Leadership Team
Astex Pharmaceuticals™ is led by a globally experienced management team and board of directors with knowledge and expertise in finance, drug discovery, development and commercialization.
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Board of Directors
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Officers
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Astex Pharmaceuticals Officers: Martin Buckland, DPhil, MBA; James S.J. Manuso, PhD, MBA; Harren Jhoti, PhD; Mohammad Azab, MD, M Sc, MBA; Michael Molkentin, CPA.-
James S.J. Manuso, PhD, MBAChairman and Chief Executive Officer+/-James S.J. Manuso, PhD, MBA, serves as chairman and chief executive officer. He served as Astex Pharmaceuticals™ (formerly SuperGen) chairman, president and CEO from January 2004 to July 2011, as chief executive officer-elect from September 2003 to December 2003 and as a director since February 2001. He is co-founder and immediate past president and chief executive officer of Galenica Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Manuso co-founded and was general partner of PrimeTech Partners, a biotechnology venture management partnership, from 1998 to 2002, and co-founder and managing general partner of The Channel Group LLC, an international life sciences corporate advisory firm. He was also president of Manuso, Alexander & Associates, Inc., management consultants and financial advisors to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Dr. Manuso was a vice president and director of Health Care Planning and Development for The Equitable Companies (now Group Axa), where he also served as an acting medical director. He currently serves on the boards of Novelos Therapeutics, Inc. (NVLT:OB) and privately held KineMed, Inc. Previously, he served on the boards of Merrion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (MERR:IEX; Dublin, Ireland), Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Symbiontics, Inc. (subsequently sold to BioMarin as ZyStor Therapeutics, Inc.), Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Galenica Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Supratek Pharma, Inc. Dr. Manuso earned a BA with Honors in Economics and Chemistry from New York University, a PhD in Experimental Psychophysiology from the Graduate Faculty of The New School University, a Certificate in Health Systems Management from Harvard Business School and an Executive MBA from Columbia Business School. Dr. Manuso is the author of over 30 chapters, articles and books on topics including health care cost containment and biotechnology company management. He has taught and lectured at Columbia, New York University, Georgetown, Polytechnic University, Waseda University (Japan) and elsewhere. He has delivered invited addresses at meetings of the American Management Association, the American Medical Association, the Securities Industry Association, the Biotechnology Industry Organization and many other professional associations. Dr. Manuso serves on the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and its Health Section Governing Board. He previously served as vice president and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
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Harren Jhoti, PhDPresident and Director+/-Harren Jhoti, PhD, has served as Astex Pharmaceuticals™ president and member of the Board of Directors since July 2011. He co-founded Astex Therapeutics in 1999 and was chief scientific officer until November 2007 when he was appointed chief executive. Dr. Jhoti was 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 been featured in TIME magazine after being named by the World Economic Forum a Technology Pioneer in 2005. Dr. Jhoti served as a non-executive director of Iconix Inc. Before starting up Astex Therapeutics in 1999, he was head of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics at GlaxoWellcome in the United Kingdom (1991-1999). Prior to Glaxo, Dr. Jhoti was a post-doctoral scientist at Oxford University. He received a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry in 1985 and a PhD in Protein Crystallography from the University of London in 1989.
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Mohammad Azab, MD, M Sc, MBAChief Medical Officer+/-Mohammad Azab, MD, M Sc, MBA, joined as chief medical officer in July 2009. He possesses more than 20 years of experience in worldwide drug development, clinical research and medical affairs, resulting in eight approved drugs, including six in oncology. Previously, Dr. Azab served as president and CEO of Intradigm Corporation, a privately held Palo Alto, California, company developing siRNA cancer therapeutics. Prior to this, Dr. Azab served as executive vice president of Research and Development, and chief medical officer of Vancouver, British Columbia-based QLT Inc., where he led clinical development for now-approved drugs in oncology, gastrointestinal and ophthalmologic indications. He also served as Oncology Drug Team leader at UK-based Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, now AstraZeneca, where he held responsibilities in global clinical development and regulatory submissions. In this capacity, he managed the approval of drugs for prostate, breast, colorectal and lung cancer indications. Before Zeneca, Dr. Azab was an international medical manager in oncology at Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, now Sanofi-Aventis, in Gentilly, France. Dr. Azab received his medical degree in 1979 from Cairo University. He practiced as a medical oncologist and received post-graduate training and degrees in oncology research and statistics from the University of Paris-Sud and the University of Pierre and Marie Curie in France. He has published more than 100 medical papers and abstracts. He is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association of Cancer Research and the European Society of Medical Oncology. Dr. Azab received an MBA, with Distinction, from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.
