4D PHARMA - Key Persons


Adrian Murray

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • General Counsel ( Interim )
Adrian has an undergraduate degree in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Warwick. Since graduating, Adrian qualified as a UK and European Patent and Trade Mark Attorney, as well as being awarded Chartered Chemist / Scientist status. Throughout his career, Adrian has advised all types of life sciences companies right through from start-ups to multinational giants on the development and implementation of IP protection and litigation strategies, advising on some of the sector's most high profile IP disputes. He has held the role of Senior Patent Counsel in Teva's in-house patent department and has also spent several years as a Partner in both a boutique patent and trade mark attorney firm, and, more recently, at international law firm Pinsent Masons.

Alex Stevenson

Job Titles:
  • Chief Scientific Officer
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Member of the Management Team
Alex began his career as a microbiologist, working in research for a number of years before joining an NYSE-quoted drug development company. He subsequently moved into pharmaceutical and healthcare investment and has fulfilled a number of board-level investment and operational management roles. He was a director and shareholder in Aquarius Equity from 2008, where he was responsible for identifying new investments and developing and implementing scientific strategies both pre and post-investment. These included Tissue Regenix Group plc, C4X Discovery Holdings plc and Brabant Pharma (subsequently sold to Zogenix, Inc.). Prior to joining Aquarius Equity, Alex worked for IP Group plc, where he specialised in life sciences investments identifying, developing and advising a number of companies in its portfolio, some of which went on to list on AIM. He joined IP Group following its acquisition of Techtran Group Limited in 2005. Alex is a co-founder of 4D pharma plc and has served as Chief Scientific Officer since 2014.

Antonio Fernández

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Vice President of Bioprocessing & Manufacturing
Antonio was the Chief Executive Officer at Instituto Biomar from 2002, leading a group of fermentation specialist and research scientists in microbiology and natural products chemistry. He received his PhD at Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre, conducting post-doctoral work in the Departments of Cell Biology and Molecular Pathology from the same institution. After this, Antonio worked in the Departments of Tumour Immunology, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and then Surgical Research at the Children's Hospital, both associated with Harvard Medical School in Boston. He moved back to Spain in 2001, and worked at the research unit in Hospital de Leon from 2001 to 2002, when he joined Instituto Biomar. After the acquisition of Biomar´s production unit by 4D pharma in April 2016, Antonio took up the position of director at 4D pharma Leon.

Axel Glasmacher - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Non - Executive Chairman
  • Non - Executive Chairperson
Professor Dr. med. Axel Glasmacher was until recently Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Research & Development Haematology Oncology at Celgene, where he has worked in various global roles for more than ten years. His work at Celgene led to the approvals of Revlimid®, Idhifa® and Vidaza® (haematological cancers). He also worked on the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab. Prior to Celgene, Professor Glasmacher worked within the fields of haematology-oncology at the University Hospital in Bonn.

Dr. Sandy Macrae

Job Titles:
  • Non - Executive Director
Dr. Sandy Macrae has over twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with a combination of scientific, medical and commercial expertise. Dr. Macrae currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. ("Sangamo"; NASDAQ: SGMO), a leading genomic medicine company active in developing cell and gene therapies across a range of rare and large indications. Dr. Macrae has previously served as Global Medical Officer of Takeda Pharmaceuticals, overseeing medical affairs, regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance, outcomes research and epidemiology, quantitative sciences, and knowledge and informatics. Prior to that, Dr. Macrae held roles of increasing responsibility at GlaxoSmithKline, including Senior Vice President, Emerging Markets Research and Development (R&D), and Vice President, Business Development. Earlier in his career, he worked for SmithKline Beecham, where he was responsible for clinical development in the therapeutic areas of neurology and gastroenterology.

Duncan Peyton - CEO

Job Titles:
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Member of the Management Team
Duncan has a proven track record in identifying, investing in and growing businesses within the pharmaceutical sector. He was the founder of Aquarius Equity, a specialist investor in businesses within the life sciences sector, which provided investors with access to innovative, high growth potential companies that delivered significant capital growth. Duncan started his career in a bio-science start-up business, which ultimately went on to list on the London Stock Exchange. He subsequently qualified as a corporate finance lawyer with Addleshaw Goddard, then Addleshaw Booth & Co, and later joined 3i plc as an investment manager. Duncan founded Aquarius in 2005, which made founding investments into Nanoco Technologies Limited, Auralis Limited (subsequently sold to ViroPharma), Tissue Regenix Group plc, Brabant Pharma (subsequently sold to Zogenix, Inc) and C4X Discovery plc. Duncan is a co-founder of 4D pharma plc and has served as Chief Executive Officer since 2014.

