ACTIMED THERAPEUTICS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Member of the Board
- Non - Executive Director
- Founders, Professor
- Professor
Professor Andrew Coats MBA, DSc, DM, co-founded Actimed Therapeutics in 2017, having previously founded Myotec (later renamed PsiOxus Therapeutics). Andrew has over 30 years of experience as an academic manager, having been both Dean of Medicine and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sydney and head of Clinical Cardiology at Imperial College and the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. Andrew also served as CEO of the Norwich Research Park in the UK. Andrew is an experienced board director and chairman with an MBA from London Business School. He has over 20 years of experience of company boards in roles including audit, remuneration, nominations and governance committees in biotechnology, publishing health care and education, including the George Institute of International Health, the Woolcock Institute, Lone Star Heart, Myotec, PsiOxus, Radcliffe Group, ESN Cleer and Faraday (Australia). Andrew has been on the board of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC since 2012 and will be its President from 2020 to 2022. He has been a member of over 20 international clinical trial steering committees in the fields of heart failure and cachexia and has over 700 career research papers, 95,000 citations and an h-Index of 130.
Annalisa Jenkins, M.B.B.S., F.R.C.P. is a biopharma thought leader with over 25 years of industry experience. Dr. Jenkins has extensive recent experience in building and financing biotech companies pursuing cures for the most challenging rare diseases to address important medical issues globally. She has consistently built and led teams advancing programs from scientific research through clinical development, regulatory approval, and into healthcare systems globally. In addition, she is an advocate for diversity and inclusion, particularly for women in science. Dr. Jenkins served as president and CEO of Dimension Therapeutics, a leading gene therapy company that she took public on the NASDAQ and subsequently sold to Ultragenyx. Prior leadership roles have included the head of global research and development and executive vice president global development and medical at Merck Serono, and several senior positions at Bristol Myers-Squibb over 15 years - including serving as senior vice president and head of global medical affairs. Earlier in her career, Dr. Jenkins was a medical officer in the British Royal Navy during the Gulf Conflict, achieving the rank of surgeon lieutenant commander. Dr. Jenkins is a board member of several growing companies, including Ardelyx, Inc., iOX Therapeutics Limited, Oncimmune, AVROBIO, COMPASS Pathways, AOBiome, AgeX, PlaqueTec, ADOR Diagnostics, MedCity, DMNoMore, NoxSudor, Secret Saviours, Conduit Connect (Non-Executive Chair), Cocoon Biotech Inc. (Non-Executive Chair), Cellmedica (Non-Executive Chair), and Vium, Inc. (Executive Chair). She also is a committee member of the Science Board to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which advises FDA leadership on complex scientific and technical issues, board member at Faster Cures, a centre of The Milken Institute, and Chair of The Court at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Non - Executive Director
Atish Majumdar has over 24 years' experience in India's Pharmaceutical market including Go-to Market, General Management and Operational Leadership roles. Atish is President (Sales and Marketing) at Mankind Pharma's Specialty Businesses in India and has successfully implemented digital interventional and people developmental strategies to transform business process and outcomes.
Prior to joining Mankind, Atish worked at Lupin Limited as Vice President and Cluster Head of Sales, Marketing and Training where he steered multiple strategic business units in India that operated in Cardiology, CNS and Oncology. Additionally, Atish led business operations in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Atish graduated in Chemistry from Calcutta University and holds a Post Graduate Degree in Management from the Amity Business School. He also holds Certifications in General Management from Indian Institutes of Management, Harvard Business School and Wharton University.
Job Titles:
- Development, Partnering and Financing Advisor in Japan and China
- Founder of Asajes Ventures
Chika Yoshinaga, MD, is a venture capital, pharmaceutical business development and operations expert in Japan and China. With over two decades of cross-border industry experience, she has built a deep understanding of Chinese and Japanese healthcare markets, including the regulatory, clinical and commercial as well as financial environments. Her broad network of contacts at Asian and European companies has also been instrumental in successfully facilitating cross-border company transactions.
Dr Yoshinaga is the founder of Asajes Ventures. Asajes Ventures provides financing as well as local operational support including regulatory, clinical, and business development to western biotech companies to speed up innovative product development in a more time and cost effective way in Japan and China, the two key markets in Asia.
