Management
Dr Tony Sedgwick, Chief Executive Officer
Tony's career has covered a range of entrepreneurial roles in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. In 2005, Tony was appointed Chief Executive of DanioLabs Ltd, a Cambridge University spin-out. Under Tony's leadership, DanioLabs became a neurology/ophthalmology-focussed pharmaceutical reprofiling company. DanioLabs was acquired by Summit plc in March 2007 for £15 million.
From 2002 to 2005, Tony was Chief Executive of Cambridge Biotechnology Ltd (CBT), a Parke Davis/Cambridge University spin-out. CBT developed a portfolio of product candidates in the areas of pain, obesity and inflammation. In March 2005, CBT was acquired by Biovitrum AB of Stockholm, and continues to operate as an autonomous business unit on the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge.
Prior to his move into biotechnology, Tony had a long and successful clinical development career at Roche, where was Global Head of Clinical Operations and UK Development Director.
Dr Mike Dawson - Chief Scientific Officer
Mike studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has a PhD in microbial biochemistry (Leicester). Prior to co-founding Novacta, Mike spent 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry with GlaxoSmithKline and legacy companies. In his role as Head of the Biotransformations and Natural Product Chemistry teams, he was a co-inventor of important series of natural products, such as the sordarins and squalestatins. He also led the development of biotransformation processes used in the manufacture of important drugs such as epivir, abacavir and zanamavir.
Dr Georg Buchner MBA - VP of Corporate and Business Development
Before joining Novacta, Georg held the post of Director of Business Development at Haptogen Ltd where, amongst other activities, he closed the companies first technology out-licensing deal and also five major collaborative deals. The experience culminated with his leading role in the acquisition of the company by Wyeth Research.
Prior to this, Georg worked as a Consultant and Business Development Manager for Pharmaventures, a leading strategic and valuation consultancy company in the healthcare sector, where he developed new business in both Europe and the USA, leading and providing both scientific and commercial expertise for various consulting projects.
Before entering the business world, Georg pursued a career in science, where he published several papers in leading peer reviewed scientific journals. He is an Italian and German native speaker with a PhD in Molecular Genetics from Kings College and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.
