Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the Biopharma space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Emma Sceats
CEO of Isogenica
Dr Sceats joined CN Bio Innovations in 2010 as Commercial Manager to spearhead the organisation’s sales, marketing and business development activities. She has led sales and partnering initiatives with major pharmaceutical organisations and overseen academic research and licensing programs, including with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that have led to the development of the company’s leading products. Dr Sceats was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in May 2013 with responsibility for the day-to-day running of the company, focussing on delivering the objectives of company investors. Dr Sceats holds degrees from Oxford and Bristol Universities (UK) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied Chemistry. Her previous roles include working as a research scientist at E.I. DuPont de Nemours (Wilmington, DE, USA) and in intellectual property management and licensing for the University of Oxford.
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About Isogenica: Isogenica operates a range of discovery platforms supported by state-of-the-art methodologies for identifying antibody and peptide ligands.
Gordon Sanghera
Chief Executive Officer, Co – founder of Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Gordon Sanghera was co-founder of Oxford Nanopore, together with Hagan Bayley and IP Group. He was appointed CEO in June 2005 having acted as a consultant since February 2005 whilst the Company was established. He brings over 15 years experience in the design, development and global launch of novel point-of-care biosensor devices. At Abbott Laboratories, Dr Sanghera held both UK and US Director level positions, including Research Director and Manufacturing Process Development Director. Before its acquisition by Abbott, Gordon led the R&D of Medisense Inc. where he was instrumental in the launch of several generations of blood glucose biosensor systems for the consumer and medical markets. He has also developed and validated market production processes to meet with the regulatory requirements for USA and Europe. Gordon has a DPhil in biosensor technology and a degree in Chemistry.
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About Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Oxford Nanopore Technologies develops nanopore-based electronic systems for analyzing single molecules, including DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Alex Blyth
CEO of LIfT BioSciences
Serial entrepreneur with 15 years’ experience in commercialising biopharma assets and strategy consulting, having advised teams and led the strategic planning on the launch of over 50 assets. Founded the company after losing his mother to Pancreatic Cancer.
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About LIfT BioSciences, NGX: LIfT BioSciences is a socially-minded Biotech start-up that develops a portfolio of potentially life-saving immuno-oncology cell therapies.
Dipankar Bhattacharjee
President & CEO: Generics Europe of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Mr. Dipankar Bhattacharjee was appointed President and CEO, Generics Europe in April 2013. Mr. Bhattacharjee joined Teva as Chief Executive Officer, Teva UK Limited in 2009. Prior to joining Teva, he served 15 years at Bausch + Lomb in various senior roles, including Vice President, Commercial in both Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, and Corporate Vice President and President, Asia Pacific Region. Mr. Bhattacharjee began his career at Nestlé SA and Bank of America. Mr. Bhattacharjee received a BA in Economics from St. Stephens College, University of Delhi, and a Masters degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, University of Mumbai.
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About Teva Pharmaceutical Industries: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is a pharmaceutical company specializing in the development, production and marketing of generic.
Greg Bailey
CEO of Juvenescence
Dr. Gregory H. Bailey is a Managing Partner at Palantir Group, Inc. Dr. Bailey is the Co-founder of Ascent Healthcare Solutions; VirnetX Inc. (AMEX:VHC) and Duramedic Inc. He was also the initial public financier and an independent director of Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDVN), from 2005 to December 2012. Dr. Bailey served as the Managing Director and co-Head of Life Sciences at MDB Capital Group LLC from May 2004 to January 2007. Previously he served as Life Sciences Analyst at Participating Capital, Corp. He has served on the board of directors of multiple public companies. Dr. Bailey has Medical Doctorate from the University of Western Ontario and practiced medicine as an emergency physician for ten years.
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About Juvenescence, Portage Biotech: Juvenescence is a biotech company that develops therapies and products to modify aging and help people live longer.
Dr Margaret Temple
CEO of Vitrology
Margaret Temple is a science and business graduate of Edinburgh University who joined the biotechnology industry in 1995. Following several commercial roles with Q- One Biotech Limited Margaret was appointed as a Board Director in 2002. In 2007 Margaret co -founded Vitrology Limited having secured funding from Archangels, and was appointed CEO in 2009. Vitrology was acquired by the Swiss multinational SGS in 2012, and a two year period of integration was completed at the end of 2014.