Prior to launching Asajes Ventures, Dr Yoshinaga worked as an independent consultant to provide Asian market entry advice to western companies. Before that, she worked as head of Corporate Development in Japan and China for Quintiles (IQVIA), responsible for inorganic growth including M&A in these markets.
She previously worked for one of the largest European venture capital firms, Sofinnova Partners, as VP Asia, Chief Representative in China. She started her venture capital career at NIF SMBC Ventures Co, Ltd, the second largest VC firm in Japan, where she headed the European life sciences area and directed equity investments in a number of biotech companies that achieved successful exits.
Professor David Ebsworth, PhD has been Chairman of Actimed Therapeutics since April 2018 and has also invested in the Company. David has 40 years of experience in the Healthcare industry and is a past CEO of Galenica AG, Vifor Pharma AG and past global head of the Pharmaceutical Division of Bayer AG. David has chaired numerous private and public pharmaceutical companies and also served on numerous boards as either chairman of the audit, remuneration or nominations and governance committees. David currently serves as Chairman of Verona Pharma PLC which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Management Team
- Head of Regulatory Affairs and Technical Development
Elaine Morten, PhD began working with Actimed in 2017 as a consultant before joining the Company in 2022. Elaine brings over 25 years of global drug development experience to Actimed predominantly obtained in small to mid-size organisations. Elaine has a track record of taking products through development to marketing authorisation and beyond and has diverse therapeutic and territorial experience. Prior to joining Actimed, Elaine was an independent consultant to the Pharmaceutical Industry and before this, she was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Head of Pharmacovigilance at The Medicines Company. Elaine has also worked for British Biotech as Head of Regulatory Affairs and Shire Pharmaceuticals as Regulatory Affairs Manager.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical Officer
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Management Team
- Non - Executive Director
- Actimed 's Chief Medical Officer
Frank Misselwitz MD, PhD is Actimed's Chief Medical Officer, located at the company's German subsidiary. He joined the Company from Bayer AG, where he was Corporate Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head in clinical development. With a background in academia and industry, he has over 30 years extensive pharmaceutical industry experience. Frank supported the development of Humira ($20billion in 2018) at Knoll AG and Abbott and has completed development of multiple cardiovascular drugs (including rivaroxaban). Frank has been a longstanding member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research and the Centre for Thrombosis and Haemostasis University of Mainz Germany; he has extensive clinical research experience including the landmark COMPASS trial. His previous academic research experience was gained in UK, USA, Germany and Russia and he is the author of over 250 publications, has a cumulated impact factor of 1200 and a Hirsch-Index of 67.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Finance
- Member of the Board
Hugh Jackson is a finance professional with more than 30 years' experience. He specializes in providing SMEs with business growth and strategic planning advice together with management reporting and compliance assurance. Over this period, working with owner-managers, business angels and venture capitalists, Hugh has assisted in completing more than 20 successful exit transactions, together with several fundraising transactions, including a Nasdaq flotation and several SEIS / EIS fundraises.
Hugh studied at Exeter University and qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1988. He established his own accountancy practice, Jacksons, in 1990.
Job Titles:
- Quality Manager
- Acting Quality Manager
Jane Costello joined Actimed Therapeutics in 2022, and as acting Quality Manager Jane's responsibilities include managing the Company's auditing and quality systems. With over 20 years of industry knowledge, Jane joins the company with experience in clinical research and quality assurance as well as the introduction and management of quality management systems and support of pharmaceutical companies with Regulatory Authority inspections.
Jane founded Netherton QA Consultancy in 2005, a Quality Assurance company offering global support, development, and management to small and large pharma companies. As a Quality Consultant, Jane has worked with a variety of long-standing clients including Chroma Therapeutics Ltd and Kyowa Hakko Kirin, where she has undertaken central management responsibilities and assisted in a succession of positive Regulatory Authority inspections. Prior to this, Jane spent 8 years working with the Oxford Blood Transfusion Service where she specialised in Blood Group Serology and Haematology and 12 years at a leading UK biotech company where she progressed with the company in numerous roles, including Quality Assurance Technical Officer.
