Simon is a business professional with almost two decades experience of creating and developing innovative life-science businesses. Before joining Karus as the company's first CEO in 2006, he was Director of Business Development at Ablynx NV (Ghent, Belgium), where he was responsible for securing a number of research, development and licensing agreements with major pharmaceutical companies including Wyeth (now Pfizer) and Novartis. He also played a key role in Ablynx's development from early-stage to one of Europe's most promising antibody companies.
Prior to Ablynx, Simon was Director of Business Development at Active Biotech AB (Lund, Sweden), where he spun-out the molecular evolution company, Isogenica Ltd (Cambridge, UK), later joining the spin-out as Vice President of Business Development.
Simon has held other key commercial appointments at Actinova Ltd (Cambridge UK), where he was responsible for International Business Development , and Actigen Ltd (Cambridge, UK), where he was General Manager. Simon has also occupied senior commercial roles at the Health Protection Agency (Salisbury, UK) and within the Jasmin group of companies. Simon has a medicinal chemistry degree, a PhD in the use of microbial enzymes in organic synthesis and an executive MBA from Loughborough University Business School.
Stephen is a research and development professional with just under 20 years' experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He has established a strong track-record in small molecule drug discovery and R&D management at several high-calibre organizations, including Celltech-Chiroscience (Cambridge, UK), Shire (Montreal, Canada), Amgen (San Francisco, California) where he was Associate Director of Chemistry, and Piramed (Slough, UK) where he was Director of Chemistry and PI3K Program Leader.
At Piramed, Stephen was responsible for leading the p110α and p110δ projects, and for the design and preclinical development of GDC-0941, which is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer, and he played a central role in establishing a major R&D collaboration with Genentech in 2005.
Prior to joining Karus he was Head of New Projects Development at Cancer Research UK, London, responsible for CRUK's New Agents Committee and for establishing the portfolio of Phase I and II clinical programs. Stephen obtained his BSc and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Liverpool. He has authored more than 90 publications and patents, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Karus Therapeutics Ltd
2 Venture Road
Southampton Science Park
Chilworth
Hampshire
SO16 7NP
United Kingdom