Astex Executive Receives the AstraZeneca Business Development Professional of the Year 2009 Award
The award was presented by John Goddard, Head of Strategic Planning & Business Development at AstraZeneca, at the recent Pharmaceutical Licensing Group UK Awards Dinner in London.
The Business Development Professional of the Year Award is made in recognition of significant achievement in licensing, alliance and dealmaking. The 2009 Award was given primarily in recognition of the research and licensing deal which Astex signed with GlaxoSmithKline in November 2009, bringing in an up-front equity and cash payment of £20M and the potential of a further £300M in milestones plus royalties and a number of other successful deals concluded in the past 12 months that have had an significant impact on advancing Astex’s own products.
On receiving the award, Dr Martin Buckland, said, “I’m delighted to accept this prestigious award. To be recognised by one's peers in this way is truly an honour. I would like to thank the PLG, AstraZeneca as the sponsors, and the judging panel. Of course, business development is truly a team effort, so this award is really recognition of the tremendous team we have at Astex all of whom have contributed to this achievement.”
About The Pharmaceutical Licensing Group
The Pharmaceutical Licensing Group has been established for over 25 years in the UK as the professional association for those active in pharmaceutical and biotechnology business development and licensing. It is the premier and original networking group for this industry sector. There are around 200 members in the UK and over a 1000 overseas. All sectors of the industry are represented including multinationals, medium and small pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology, generic and consumer companies. As a professional association, PLG’s mission is to provide its members with a forum to meet and discuss matters of general interest, to promote best practice in the profession and to provide training and education in the field of pharmaceutical and biotechnology business development and licensing.
About Astex Therapeutics
Astex is a UK-based biotechnology company that discovers and develops novel small molecule therapeutics. Using its pioneering fragment-based drug discovery platform Pyramid™, Astex has built a pipeline of five molecularly-targeted oncology drugs, of which three are currently being tested in clinical trials and two are in pre-clinical development.
In addition to its proprietary research programmes, Astex’s productivity in lead discovery has been endorsed through numerous partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Bayer-Schering, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson.
