2015-present. Executive Director and Scientific Director of ABAC Therapeutics
• I led the spin-out of Ferrer's precision antibacterial agents project in the start-up ABAC Therapeutics. Promoter of the application of precision medicine to the treatment of infectious diseases, using pathogen-specific and narrow-spectrum compounds. Member of the company's board of directors
• Defined corporate strategy, business development models and priorities to make the company attractive to investors.
• I strategically developed and managed international networks of relationships with key stakeholders, including investors, opinion leaders and partnership agreements with CROs and other public and private institutions to nurture talent and achieve productivity goals.
• Meetings with regulatory agencies to agree on the development of these new compounds, representatives of a new paradigm in the treatment of infectious diseases 2008-2015. Ferrer Laboratories Director of Infectious Diseases Director of the Departments of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacology Safety
• Responsible for managing the portfolio, including projects in discovery and development.
• Envisioned and executed a transformational project, resulting in a change in company profile from a single-asset company to a multi-asset infectious disease company, with a project that includes additional first-class projects.
• I assembled and managed cross-functional teams to develop and execute operational and organizational plans to create new scientific projects, build technology/capacity platforms, foster talent and achieve productivity goals.
• It led Ozenoxacino (a new non-fluorinated quinolone) as a preclinical candidate to the market (the compound has recently been approved in 15 European states, Canada and the USA). Including meetings with regulatory agencies.
• Implement the logistics for the search for specific and narrow-spectrum pathogenic compounds, using a new and more efficient drug discovery strategy, the PasNas platform, developed on the basis of my personal experience. The search for precision antibacterial agents (novel TPP) together with the use of the PasNas algorithm was the origin of the embryo of ABAC Therapeutics. 1990-2008. Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome, GlaxoSmithkline (GSK) Director of Drug Discovery Biology
• During the 18 years at GSK I have held different positions with increasing degrees of responsibility in the matrix structure
• Incorporation into the Glaxo Tres Cantos Research Center (first scientist with experience in microbiology and drug discovery) to build the facilities in the biology area and take all the measures and actions so that the laboratories are operational. It includes biosecurity laboratories and an animal house for working with category 3 infectious agents.
- I had responsibilities for the design and construction supervision of the facilities, collaborating closely with the engineering and construction company, and for the purchase of laboratory equipment.
- Coordination, supervision and approval of work procedures (SOPs)
- Recruitment of employees, to build high-performance teams and implement operational logistics between departments in the biology area.
- Head of Radioactive Protection and Biological Protection Officer
• Multicultural work teams of dedicated developers, focused on building and running high-performance teams to innovate and meet milestones driven by both science and business.
- He led the following scientific units: Microbiology, Parasitology, Cell Biology, Pharmacology, DMPK, Toxicology and Safety Pharmacology, both in vitro and in vivo.
- Attention to teamwork, communication between disciplines and the speeding up of logistical processes between units to optimize resources and speed up the discovery and development processes of new drugs.
- Responsible for driving disruptive innovation and entrepreneurship among team members.
As head of the therapeutic area and project leader.
• As a project leader or drug discovery representative, led to the discovery of several first-in-class products.
Coordination of the biology disciplines with the chemistry resources (medicinal, analytical and structural chemistry) associated with the different projects.
- GM237354, antifungal inhibitors of mycotic protein synthesis (sordarins)
- GW844520, a new pyridone derivative with antimalarial activity
- Team member of the Falcippain project focused on cysteine.
- Team member GSK369796, a new aminoquinoline derivative with antimalarial activity
• As head of the therapeutic area, responsible for defining the strategy, evaluating projects and establishing priorities for the portfolio, taking into account the commercial value and technical risk of individual projects.
• Extensive experience in partnership agreements, joint ventures and in/out licenses with other companies and leading public-private alliance initiatives
- GSK invested its Sordarins (a new class of antifungals) in Diversa Corporation: $8.5 million in common stock
- Collaboration agreement with Medicines for Malaria Venture
- Collaboration agreement with Global Alliance TB
• Experience working with regulatory agencies. Signatory and responsible for 75 GSK medicines (preclinical) regulatory package) before the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS).
Contacts and meetings with FDA and EMA
1988-1990. Scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Spain Senior Scientist
• The aim of this aid was to rejoin Spain to scientists who were working on relevant research projects in foreign countries.
• Adjust the laboratory, which includes: buying equipment, recruiting scientists and implementing new molecular biology techniques.
• Led a group of three people to study transport mechanisms through the cell envelope in Gram-negative bacteria (University of Barcelona)
1987-1988. Associate Scientist at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS)
• Associate Scientist in the Department of Microbiology, University of Health Sciences of the Uniformed Services, Faculty of Medicine F. Edward Hébert, Department of Defense. Bethesda, Maryland.
• Worked on the identification and characterization of genes involved in transport mechanisms through cell envelopes in Gram-negative bacteria.
1983-1987. University of Barcelona and Esteve laboratories Collaborating professor University of Barcelona (1983-1985. Principal investigator collaboration project between the University of Barcelona and Esteve laboratories
• Member of the teaching team of the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Barcelona
• Dedicated to the study of bacteriophages as therapeutic agents (University of Barcelona)
• Responsible for coordinating and conducting therapeutic efficacy studies using different experimental models of infection: systemic, cutaneous and urinary tract infections. Project focused on improving the pharmacokinetic properties of the class of quinolone antibiotics (collaboration project between the University of Barcelona and Esteve laboratories)
RESPONSIBILITIES IN SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS
• President of the Association for the discovery of new antibiotics in Spain (Antibiotic, dedicated to promoting the discovery of new antimicrobial agents
• Vice-president of the Spanish Network for the Development of Alternative Methods in Animal Experimentation (REMA)
• Member of the panel of experts of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS)
• Member of the Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership (GARDP) panel of experts