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About Vitrology: Vitrology is a biopharmaceutical contract testing organization in the biosafety testing sector of the pharmaceutical industry.
James Noble
Founder & CEO of Adaptimmune
James Noble has served as our full-time Chief Executive Officer since March 2014 and part-time CEO from July 2008 to March 2014 and is one of our co-founders. From July 2008 until March 2014, Mr. Noble was also part-time CEO of Immunocore. Mr. Noble has 24 years of experience in the biotech industry. He has held numerous non-executive director positions, including at CuraGen Corporation, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, Oxford GlycoSciences plc, MediGene AG, and Advanced Medical Solutions plc. Mr. Noble is also Deputy Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals plc and a non-executive director of Immunocore Limited. Mr. Noble is qualified as a chartered accountant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers and spent seven years at the investment bank Kleinwort Benson Limited, where he became a director in 1990. He then joined British Biotech plc as Chief Financial Officer from 1990 to 1997. Mr. Noble was previously Chief Executive Officer of Avidex Limited, a privately held biotechnology company that was our predecessor, from 2000 to 2006. Mr. Noble holds an MA from the University of Oxford.
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About Adaptimmune, Advanced Medical Solutions, Curagen Corporation, MediGene, Oxford GlycoSciences, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals: Adaptimmune develops T cell therapies to treat cancer, human immunodeficiency virus, and infectious diseases.
Chris Torrance
Co-Founder and CEO of PhoreMost
Chris has significant oncology research and development experience, including six years as a senior manager at Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company, Vernalis. His principle expertise lies in cancer cell biology and drug discovery. In this field, he has led project teams taking drug targets from inception through to hit identification, lead optimisation and into preclinical studies. Chris holds a PhD from East Carolina University and completed a Post-Doctoral position in the world renowned oncology laboratory of Professor Bert Vogelstein (Johns Hopkins University) where he pioneered the use of X-MAN™ cancer models in high-throughput screening and drug discovery.
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About PhoreMost: PhoreMost is a new-model drug discovery company based in Cambridge, UK.
Christopher Martin
CEO of ADC Therapeutics
Chris Martin is VP & Treasurer at obopay.
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About ADC Therapeutics, obopay: ADC Therapeutics develops antibody drug conjugates and non-antibody drug conjugate products.
Martin-Immanuel Bittner
Co-Founder & CEO of Arctoris
Martin-Immanuel Bittner MD DPhil is a clinician-scientist and life sciences entrepreneur. He is a Rhodes scholar, an active member of several leading cancer research organisations, and an elected member of the Young Academy of the German National Academy of Sciences. Martin is a Co-Founder & CEO of Arctoris, the world’s first fully automated drug discovery platform.
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About Arctoris: Arctoris is a tech-enabled platform company in biotechnology, combining robotics & data science to accelerate drug discovery.
Peter Donnelly
Chief Executive Officer of Genomics
Peter Donnelly is Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford, and a founder and director of Genomics plc, a fast-growing company in the genome analytics space. He has played a leading role in many of the major projects and developments at the interface between genetics, healthcare, and clinical medicine, including the HapMap project, the Wellcome Trust Case Control consortia, and WGS500, one of the studies pioneering whole genome sequencing in clinical medicine.
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About Genomics, University of Oxford: Genomics plc aiming to lead the genomic transformation of healthcare.
Raj Mehta
Co-Founder & CEO of Adendra Therapeutics
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About Adendra Therapeutics, Apple Tree Partners: Adendra Therapeutics wants to use new insights into dendritic cell biology to develop a novel type of immunotherapy.
Eliot Forster
CEO of F-star Therapeutics
Eliot Forster is Chief Executive Officer at F-star Therapeutics.
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About F-star Therapeutics: F-star is developing a pipeline of novel bispecific antibodies with a therapeutic focus in immuno-oncology and oncology.
