KCL appoints Luigi Martini as first chair of pharmaceutical innovation

King's College London has appointed Rainbow Medical Engineering director Professor Luigi Martini as its first Chair of Pharmaceutical Innovation.

The newly-created position will see Martini work in the college's Institute of Pharmaceutical Science to strengthen its ability to ensure new discoveries and inventions across King's Health Partners are transferred to clinical and pharmaceutical development.

King's Health Partners is one of the UK's five academic health sciences centres, organisations that provide health care to patients and undertake health-related research. It combines the King's College London university and three NHS Foundation Trusts of Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley.

Prior to his role at Rainbow Medical, Martini was senior director of preclinical and pharmaceutical development for Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific at GlaxoSmithKline.

He is also a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, with research interests including the design of dosage form concepts for delivering personalised medicines and the development of biopharmaceuticals.

On his appointment, Martini said: “I am honoured to be joining this first-class institution, particularly in a role - the first of its kind in the UK - that demonstrates King's visionary leadership and ambition.”