Owlstone Medical strengthens management team
Published on: 25 Aug 2016
Chris Hodkinson, Dr Marc van der Schee and Hamilton Scanlon join the company
Cambridge, UK, August 25, 2016: Owlstone Medical, a diagnostics company, has announced that it has made three appointments to its senior team including business development, clinical research and manufacturing executives. The appointments follow the Company’s recent $7M (£4.9M) investment to commercialize its disease breathalyzer and fund ongoing clinical trials in lung and colon cancer screening.
Chris Hodkinson has been appointed as VP Business Development and takes responsibility for managing the Company’s business development efforts for cancer products. Chris joins Owlstone Medical from Abcodia Ltd, a company developing tests for early detection of cancer, where he was a co-founder, Director and Chief Operating Officer. With over 15 years working in pharma and biotech companies including GSK and Biowisdom, Chris brings extensive commercial, technical and regulatory experience.
Dr Marc van der Schee (MD, PhD) joins the Company as Lead Clinical Research Scientist to design and oversee all clinical trials where he will be responsible for driving product development through into clinical practice. Marc’s 10 years of experience in the field of volatile biomarker research spans medical, epidemiological, chemical analytical and data-analysis. During his PhD he pioneered the use of exhaled breath analysis in lung cancer, asthma and colorectal cancer amongst others. For this work he received various awards including a Marie Curie Fellowship.
Hamilton Scanlon joins as VP Manufacturing with over 30 years’ experience of taking products through the full development life cycle and into full scale production launch. His manufacturing experience ranges from start-up companies through to PLCs and he has been responsible for setting up manufacturing facilities within, China, Italy and the UK. Hamilton takes responsibility for manufacturing scale-up of Owlstone Medical’s clinical R&D tools used in biomarker discovery.
Commenting on the announcement, Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical, said: “Owlstone Medical was created very specifically to advance our breathalyzer for very early stage diagnosis of disease when it can be treated more effectively for better patient outcomes. We are excited to see the company expanding so soon after being spun-out, and are confident that Chris, Marc and Hamilton will be great assets to the team.”
Dr Mike Cox and Jon Charters also join the Owlstone Medical team; Mike as Program Manager with responsibility for developing medical grade hardware used in diagnostic tests and supporting regulatory affairs; and Jon as QA/RA Manager focusing on the introduction of ISO 13485:2016 and FDA 21 CFR 820.
To find out more about Owlstone Medical visit: www.owlstonemedical.com
Notes to Editors
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About Owlstone Medical:
Owlstone Medical has developed a breathalyzer for disease. With a focus on non-invasive diagnostics for cancer, infectious disease and inflammatory disease, the company aims to save 100,000 lives and $1.5B in health care costs by 2020.
The company’s microchip FAIMS (Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometer) sensor is a platform technology that can be programmed in software to detect targeted biomarkers of disease in breath (and other bodily fluids). FAIMS can be used in clinical diagnostics and precision medicine with application in cancer and a wide range of other medical conditions. Highly sensitive and selective, these tests allow for early diagnosis when treatments are more effective and where more lives can be saved.
Owlstone Medical is currently developing tests for lung and colorectal cancer, two of the most common cancer killers worldwide. The company also sells R&D tools and services to academic, clinical and pharma partners who want to develop breath based diagnostics for their own applications.
Founded in 2004 as a spin-out from the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge, Owlstone Inc is a profitable business selling it’s proven FAIMS technology to military and industrial customers globally. Owlstone Medical was spun out from Owlstone Inc in 2016 to develop and commercialise FAIMS in diagnostic applications.
Owlstone Medical is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with offices in London, UK.