Jason Loveridge
Chief Executive Officer of 4SC
Jason Loveridge has been managing 4SC AG since September 2016 as CEO. In total, he has over 20 years of international experience in Europe, Asia and the US managing life sciences companies and as a professional investor in privately held and publicly traded companies. In addition, Jason Loveridge has valuable experience in transactions such as the sale or partnering of biotechnology assets. Jason Loveridge studied biochemistry and microbiology at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Adelaide, Australia.
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About 4SC, Invex Therapeutics: 4SC discovers and develops targeted, small-molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Peter Widdowson
Founder & CEO of Quethera
Peter Widdowson has over 30 years of drug discovery experience during which he has worked on a number of small molecule, protein and gene therapy approaches to managing disease. He has a background in researching therapies for indications as diverse as ophthalmic, neurological and psychiatric disorders, type-2 diabetes, oncology, gastrointestinal motility disorders and inflammatory conditions encompassing inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis. He has held a number of senior scientific roles within Servier (Research Group Leader), AstraZeneca (Senior Scientist and Project Research Manager), Pfizer (Senior Scientist and Project Research Manager), OSI Pharmaceuticals (Director of Pharmacology) and most recently, whilst Head of Preclinical Development at Oxford BioMedica was responsible for overseeing and managing the development of three lentiviral vector gene therapies for wet age-related macular degeneration, Stargardt disease and Usher 1B syndrome which are all currently in Phase I/II clinical development. Dr. Widdowson has experience in all aspects of preclinical and early stage development from animal model proof-of-concept studies to clinical trial design and biomarker identification. Widdowson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in human Physiology from Newcastle University and a PhD in Neuropharmacology from Manchester University.
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About Ikarovec, Quethera: Quethera is a gene therapy company dedicated to improving the future treatment of common blinding eye diseases.
Terry Pizzie
Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Discovery
Terry became Chief Executive Officer in May 2018 having joined Horizon Discovery Group in February 2017 as Head of Commercial Operations. He has amassed more than 30 years of commercial experience within the biotechnology tools sector. He started his career with Applied Biosystems in 1988 in a sales role and became Vice President of Europe in 2003. Terry went on to join the Swedish biotechnology firm Biacore in 2005 as SVP Global Commercial Operations and was part of the team that reignited the company’s commercial success, culminating in its acquisition by GE Life Sciences. After a period with Genetix PLC as Director, Global Commercial Operations prior to its acquisition by Danaher, Terry went on to head global sales at Pacific Biosciences. Terry graduated with a degree in Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of Reading and since then has spent most of his working life focused upon commercial excellence within the sector.
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About Horizon Discovery: Horizon is a gene editing company that designs & engineers genetically-modified cells, applying them to advance human health.
Alan Wise
Chief Executive Officer of Duke Street Bio
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About Duke Street Bio: Duke Street Bio develops medical drugs intended to provide improved treatment to cancer patients.
Derek Gilchrist
Co Founder & CEO of Causeway Therapeutics
Derek is a principal investigator at the University of Glasgow and leads the scientific and technical development of TenoMiR™.
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About Causeway Therapeutics, University of Glasgow, University of Glasgow: A bio pharmaceutical spin out emerging.
David Simpson
CEO of Iksuda Therapeutics
After 15 years’ in biologics development and commercialization with Cobra Biologics, Eden Biodesign and Actavis, Dave supported IP Group from October 2011 to develop Glythera’s business strategy and fundraising activities. Having co-founded Glythera as Chief Operating officer in March 2012, Dave was appointed CEO in February 2014 and continues to lead the strategic direction and growth of the business.
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About Iksuda Therapeutics, Leaf Expression Systems: Iksuda Therapeutics is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of next generation biotherapeutics
Sarah Howell
Chief Executive Officer of Arecor
Sarah Howell joined Arecor Limited as Chief Executive Officer in 2015.
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About Arecor: Arecor is a leader in developing superior biopharmaceuticals through the application of its innovative formulation technology platform.
