Taking stock - what 2023's policy and finance environment means for biotech

Annalisa Jenkins

Non-Executive Director, Compass Pathways

Dr. Annalisa Jenkins, M.B.B.S., F.R.C.P. is a life sciences thought leader with over 25 years of experience building and financing companies pursuing cures for the most challenging diseases globally. She has consistently mentored leadership teams advancing programs from basic research through clinical development, regulatory approval, and into healthcare systems globally. Dr Jenkins graduated in Medicine at the University of London and received her Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians London. She trained in Cardiovascular medicine and was a research fellow at Imperial College. Earlier in her career, Dr. Jenkins was a medical officer in the British Royal Navy during the Gulf Conflict, achieving the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant Commander. She also held senior leadership roles at Merck Serono, and Bristol Myers-Squibb over 15 years. Dr. Jenkins served as President and CEO of Dimension Therapeutics, a leading gene therapy company she took public on the NASDAQ and subsequently sold to Ultragenyx. Following her relocation back to the UK, she developed a portfolio of roles spanning the public, private and charitable sectors including Genomics England, The King's Fund, British Heart Foundation and Chair of YouBelong, a leading mental health care charity. Dr. Jenkins serves as a Science Board Committee Member to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which advises FDA leadership on complex issues and is Chair of The Court for The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is also a Board member of several growing public and private companies including Oncimmune, AVROBIO, COMPASS Pathways, Affimed and Mereo Biopharma. Dr. Jenkins serves on a number of advisory boards and contributes publicly on leadership with purpose, social entrepreneurship, diversity and innovation.

Dr Dan Mahony

BIA Board, Chair

Dan was appointed as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Evotec (UK) Limited in October 2021. Prior to joining Evotec, Dan was Co-Head of Healthcare at Polar Capital where he launched the healthcare business in 2007 growing it to over $4 billion of assets under management. Dan was formerly head of European healthcare research at Morgan Stanley, an analyst at ING Barings Furman Selz in New York and a research scientist including at Schering Plough, CA. He has over 25 years of experience within global healthcare covering biotechnology, medical technology and healthcare services. Dan chairs the board of the BioIndustry Association (BIA), the industry trade association for UK life sciences, and holds non-executive directorships at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Trellus Health (an LSE-listed digital health company), Celmatix (a privately held, preclinical-stage women’s health biotech in NY focused on ovarian biology), Keepabl (a UK-based, privately owned provider of SaaS solutions for GDPR compliance), Apian (a privately held healthcare drone startup, founded by NHS doctors in training), and also acts as a mentor for the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Training Programme, which aims to support junior doctors and health professionals in developing their entrepreneurial aspirations during clinical training.

Robert Tansley

Partner, Cambridge Innovation Capital

I am a partner at the venture capital fund Cambridge Innovation Capital. We invest in early stage businesses that have the ambition to become category leading global businesses with a focus on life sciences and deep tech. In the last nine years we have invested in 38 businesses, the majority of which have their origins within UK academic research with a particular focus on the Cambridge (UK) ecosystem. During this time I have led CIC’s investments in a wide range of start-up and early stage companies including CMR Surgical (which has grown from 25 people to nearly 1,000 employees, a valuation >£2 billion and operations in 20 countries), Inivata (sold to NeoGenomics for $440 million), Microbiotica, Carrick Therapeutics, PetMedix, Morphogen-IX (sold to Centessa), Gyroscope Therapeutics (sold to Novartis for up to $1.5 billion), Exvastat, PetMedix and Pretzel Therapeutics. I had previously spent 20 years in drug development and commercialisation in both large pharma (Sanofi, Roche), the regulatory authorities (MHRA) and biotech including CMO at Arakis, CEO/Founder of Treague, founding CEO at the University spin-out Avilex Pharma and being part of the founding management team at KalVista (Nasdaq: KALV). Prior to joining industry I spent seven years as a hospital doctor in the UK and Australia training as an obstetrician and gynaecologist. I am passionate about translating UK cutting edge medical science into sector-leading commercial companies that can bring substantial societal benefits at scale and have a significant global impact on human health.

Dr Martin Turner

Head of Policy and Public Affairs

What does your role at BIA involve?
Martin is responsible for all the BIA's policy outputs and public affairs activities and leads on finance and tax policy as well as the BIA’s engagement with the investment community. He authors the BIA’s investment analysis reports and is a regular commentator on the life sciences sector in the national press. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Cambridge University Science Policy Exchange (CUSPE).

Previous experience & achievements
Martin has over ten years experience in policy and public affairs and has worked at the Royal Society, the Campaign for Science and Engineering, and the Association of Medical Research Charities. Before embarking on a career in policy, he completed a PhD in molecular biology at the University of Sheffield, where he also co-founded and was director of an award-winning science communication charity called Science Brainwaves. He has a BSc in molecular biology from the University of Manchester.

Charles Waddell

Partner, Pinsent Masons

Charles is a corporate partner in Pinsent Masons' Tier 1 ranked life sciences practice. His main focus is on VC financings, IPOs and M&A in the biotech and medtech sector.