Mike has over 25 years of experience in a range of senior scientific roles in the global pharmaceutical industry, including key positions in Europe, USA and Asia at both CDMOs (Hovione & AMRI) as well as innovator companies (GSK, Anacor, Biosignal).
Mike gained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Dundee in 1989 and then undertook a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr Richard Haynes at the University of Sydney prior to launching his industrial career in the UK in 1991 at GSK.
Mike’s initial job in industry was with GSK as a process chemist, mainly involved in scale up of developmental APIs from lab scale into the pilot plant and beyond. Mike then moved to Portugal in 1996 to manage Hovione’s pilot plant involved in scale up of R&D chemistry into GMP manufacture. In 1998, Mike joined AMRI in New York, USA as head of small scale GMP manufacturing and subsequently held positions of increasing seniority within the organization. In his role as Vice President of Chemical Development at AMRI, Mike oversaw a team of over 250 chemists and analysts across a number of global sites involved in process development, scale up and GMP manufacture of new chemical entities across the development spectrum from early phase clinical supply to process validation and commercialisation.
Mike also enjoyed stints at small biotech companies from 2008 to 2012, serving as Vice President CMC at Anacor Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for management of external development and manufacturing of its product pipeline, and as CSO at Biosignal, where he managed the internal teams involved in progressing clinical assets.
In 2012, Mike was appointed GM of Hovione’s TTC in New Jersey. During his tenure, the TTC was transformed from a loss-making facility, essentially subsidised by the parent company for five years, into a very profitable site, which it remains to this day. This was achieved by re-positioning the site as a hub for the scale up, development and commercialization of orphan and small volume drugs for US biotech companies and by creating a new organisational culture. Most recently, Mike has served as CSO at New Zealand Pharmaceuticals, with responsibility for advancing their portfolio of novel bile acid compounds.
In 2019, Mike started Strathmore Pharma Consulting to provide process development, scale up, CMC and project management consulting services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
During his career, Mike has participated in the process development and scale up of in excess of 500 early phase NCEs and is proud to have contributed to the advancement of more than a dozen approved drugs including Viracept, Vyvanse, Vorinostat, Brentuximab, Alogliptin, Belinostat, Enzalutamide, Enfortumab, Tavaborole and Zejula.
Mike also served as a member of the Editorial Board on ACS journal “Organic Process Research and Development” between 2005 and 2017. He also functioned as a Principal Investigator and a Referee for the NIH, reviewing grant proposals from industry and academia between 2012 and 2017.