David Hughes
CEO of CN Bio Innovations
Dr Hughes joined CN Bio Innovations in 2010 as Head of Engineering, was promoted to Technical Director in 2013 with responsibility for the management of all in-house and collaborative research and development programmes and the contract research services business. Dr Hughes was subsequently promoted to Chief Technology Officer in July 2014 with responsibility for managing the technical programs with the company’s academic and industrial partners. and, in 2018, he was promoted to CEO. During his career at CN Bio, he has secured and overseen the successful delivery of government and pharmaceutical research contracts and research grants totalling more than £2Mi.
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About CN Bio Innovations: CN Bio develops human organ-on-a-chip platforms for the testing and development of therapeutics for serious human diseases.
David Hughes
CEO of CN Bio Innovations
Dr Hughes joined CN Bio Innovations in 2010 as Head of Engineering, was promoted to Technical Director in 2013 with responsibility for the management of all in-house and collaborative research and development programmes and the contract research services business. Dr Hughes was subsequently promoted to Chief Technology Officer in July 2014 with responsibility for managing the technical programs with the company’s academic and industrial partners. and, in 2018, he was promoted to CEO. During his career at CN Bio, he has secured and overseen the successful delivery of government and pharmaceutical research contracts and research grants totalling more than £2Mi.
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About CN Bio Innovations: CN Bio develops human organ-on-a-chip platforms for the testing and development of therapeutics for serious human diseases.
Stephen A. Stamp
Chief Executive Officer of Midatech Pharma
Stephen Stamp is responsible for all financial matters at Assurex Health, including financing strategy and implementation, accounting, tax, mergers & acquisitions, and government contracting. Stephen brings to Assurex Health nearly 30 years of experience in finance, accounting, business development and operations. He has worked in multiple public and venture-backed companies both in the US and the UK, including business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B), and pharmaceutical industries. Stephen has served as Chief Financial Officer of EZCORP, Inc., a publicly-traded consumer financial services company; Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Executive Vice President Business Development at Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company; Group Finance Director at Regus PLC, a publicly-traded company that provides serviced office accommodations in business centers worldwide; and as Group Finance Director at Shire PLC, a publicly-traded UK specialty pharmaceutical company focused on ADHD and other specialty medications. Earlier in his career, Stephen was an investment banker with Lazard in London and worked for KPMG, also in London, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. Stephen received his BA in economics from the University of Manchester.
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About Assurex Health, Ergomed, EUSA Pharma, Midatech Pharma: Midatech Pharma a particle engineering with an emphasis on microfluidics and drug delivery.
Ross Burn
Chief Executive Officer of CatSci
Ross completed a MSci in Forensic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He completed his PhD in 2007 on the use of chromatography, electrophoresis and mass spectrometry for mining the human plasma proteome for biomarkers of disease with Prof. David Perrett at Barts and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine, University of London. In 2007, he joined AstraZeneca as an Analytical Chemist to support the AstraZeneca Catalysis Facility and develop techniques to improve process understanding.
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About CatSci: CatSci provides innovative process research and development services to emerging, mid-sized and large pharma.
Daljit Cheema
Founder & CEO of PHARMASEAL
Daljit Cheema is Founder & CEO at PHARMASEAL.
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About PHARMASEAL: PHARMASEAL is developing the first B2B control platform for biopharmaceutical companies to manage their enterprise clinical trials.
Ben Shaw
CEO of Swift Molecular Diagnostics
Benjamin completed his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford. He was then accepted onto the prestigious Wellcome Trust PhD Studentship for Developmental Biology at the University of Cambridge. He is now strengthening his business knowledge through active engagement with the Accelerate Programme at the Cambridge Judge Business School. This makes him an ideal candidate to communicate the science and the business to potential investors and buyers, in addition to his scientific role within the company.
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About Swift Molecular Diagnostics: Swift Molecular Diagnostics is developing a rapid, easy-to-use, cost effective genetic “yes or no” test.
Mitra Najafi
CEO & Founder of Pplus Skin Care
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About Pplus Skin Care: Innovative and disruptive skin-care products based on biotech.
Joanna Burnett
Co-founder and CEO of GPrX Data
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About GPrX Data: GPrX Data translates NHS practice level prescribing data into easily-reviewed intelligence.
Colin MacKay
Founder and CEO of Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services
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About Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services: A leading GMP contract manufacturer of novel injectable pharmaceuticals for use in clinical trials.
