New CDO to lead Transition to Clinical Stage Biotech

Neil Bell has joined Avacta Life Sciences as Chief Development Officer with responsibility for late stage pre-clinical and early clinical development of the company’s pipeline of pre|CISION pro-drugs and Affimer immunotherapies.

With over 30 years’ experience in the drug development industry, Neil spent the early part of his career in clinical development at Eisai and Pfizer before becoming Therapeutic Area Head for Gastroenterology and Neurology at Ipsen, leading numerous Phase I to III clinical studies, in each of these roles.

As Head of Global Clinical Operations for Teva Pharmaceuticals, he led delivery of clinical programmes in neurology, autoimmune and oncology therapeutic areas, before joining Daichi-Sankyo as Head of Clinical Operations, developing activities across cardiovascular, pain and oncology and was responsible for building an effective drug development organisation in Europe.

Most recently, Neil was Senior Vice President, Head of Global Clinical Operations at Autolus, a UK cell and gene therapy company where he was responsible for building a fully functional global clinical operations team delivering Phase I/II clinical studies across the UK, Europe and US, in acute lymphoblastic leukemia, multiple myeloma, B-cell lymphoma, T-cell lymphoma and implemented the first commercially sponsored CAR-T study in the UK.

Dr. Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta Group commented: “I am absolutely delighted that Neil is joining Avacta as Chief Development Officer to build and lead the development team to take a pipeline of innovative cancer therapies into the clinic over the next few years; therapies that have the potential to significantly enhance cancer patients’ lives. I am very much looking forward to working with Neil as we continue to transition the business to a clinical stage biotech with multiple clinical programmes in the UK, Europe and the US, building upon the world-class proprietary platforms and assets that we have developed in-house and with partners over the past few years.

It is a very exciting time for Avacta and I look forward to keeping the market updated on progress as we realise the enormous potential in the Group.”