Glythera appoints Dr Mike Owen

Antibody drug conjugate development company, Glythera has appointed Dr Mike Owen as its non-executive director.

Owen brings over 15 years’ experience in the development and commercialisation of biopharmaceuticals and he was previously senior vice president and global head of research of the Biopharmaceuticals R&D unit at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

At GSK, Owen was responsible for initiating and growing the group’s pre-clinical and clinical therapeutic antibody pipeline through in-house development and acquisitions.

Since leaving GSK in 2010, he has taken on a number of executive and non-executive roles, most recently at Kyamb where he served as chief scientific officer from its formation as a spin-out from the Sanger Institute.

He said: “I am pleased to be joining the board of Glythera and look forward to working with the board and management team as the company moves its pipeline products towards the clinic.”

Owen is also currently a director of Avacata plc, Blink Biomedical SAS, GammDelta Therapeutics, Ossianix Inc, ReNeuron plc and Zealand Pharma A/S.

Dr Sam Williams, chairman of Glythera, said: “We are delighted to welcome Mike to the board at this exciting time in the company’s development.”

“His experience in advancing scientific discoveries from the lab to commercialisation will be invaluable in helping us fully exploit our unique ADC platform, both in the development of our proprietary product pipeline and building strategic partnerships with large pharma.”