About the company

Dr Heather Fairhead founded Phico Therapeutics with seed funding from Cambridge Research and Innovation Limited (CRIL). The company has since raised approximately £9 million, including UK government grants of £350,000 and investment from Emblem Technology Partners, Providence Investment Company, Parallel Ventures, Cambridge Capital Group, OION, Angels for Growth and London Business Angels. Phase I and Phase II trials of Phico’s first product, SASPject™ PT1.2, are funded by a strategic Translation Award of just over £1 million from the Wellcome Trust.

Phico Therapeutics has given oral and poster presentations at major conferences around the world including ICAAC 2007/8/9/10 and ECCMID 2008/9.

Phico Therapeutics is based at the Babraham Bioincubator in Cambridgeshire and employs a team of 19, including nine full-time, post-doctoral scientists.

Board

Dr. Anthony Martin, Non-Executive Chair

Anthony F. Martin, Ph.D has more than 25 years' experience in providing life science and biotechnology companies counsel on a range of strategic, management and funding issues. Dr. Martin is the Founder and Managing Partner of TMA Consultants, an organization that specializes in providing business planning and interim management for biotechnology companies. Dr. Martin has most recently served as Chairman of Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals Inc. a NASDAQ quoted biophama Company specialising in new radiotherapies for heart disease and cancer. He was also Non-Executive Director of Prelude Trust plc, an investment trust that specialized in early-stage, technology-based businesses; and as Chairman of NeuTec Pharma plc, playing a pivotal role in guiding the biopharmaceutical company’s listing on the AIM market in the United Kingdom and its subsequent sale to Novartis. Dr. Martin has also held senior positions in a number of well-known life science businesses both in the United Kingdom and United States including: Managing Director of British Biotech Products Ltd, Chairman, President and CEO of Molecular Probes, President of Molecular Biology, Invitrogen Corporation, Chairman and CEO of AZUR Environmental, CEO of Celsis International plc, as well as senior leadership roles at Amersham International plc. Dr. Martin holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and a first class honors degree in Applied Chemistry from the Universities of Manchester and Huddersfield, UK. Dr. Martin is currently Chairman of Sphere Medical Holdings plc, Wound Solutions Ltd. and Safeguard Biosystems Holdings Ltd.

Dr. Flic Gabbay, Non-Executive Director

Flic has over 25 years’ experience in senior management in the pharmaceutical industry. She has been CEO, Director or Vice President working in large pharma, biotech and contract research and was previously a Director of Education at the Drug Safety Research Unit in Southampton. Flic is now a consultant in clinical and regulatory affairs specialising in anti-infective development. She has been involved with a number of early stage biotechnology companies, including acting as CEO for Kanvir and CEO of Rademacher Group and non-executive director of Bioanalab, a specialist biotechnology contract laboratory. Flic founded a clinical research organisation, the Gabbay Group which was acquired by PPD. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Manchester and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and has a BSc in Pharmacology. Flic has sat on a number of expert academic, public and regulatory advisory boards relating to drug development.

Dr. Heather Fairhead, CEO

Heather has a wide range of research experience, encompassing molecular biology, microbiology and biochemistry, gained at the Universities of Nottingham, Sheffield and Cambridge where she is also a regular guest lecturer. She spent a year in the laboratory of Dr Peter Setlow at the University of Connecticut, US working on the proteins that comprise the core of Phico's antibacterial therapy. Heather has a 1st Class Hons degree in Biotechnology, a PhD in Molecular Microbiology and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. Prior to starting her scientific career, Heather gained several years experience working in marketing/sales and business administration for a range of companies including Roneo Vickers, Burberry's and latterly Cambridge Consultants. Heather featured in the Daily Mail's Top 100 Women of Achievement in 2004, and won the CEN Business Woman of the Year award in 2005, having been runner-up in 2004.

Dr. Robert Nolan, Non-Executive Director

Bob has over 30 years experience in big pharma, from 1989 to end 2004 as Director of Global Licensing at AstraZeneca. He has worked with a broad variety of partner companies ranging from virtual biotech start-ups to multi-billion global entities with the considerations involved in these projects ranging from the single $millions to in excess of $300 million. In 2002 Bob became a member of the Board of NeuTec Pharma plc, which was acquired for £305 M by Novartis AG in 2006. During 7 years at Sandoz (now Novartis) in Vienna, Bob became group leader working on the mechanism of antibiotic action, and was a member of the Research Strategic Planning Committee. Bob is a non-executive director of f2g Ltd and Epistem Ltd, and is a founder and Chairman of Cardiff Protides Ltd and of Cardiff Biologicals Ltd. He gained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from King’s College, London, and completed two post-doctoral fellowships in the US at Dartmouth Medical School and MIT.

Lucy Block, Non-Executive Director

Lucy has over 15 years experience growing biotech companies from start ups, and now works as a biotech consultant providing business development and financial strategy advice and mentoring to biotechnology ventures. Prior to this Lucy was an Investment Executive at CRIL where she was directly responsible for investing in and building a number of start up and early stage biotechnology companies. In addition to Phico where she represented CRIL as a founding non executive director, Lucy was an active non executive director of Ashby Biosystems, Endocrine Pharmaceuticals, Immunoporation and Molecular Skin Care. Before joining CRIL Lucy worked for Cambridge University's technology transfer office, assisting with development of the University’s technology portfolio. Lucy has a BSc in Pharmacology from University College London and an MBA from Imperial College London, she is also a non executive director of Innova Biosciences.

Allan Hirst, Non-Executive Director

In February, 2005 Allan took early retirement from Citigroup after a 24 year career with the firm. Following assignments in Latin America, the Middle East and Europe, he spent 15 years leading Citibank's expansion into Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. During his career, Allan has lived in Moscow and Warsaw. Today, he also serves on the Boards of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (New York) and is Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bank of Georgia (Tblisi).