AI in action: Case studies in medicines manufacturing Thursday @ 11:30 AM
Stuart Carroll is a senior health economist and epidemiologist with over 22 years of experience, specialising in infectious diseases and vaccines, market access, health technology appraisal, public health, and government policy. He currently serves as Director of Market Access and Policy Affairs for Moderna UK and Ireland. Prior to this, he held a senior role within Her Majesty’s Government, acting as Senior Expert Policy and Strategy Adviser for the Prime Minister’s UK Vaccines Taskforce and the Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce. In these roles, he was responsible for policy coordination, deployment and implementation strategy, and provided expert advice to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). He also led on key issues relating to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Stuart has extensive expertise in health policy and market access across a broad range of therapeutic areas, including rare diseases, neurology, and mental health. He has authored or co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed academic and scientific papers. Earlier in his career, Stuart worked in consultancy, served as a Health Policy Adviser to the Conservative Party, and held senior roles in the pharmaceutical industry, including Head of Market Access and Public Affairs at Sanofi Pasteur UK and Ireland, Head of Market Access at Biogen, and Head of Health Economics and Epidemiology at Sanofi Pasteur MSD
He has also contributed to national healthcare decision-making bodies, serving as a voting member of the New Drugs Committee for the NHS Scottish Medicines Consortium, and as a member of the Appeals Panel at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Stuart is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and the Royal Society of Arts and serves as a Senior Fellow at both the Office of Health Economics and the think tank Policy Exchange. He is also Co-Chair of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Vaccines Group. In the 2019 General Election, he served as Chief of Staff to former Prime Minister Theresa May.
Stuart has also held public office, serving as an elected councillor for Boyn Hill in the Royal Borough of Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead from 2015 to 2023. During this time, he was Deputy Chair of Cabinet, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Health, Mental Health and Children’s Services, and Chairman of the local Health and Wellbeing Board. He is currently completing a PhD in Public Policy and Public Health at the University of Nottingham, under the supervision of Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, with a core research focus on the COVID-19 vaccination programme and pandemic response.
Riding the geopolitical wave Wednesday @ 10:00 AM
What does your role at BIA involve?
Abby leads BIA’s manufacturing policy work and supports the Manufacturing Advisory Committee. She represents BIA on the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) and is secretariate for the High Potential Modalities MMIP workstream. Abby collaborates with the bioprocessing sector with a focus on complex medicines and sustainability within medicine manufacturing.
Previous experience and achievements
Abby began her career at CPI, where she successfully completed a Degree Level Apprenticeship in Biotechnology. She then advanced to the role of Downstream Scientist, specialising in RNA process development, automation, and continuous processing. Passionate about advancing the sector, Abby also volunteers her time as ATMP Manufacturing Community (AMC) Director, contributing to the advanced therapies sector and gaining valuable cross-modality insights.
If you could invite any scientist or entrepreneur to dinner, who would it be and why?
I’d love to have dinner with Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant scientist whose pivotal work on X-ray crystallography was instrumental in uncovering the structure of DNA. Her contributions, overshadowed by sexism, denied her the recognition shared by Crick and Watson. We would talk about the challenges she faced to provide insights into her resilience, intellect, and the untold stories of women in science that continue to shape our sector (and the Watson Crick Franklin model).
Advancing ADCs with an end-to-end approach Wednesday @ 3:15 PM
Riding the geopolitical wave Wednesday @ 10:00 AM
Luke Devey is a British physician scientist who trained in surgery following graduation from Oxford medical school in 1998. He undertook a PhD and post-doctoral fellowship in liver transplantation prior to transitioning to industry in 2013.
Luke served in roles of increasing responsibility at GSK and Celgene prior to leading Translational Sciences at Janssen Immunology, concurrent with a visiting Professorship in immunology at Oxford. He joined Quell Therapeutics as Chief Medical Officer two years ago and is a Venture Partner with SV Health Investors, London.
Scaling innovation: Insights from the UK cell and gene therapy sector Wednesday @ 11:30 AM
Riding the geopolitical wave Wednesday @ 10:00 AM
Medicines manufacturing industry partnership (MMIP) fireside chat Thursday @ 9:15 AM
Suzanne Farid is Head of Department for UCL Biochemical Engineering, Professor of Bioprocess Systems Engineering, Co-Director of the EPSRC-funded Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing Hub, and Director of the UCL-AstraZeneca Centre of Excellence. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and a Fellow of Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE).