Ed Baracchini

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
  • Non - Executive Director
Dr. Edgardo (Ed) Baracchini joined our board of directors in January 2019. Dr. Baracchini served as the Chief Business Officer of Imago BioSciences, Inc., a biotechnology company, from April 2020 January 2021. Prior to joining us, Dr. Baracchini served as Chief Business Officer at Xencor Inc, from January 2010 to September 2018. Dr. Baracchini has also served as the SVP, Business Development for Metabasis Therapeutics (which was acquired by Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) from May 2002 to November 2009. Dr. Baracchini currently serves on the board of INmune Bio, Inc., a Nasdaq listed company, and CoImmune, Inc., a privately held company. Dr. Baracchini holds a B.S. in Microbiology from University of Notre Dame, a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Texas at Dallas, and an MBA from the University of California, Irvine - Paul Merage School of Business.

Imke Mulder

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Executive Vice President of Research at 4D
Imke Mulder is the Executive Vice President of Research at 4D pharma Research Ltd in Aberdeen, Scotland, where she leads a multidisciplinary research group of over 30 scientists. After completing her BSc and MSc in Biology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, she moved to Aberdeen in 2001 to pursue her PhD studies at the Department of Zoology, working on the effects of dietary components on the gut immune system. Imke then carried out 8 years of post-doctoral work as a Research Fellow in the Gut Immunology Group at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health (RINH) in Aberdeen. This work primarily focussed on interactions between the gut microbiota and the host immune system in different model organisms. Specific projects investigated how microbial composition and diversity influences early-life development of the mucosal immune system, and the cell-specific signalling pathways and effector molecules involved in driving health-promoting interactions of the gut microbiota. Imke moved to 4D pharma Research Ltd in 2014 where she leads the development of the MicroRx platform for the discovery of new live biotherapeutics.

Katrin Rupalla

Job Titles:
  • Non - Executive Director
  • Co - Founder and CEO of Ymmunobio AG
Dr Rupalla brings over twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry to the 4D board, and extensive regulatory and clinical expertise in the fields of oncology and neuroscience. Dr Rupalla has previously served in senior positions at Roche, Celgene, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Lundbeck. While at BMS, Dr Rupalla was Vice President Head R&D China and Global Development Team Leader for Opdivo®/Yervoy® in China, and then Vice President, Head Oncology Global Regulatory Sciences. Throughout her career, she has led regional and global teams responsible for obtaining approvals for multiple new therapeutics and indications, including Opdivo®, Yervoy®, Rituxan®, Xeloda®, Avastin ®, Revlimid® and Vidaza®, among others. After this, Dr Rupalla previously served as Senior Vice President, Global Head Regulatory Affairs, Medical Documentation and R&D Quality at Lundbeck, a leading biopharmaceutical developing novel therapeutics for diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). Dr Rupalla is a co-founder and CEO of Ymmunobio AG, an immuno-oncology biotech launched in December 2021. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Ambrx. Dr Rupalla has a Ph.D in CNS Pharmacology from the Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, and an MBA from Jones International University, CO, US. Board Committees The Audit and Risk Committee is comprised of Paul Maier (Chair), Ed Baracchini and Katrin Rupalla

Lucy Christie

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Vice President of Human Resources
Lucy is responsible for leading and developing 4D pharma's Human Resources strategy across six countries and two continents, as well as overall HR compliance. She has over a decade of experience in HR Management at R&D-focused companies, including establishing and growing these departments. Lucy has a degree in Law & Management from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK, and Associate status with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Paul Maier

Job Titles:
  • Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee
  • Independent Director
  • Non - Executive Director
Mr. Maier has over 25 years of investor and public relations, operational, regulatory, and finance expertise in the healthcare industry. Mr. Maier was previously the Chief Financial Officer of Sequenom Inc., where he was responsible for raising over $360 million in equity and debt financings, expanding institutional sell side research analyst coverage, as well as overseeing and establishing internal financial infrastructure. Previously, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND) where he helped build Ligand from a venture stage company to a commercial, integrated biopharmaceutical organization, raising over $1 billion in equity and debt financings including a successful IPO, and helped negotiate multiple R&D and commercial partnerships and transactions. He has also acted as an independent financial consultant to life sciences companies. Mr. Maier is currently a Board member of Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Biological Dynamics and International Stem Cell Corporation (OTCQB: ISCO). He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BS in Business Logistics from the Pennsylvania State University.