Job Titles:
- Head of Clinical Operations and Quality for Actimed
Louise Bosworth is the Head of Clinical Operations and Quality for Actimed, responsible for leading the Clinical Operations Strategy and delivering the Clinical Development Programme. With over 25 years of Clinical Development and Quality experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Louise joined Actimed in September 2021. Louise has held senior positions at large pharma companies including Eli Lilly & Company and Amgen as well as smaller biopharma companies, GW Pharma and Orphalan. Louise has also worked for the leading Clinical Research Organisation IQVIA. Louise's extensive quality experience includes establishing Quality Management Systems, leading both local and international inspection readiness programs as well as regulatory inspections. Her broad therapeutic and management responsibilities incorporate Clinical and Quality expertise across the industry including fields of oncology and rare diseases products.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Management Team
Robin Bhattacherjee BSc (Hons) joined Actimed Therapeutics as CEO in August 2019. Robin was previously with Actelion from 2009 and was the General Manager for the UK and Ireland Affiliate and a member of the European Management Team.
Robin served on the ABPI Board of Management from 2011 - 2017 as one of the elected Small Companies Group representatives, with a particular interest in medicines that come under specialised commissioning. Prior to Actelion, Robin was the General Manager for CV Therapeutics Europe (CVT) from 2004 to mid-2009, prior to the acquisition of the Company by Gilead. Responsibilities included delivering the European licencing and pre-marketing objectives for the product portfolio and the build and management of European affiliates. He also played a major role in successful European business development activities. Robin joined CVT from Sanofi-Synthélabo UK, where he was Head of Marketing and he also sat on the Irbesartan Global Strategy Team.
From 1986 to 2002, Robin held a variety of positions at Bayer including Marketing Manager and National Sales Manager in the UK and he was a Director in Bayer's Global Strategic Marketing Group. During his career, Robin has been involved in several product launches both in the UK and Europe. Robin grew up in the North West of England and has an honours degree in Biological Sciences gained at University of London.
Ron Lawrence BSc (Hons), PhD, FRSC is the Managing Director of RML Pharma Consulting and Managing Partner at Cerebro CMC. With a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Monash University in Australia, followed by postdoctoral studies in the UK he later joined GlaxoSmithKline in the Chemical Development department at Stevenage, UK. He moved into the outsourced projects group at GSK in 2004 in a Scientific Manager role where he managed multiple early phase outsourced projects at contract manufacturers. He left GSK in 2009 to set up RML Pharma Consulting and now helps small/virtual biotech companies like Actimed to deliver strong technical CMC packages. Ron is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Job Titles:
- Founder & Chair of Scientific Advisory Board
- Professor
Professor Stefan Anker MD, PhD, co-founded Actimed Therapeutics in 2017, having previously founded Myotec (later renamed PsiOxus Therapeutics). Stefan has 25 years academic research experience in heart failure, cachexia and clinical trials with positions at Royal Brompton Hospital and Imperial College in London as well as University Göttingen and Charité Berlin. Stefan has been a tenured University-Professor in Germany since 2007, leading a highly active research group, and he is founding Editor-in-Chief of two successful scientific journals (including the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle). Stefan was Vice President of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) from 2016 to 2018, and served on the ESC board from 2012 to 2018. He has served on the board of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC since 2006; and was HFA President from 2012 to 2014.
Stefan is the founding president of the International Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders, a position that he has held since 2008 (see www.cachexia.org). Stefan has been and is a member of over 30 international clinical trial steering committees and is currently chairing or co-chairing 6 trials in phase II/ III/IV. In this context, Stefan has significant experience interacting with regulators in different branches of the FDA and EMA. Stefan has over 900 research papers, 118,000 citations and a h-Index of 142.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Non - Executive Director
Stefan Wohlfeil, MD, has over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Most recently he was Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D at Vifor Pharma with responsibility for preclinical and clinical R&D, regulatory and medical affairs as well as drug safety. Prior to that he was Head of Clinical Research at Novartis OTC. He also has experience as founder and CEO of two start-up companies in the oncology area, one of which was based in Tokyo. Stefan started his career at Bayer Pharma, where he worked for over 20 years in discovery research and preclinical and clinical development in Germany, USA and Japan. Stefan holds a Medical Doctor's degree from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany.
Yann Colardelle is a professional in communications and medical education who has been involved in research and education in cachexia for more than 15 years. In 1998 he founded Medical Education Global Solutions, a leading independent medical education company with a focus on global and multidisciplinary projects.
Yann holds a degree from the University of Provence and an eMBA at Paris Dauphine. As a founder, he envisions Actimed therapeutics as the organisation that will change the paradigm of cachexia management and improve the lives of patients and their families and carers.