Suzanne leads internationally in her research field on decisional tools to plan the best route to manufacture biotherapeutics. More specifically, she has pioneered algorithms to facilitate cost-effective and sustainable bioprocess design, capacity planning, R&D portfolio management, root cause analysis and manufacturability assessments for biopharmaceuticals ranging from mAbs to cell and gene therapies.
Suzanne’s expertise has been sought out in policy dialogues with UK Government bodies (e.g. G7 100 Days Mission roundtable) and global health agencies and invitations to chair the highest profile conference of the discipline (Recovery of Biological Products Conference RXIX) as well as international pioneering conferences in emerging areas (ECI Integrated Continuous Biomanufacturing ICB). Suzanne featured in The Manufacturer and KTN’s 30 Inspiring Women in Manufacturing in 2020 and the Medicine Maker Power List in 2017 and 2016. She sits on the UK BioIndustry Association Manufacturing Advisory Committee and ISCT Business Models & Investment Committee.
Suzanne joined UCL as a Lecturer in 2001. She obtained her Bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemical Engineering from UCL.
Peter Dunnill award presentation and lecture Wednesday @ 4:30 PM
Dr. Brendan Fish is a distinguished leader in the biopharmaceutical industry with over 30 years of experience spanning biologics development, manufacturing, and regulatory strategy. He currently serves as Director of the Biologics and RNA Centre of Excellence at CPI, where he leads a multidisciplinary team and oversees state-of-the-art facilities supporting end-to-end biopharmaceutical development—from strain characterisation to GMP production.
Brendan has held senior leadership roles at GSK and MedImmune, where he was instrumental in the development, scale-up, and commercialisation of numerous biologics, including monoclonal antibodies, fusion proteins, and oligonucleotides. His expertise encompasses process development, formulation, analytical sciences, and regulatory submissions, with a proven track record of successful product launches and regulatory inspections, including FDA and MHRA.
He is a trusted advisor across industry and government, currently serving on the MHRA’s Commission on Human Medicines’ Cancer Vaccines Expert Working Group, and contributing to multiple national and academic advisory boards. Brendan is also a published scientist and patent holder, with a strong commitment to mentoring and advancing the next generation of biopharmaceutical professionals.
Early career researcher poster flashes Wednesday @ 2:15 PM
Scaling innovation: Insights from the UK cell and gene therapy sector Wednesday @ 11:30 AM
Helena is Chief of Staff at Constructive Bio: a Cambridge-based engineering biology spin-out that rewrites genomes to build the biomolecules of the future. Grounded in pioneering research of Professor Jason Chin, the company unlocks biology beyond the 20 canonical amino acids. At Constructive, Helena acts as advisor and problem solver to the CEO, shaping the firm’s funding, strategy and corporate development. In 2024, Helena supported the company’s $58 million Series A fundraise and secured the company’s first Innovate UK funding with CPI.
Helena has a master’s in Natural Sciences (Biochemistry) from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Genetics from the University of Oxford. Helena trained as a Management Consultant at Oliver Wyman before transitioning into biotech as Head of Business Development at London-based Bactobio Ltd. Here she led six successful Innovate UK applications; supported two seed rounds totalling £9M and supported the company through 5x team growth.
Dragon’s Den – Greening the pipeline: A sustainability showdown in bioprocessing Thursday @ 9:45 AM
Day 1 Close Wednesday @ 5:15 PM
Closing summary and awards Thursday @ 12:45 PM
Catherine Green OBE is an Associate Professor in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. She heads the Clinical BioManufacturing Facility (CBF), the University’s GMP manufacturing facility for sterile biologics, where her mission is to translate innovative academic ideas into real world treatments.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Professor Green led on the initial GMP manufacturing delivering the Oxford–AstraZeneca adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine in record time. As well as SARS-CoV2, the CBF has made novel vaccines against other pathogens of global importance, including Malaria, Zika, Ebola, MERS, Rabies, Plague, Flu and TB, and they continue to develop vaccines and therapeutics for emerging pathogens, potential pandemic threats, bacterial pathogens, and cancer.
Peter Dunnill award presentation and lecture Wednesday @ 4:30 PM
Dragon’s Den – Greening the pipeline: A sustainability showdown in bioprocessing Thursday @ 9:45 AM
Jonathan Haigh has been active in the biopharmaceutical industry for almost twenty years, working in both the Life Science technology vendor and end-user sectors, holding positions in both the US and UK. He completed a Ph.D. in antibody purification from the University of Cambridge, and an MBA from Durham University Business School. Jonathan has fulfilled a number of global technical, management and leadership roles encompassing biopharmaceutical innovation, process development, GMP operations, and merger & acquisition activities.