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Martin Buckland, DPhil, MBAChief Business Officer+/-Martin Buckland, DPhil, MBA, joined Astex Pharmaceuticals™ (formerly SuperGen) in July 2011 as a result of the merger with Astex Therapeutics. Previously, Dr. Buckland served as chief business officer of Astex Therapeutics since September 2004 and was appointed to the Board of Directors of Astex Therapeutics 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 vice president of 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.
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Michael Molkentin, CPAChief Financial Officer & Corporate Secretary+/-Michael Molkentin, CPA, joined as chief financial officer and corporate secretary in October 2003. Previously, Mr. Molkentin served as interim chief financial officer at Aradigm Corporation from May 2000 to September 2002. From January 1995 to April 2000, Mr. Molkentin served as division controller for Thermo Finnigan Corporation, a subsidiary of Thermo Electron. Mr. Molkentin served in a variety of financial management positions with technology companies, including field controller of Vanstar Corporation, controller of Republic Telcom Systems, Inc. and corporate controller of Computer Automation, Inc. Mr. Molkentin is a CPA and received a BBA in accounting from Bernard M. Baruch College in New York City, New York.
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Senior Management
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Timothy L. EnnsSenior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Marketing+/-Timothy Enns serves as senior vice president of Corporate Communications and Marketing. Mr. Enns joined Astex Pharmaceuticals™ (formerly SuperGen) in 1999 as executive director of Marketing and was promoted to vice president and then senior vice president in Investor Relations, Business Development and various communication functions. He has 29 years of pharmaceutical commercial, business development, communications and marketing experience. His prior experience includes most aspects of cancer therapeutic commercialization from start-up through launch and partnering. Prior to Astex, he held senior positions at Sequus, Trilex, Syncor, MGI Pharma, Adria Laboratories and Upjohn. He has a BS in Nutritional Science and Biochemistry from UC Davis.
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Lyn Leaper, EPA, PhDSenior Vice President, Intellectual Property+/-Lyn Leaper, EPA, PhD, joined Astex Pharmaceuticals™ (formerly SuperGen) in July 2011 as a result of the merger with Astex Therapeutics. Prior to this, she served as senior vice president, Intellectual Property, at Astex Therapeutics. She is a European patent attorney who joined Astex as vice president, 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.
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Michael McCullar, PhD, MBASenior Vice President, Strategy & Discovery Operations+/-Michael McCullar, PhD, MBA, serves as senior vice president, Strategy & Discovery Operations. Dr. McCullar joined the company in 2000. He possesses over 14 years of oncology drug development experience and has held positions in the areas of regulatory affairs, manufacturing, strategic planning and drug development. Previously, Dr. McCullar was at Titan Pharmaceuticals. Dr. McCullar earned a PhD in Toxicology from the University of California and holds an MBA from the Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business. Dr. McCullar also served on the Board of Trustees for the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
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David Rees, PhDSenior Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry+/-David Rees, PhD, joined Astex Pharmaceuticals™ (formerly SuperGen) in July 2011 as a result of the merger with Astex Therapeutics. Prior to this, he served as senior vice president of Medicinal Chemistry at Astex Therapeutics and joined in January 2003. Prior to Astex, Dr. Rees had 19 years of 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-recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize 2007 for the discovery of the anesthesia drug sugammadex (Bridion). He is a co-author of over 80 publications and patents and has served as an honorary professor at Glasgow University and as president of the RSC Organic Division.
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Neil Thompson, PhDSenior Vice President, Biology+/-Neil Thompson, PhD, joined Astex Pharmaceuticals™ (formerly SuperGen) in July 2011 as a result of the merger with Astex Therapeutics. Prior to this, he served as senior vice president of Biology at Astex Therapeutics. Dr. Thompson joined Astex as vice president of 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.
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