Our Leadership Team

Michelle Jones

PhD, EPA, CPA, FRSC, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Operations, Head of Intellectual Property

Michelle Jones joined Astex in 2000.  Michelle’s role involves research portfolio planning, strategic alignment of the business, and managing a global patent portfolio protecting preclinical, clinical and marketed pharmaceutical compounds.

Michelle is a European and Chartered (UK) Patent Attorney.  Michelle has been recognised in IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists, an annual list of individuals who lead the way in the development and implementation of strategies that maximise the value of IP portfolios.  She was also named a Managing IP Corporate IP Star, which recognises in-house practitioners for their contributions to the protection and management of their company’s IP assets and/or influence in the IP community.

As part of the deal team for agreement negotiations, including alliances with major pharmaceutical companies such as MSD, Janssen and Novartis, she has significant experience of implementing R&D collaborations. Michelle is also experienced in a wide range of areas of patent practice, as well as freedom-to-operate and IP license strategies.  She has extensive experience of IP due diligence activities to support collaboration and licensing initiatives, external fund-raising and investment decisions as well as involvement in research collaboration agreement negotiations.

She is Chair of the BioIndustry Association IP Advisory Committee, member of the CIPA Life Science Committee and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Michelle obtained a B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry from University of Birmingham and Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from University of Cambridge.