Jonathan has worked for FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies for the last twelve years in roles of increasing responsibility. He previously acted as Vice President of Process Development, leading a team of over 350 process scientists and engineers across Mammalian, Microbial and Advanced Therapy modalities. He currently holds the role of Head of UK Sites, leading all aspects of the business across three UK sites. Jonathan holds a number of patents and publications pertinent to the bioprocessing field.
Welcome Wednesday @ 9:35 AM
Over twenty-one years’ experience in Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) and the technology involved in the processing and manufacturing.
Eighteen years at Miltenyi Biotec, initially running their bone marrow transplant and cell therapy business, technically and commercially. Looking back, this means playing a very small part in progressing products and processes in the clinic that have now had companies grow up around them, such as Autolus, Adaptimmune, Orchard, Quell, Resolution and more.
Going on to run Miltenyi’s strategic partnerships with such partners as Autolus and GSK. Central to the Prodigy launch and Miltenyi’s widening cell therapy and analytics portfolios and placing them in the industry, actually selling and placing the first Prodigys in the field and part of the first clinical use of the Prodigy for CAR T manufacturing, thus leading Miltenyi’s way into acadaemia, the clinic and bioindustry.
Going on to gain deep experience as a founding member of Ori Biotech (and first employee) as their Chief Business Officer, developing a purpose-built manufacturing cell processing technology more amenable to scale. Experience in building a technology, building a company, building partnerships and collaborations and supporting investor interest and a total of $150M raised.
A long road in cell and gene therapy manufacturing that now seems always to have been leading to Cellular Origins. As Head of Global Business Development and Marketing at Cellular Origins, personal passions and vision are aligned in making a difference and dragging manufacturing technology by the ears up to where it needs to be and to put real substance and realisation to the word that is too often said but seldom meant, ‘Automation’, now full automation and bringing robotics to our maturing industry. Developing and maintaining current partnerships, discovering and securing new partnerships and progressing key industry collaborations with other technology providers, as manufacturing advanced therapies at scale is a challenge that can only be surmounted with in partnership. To best place Cellular Origins to disrupt and evolve CGT manufacturing and to bridge the gap between the need and the ability to scale and to make a positive difference to the lives of as many patients as can benefit from the promise of CGT.
Scaling innovation: Insights from the UK cell and gene therapy sector Wednesday @ 11:30 AM
What does your role at BIA involve?
Rosie leads the BIA’s policy work on access to medicines, rare diseases, cell and gene therapies and antimicrobial resistance. This involves providing the secretariat for the BIA’s Cell and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee (CGTAC) and Rare Disease Industry Group (RDIG). She is also responsible for organising the BIA’s annual Parliament Day, which brings CEOs and senior representatives from BIA member companies to Westminster to meet with politicians and policymakers.
Previous experience
Previously, Rosie worked as a Senior Research Consultant at a Westminster-based public affairs agency, where she supported clients from a range of sectors, including pharmaceuticals, technology and financial services. Prior to that, Rosie worked as a Management Consultant at KPMG, where she assisted on financial and regulatory projects with large corporate clients. She has a BA in Human, Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge.
Scaling innovation: Insights from the UK cell and gene therapy sector Wednesday @ 11:30 AM
Emilie Louvet is Director of Digital for Regulatory Affairs at AstraZeneca. She has been with AstraZeneca for 9 years holding a variety of roles with focus in generating insights from data; digital transformation and implementing AI solutions for drug development, clinical trial design and now regulatory.
Emilie has a MSc and PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from Paris 5 University and Institut Jacques Monod (France), and an MBA in Business Management from the PowerMBA. Prior to moving to the industry, Emilie led her research at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) and at Kyoto University (Japan). She then came back to Europe as head of digital pathology group at Gustave Roussy (France).
AI in action: Case studies in medicines manufacturing Thursday @ 11:30 AM
AI in action: Case studies in medicines manufacturing Thursday @ 11:30 AM
Dragon’s Den – Greening the pipeline: A sustainability showdown in bioprocessing Thursday @ 9:45 AM
Ian has a passion for biological science, in particular Cell and Gene Therapy due to the transformational medical benefits and the potential economic benefit created for the UK by this innovative treatment platform.
