

First-in-Class

Developed by an expert team

Taking control of the DNA Damage Response

Latest News

Artios Pharma Announces Collaboration with Novartis to Create Next Generation DDR Cancer Therapies

Artios Pharma to Attend Upcoming Conferences in February and March 2021

Niall Martin, Chief Executive Officer presented a company overview at LifeSci Partners Precision Oncology Day