Board of Medical, Scientific & Business Advisors
Our expert advisors are available to assist our clients with general business and specific project needs.
Gillian Watson
Management Consultancy
& Finance Advisor
Gillian has an impressive pedigree in corporate finance, strategy and business development. Her career began with Morgan Stanley in London and later in Hong Kong. She then worked for Standard Chartered Asia Limited before leaving to attend business school. Thereafter she joined the power and energy sector in the UK and continental Europe where she held senior management positions relating to management, company strategy and business development. She was Director of Corporate Strategy for Endesa SA, one of Spain’s leading utility businesses, before returning to Scotland from Madrid in late 2006. In 2007, she was appointed CEO of Giltech Ltd, a privately-owned life sciences company, where she developed a focused strategy, steered a board reorganisation and raised both equity and grant financing for product development. She is currently leading projects in the renewables sector for ES Noble. Gillian also serves on the Boards of Scottish Enterprise, Scotland’s economic development agency, and Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust. She was previously Vice Chair of the Board of Ayrshire & Arran NHS. Gillian has an honours degree in Mathematics from Edinburgh University and an MBA from INSEAD in France.
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Dr. Xavier Luria
Dr. Xavier Luria is a consultant on drug development and drug regulation. He was Head of Safety and Efficacy at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) during 2005-2012, and previously held leadership positions in the biopharmaceutical industry for more than eighteen years, covering international clinical development, pharmacovigilance, biostatistics and medical affairs. At EMA, Xavier worked closely with CHMP, the highest regulatory committee in EU, and other regulatory bodies and committees. In addition to Dr. Luria's specialties in internal medicine, pharmaceutical medicine and biostatistics (Autonomous University, Barcelona), he has developed expertise in several specific therapeutic areas. Xavier has also completed a postgraduate qualification in clinical pharmacology, drug development and regulation (Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston). He is a recognized expert on regulatory systems and benefit-risk assessment (modelling, development and methodologies).
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Dr. Leon Hooftman
Leon is currently Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Synthon Holdings, an innovative Dutch biotechnology company, and was previously CMO at Chroma Therapeutics in the UK. Before joining Chroma he was Head of Clinical Development at Celltech Group plc, a FTSE 250 biopharmaceutical company. Prior to this he was Director of Clinical Science for Oncology/ Immunology at F.Hoffmann La Roche, where he built up extensive experience of biotechnology development programmes, including Rituxan (lymphoma), and CellCept (transplantation). Dr Hooftman qualified in medicine in 1984, from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. He trained in surgery and transplant medicine in Holland, the UK and USA and holds a MD and BSc in medical sciences of Utrecht University. He joined the industry in 1991.
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Gerry MacKay
Management Consultancy
& Business Advisor
Gerry has had a long and distinguished career in the Biopharmaceutical industry and is currently CEO of BioOutsource, a specialist CRO based in Glasgow, UK. Focusing on the Biotechnology and Biosimilars segments of the market, the company has witnessed rapid growth during the last 4 years under Gerry’s leadership, and has worked with around 150 clients across all geographies. Previously Gerry ran several businesses for Millipore in Europe, Asia and North America. Gerry has led several merger and acquisition projects during his career. He graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow in 1983.
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Prof. Peter O'Shaughnessy
Prof O'Shaughnessy graduated with a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Glasgow in 1976 and a PhD from the University of Bristol in 1979. After a post-doctoral period at the University of Michigan he became a Lecturer inAnatomy at the University of London before moving to the University of Glasgow in 1993 to take up a Lectureship in Physiology and Pharmacology at the Veterinary School. He was awarded a Personal Chair in 1998 and until recently was the Head of Department of Preclinical Sciences at the Veterinary School.
Peter maintains a highly active research group and in the past five years has been awarded grants worth over £2 million from the BBSRC and Wellcome Trust. His particular areas of research expertise are in Reproductive and Developmental Biology with an emphasis on the mechanisms of gonadal development. He sits on the Editorial Board of 3 journals.
During the past ten years Peter has been Head of a commercial GLP-status laboratory at the University of Glasgow and has prepared expert reports in both human and veterinary medicine. He has assisted pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with strategic and technical preclinical advice for regulatory submissions.
Andrew Fox
Regulatory / Biotechnology Expert
Andrew Fox is Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs at Onyx Pharmaceuticals and leads their European and Middle East, Africa, Russia and Turkey regional regulatory team based in the United Kingdom. He has previously held regulatory positions with Amgen, Warner Lambert and Sanofi Pasteur vaccines with regulatory experience in Europe, the United States and in several Emerging Market countries.
Andrew has worked in Regulatory Affairs for nineteen years, working almost exclusively with biologics and biotechnology products. He has broad experience in technical and regulatory aspects of the manufacture and control of biologicals and in clinical development for a variety of therapeutic areas including vaccines, rheumatology and oncology.
Andrew has worked extensively on scientific and technical aspects of regulatory policies and guidelines for biologics and biosimilars. He has been an industry member of the World Health Organization working party on standards for approval for biosimilar medicines, testified to the World Health Organization on naming criteria for biologics/biosimilars and has been a lead technical contributor to multiple policy discussions with regulators and legislators in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Esteban Guardia Santisteban
Esteban is the Founder and CEO of PLASMIA, a Biotech company based in Barcelona (Spain). PLASMIA is focused on development of novel and generic pharmaceutical products through industrial bio-catalytic procedures. A practising physician, Esteban gained his degree at the University of Navarra, He also holds a MBA from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. Esteban has significant experience in Licensing and Business Development with various companies, notably including Almirall. He was the founder and CEO of the start-up company FARMATEC, a pharmaceutical company based in Barcelona, and is currently assessor and Board Member for Pharmaceutical and Medical companies.
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Emma Holmes
BSc, MTOPRA eholmes@kinesysconsulting.com
Emma Holmes has 20 years experience in Regulatory Affairs both in UK and on mainland Europe. Emma started out with the pesticide company, Rentokil, subsequently moving to Bristol Myers Squibb. At BMS she was initially responsible for regulatory submissions to Central and Eastern Europe based at the UK office in London. Emma then moved to the BMS European headquarters where she handled a number of key European regulatory projects. She returned to UK in 2003 to join GMG BioBusiness Ltd as Director, Regulatory Affairs. In this role she managed a team of regulatory professionals and controlled the company's project management system. Emma's experience covers all stages of drug development. She has lead CMC, Nonclinical and Clinical projects across a range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, CNS, anti-infectives and metabolism / endocrinology. She regularly advises on MAA, Scientific Advice, Paediatric Investigation Plans and Orphan projects, amongst others.
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