RoslinCT is a unique contract development and manufacturing organisation based in Edinburgh and Boston. RoslinCT has a unique capability in cell and gene therapy development and commercial manufacturing. RoslinCT developed and supply CASGEVY™, a Vertex product, used to treat sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. This is the first CRISPR gene therapy treatment and was approved first for use in the UK by the MHRA. A clear demonstration of the UK National capability.
He was a formative member of the UK Vaccines Task Force during COVID and led the manufacturing work stream between Jan 2020 and May 2021. He also co-led the Advanced Therapy Manufacturing Taskforce with George Freeman when he chaired MMIP. This resulting Action Plan was adopted in full in the UK Life Sciences Strategy and was designed to “anchor” advanced therapy manufacturing in the UK.
He retired from GSK in 2017 as SVP Global Supply leading 17 factories around the globe delivering the new product pipeline of amazing products at scale.
He had two periods of service with GSK split by 7 years in the Generics industry with IVAX and Mark Generics.
Ian trained as a pharmacist and has remained committed to the patients that receive our medicines and treatments and place their trust in our industry to improve their health and keep them safe.
Medicines manufacturing industry partnership (MMIP) fireside chat Thursday @ 9:15 AM
Colin is a seasoned biopharmaceutical process and analytical specialist with over 30 years’ experience in the development of novel complex biological entities; including proteins made in the milk of transgenic animals (10 years with PPL Therapeutics, Scotland) and antibody drug conjugates (7 years with Piramal Healthcare, Scotland and 14 years with ADC Biotechnology / Sterling Pharma Solutions, Wales). In the ADC field he has been involved in multiple clinical programmes and commercialisation of both ADCETRISÒ and ZYNLONTAÒ.
He is responsible for overseeing technical services and process development activities, managing all aspects of ADC development and manufacturing from initial proof of concept through to clinical trial production. As ADC Biotechnology transitioned from CRO to CDMO, he was involved in facility design / MHRA consultation and operational qualification to enable the second UK ADC clinical facility to come online.
Colin holds a BSc in Biology with Chemistry from Robert Gordons University and a MSc in Enzymology from the University of Cambridge.
Advancing ADCs with an end-to-end approach Wednesday @ 3:15 PM
Calum Polwart is a Consultant Oncology Pharmacist, based in the North East of England. He has been working in oncology pharmacy for more than 25 years. He has undertaken a number of roles within the North of England and Nationally to provide world class cacner care. He works in a variety of solid tumours mainly focussed on Breast and GI cancers.
Polwart first implemented Dose Banding in his trust not long after the turn of the millennium, undertook work subsequent to make logarithmic dose banding more palatable to pharmacists and was seconded to the NHS England National Dose Standardisation Project to find a national solution for dose banding in England. Today, he continues to support NHS England’s Dose Standardisation and Product Specification Standardisation workstream. He considers himself a pragmatic, practical user of complex medications, and is often frustrated by the lack of consideration of end users in early drug developments.
Advancing ADCs with an end-to-end approach Wednesday @ 3:15 PM
Dragon’s Den – Greening the pipeline: A sustainability showdown in bioprocessing Thursday @ 9:45 AM
Dragon’s Den – Greening the pipeline: A sustainability showdown in bioprocessing Thursday @ 9:45 AM
Asel Sartbaeva is a CEO and a co-founder of EnsiliTech and co-inventor of Ensilication™ technology. Asel got her Masters and PhD in Mineral Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2004, where she started working on silica-based materials. In 2010, at the University of Oxford, she won a Royal Society Fellowship to become an independent researcher. From 2012 at Bath, she started working on thermal stabilisation of vaccines using silica, leading to the invention of the Ensilication™ method: a novel platform formulation technology for thermal stabilisation of biopharmaceuticals.
She is one of 175 Faces of Chemistry by the RSC, won an Emerging Technologies Competition by RSC in 2020, Hanson Medal in 2021, Enterprise Fellowship in 2021, a Woman of the Year award from FDM Everywoman in Tech in 2021, and more recently EntreConf Female CEO of the year in 2024, among other prestigious awards.
Dragon’s Den – Greening the pipeline: A sustainability showdown in bioprocessing Thursday @ 9:45 AM
Dave founded Iksuda in 2012, now a clinical stage company which is focussed on the development of 1st/best in class ADCs by deploying a toolbox of chemistry and payload approaches to address the challenges of haematological and solid cancers. Iksuda’s operations in Newcastle, UK (Corporate HQ and Research) and Boston, US (Development) are committed to driving the differentiation of ADC therapies through innovation.
The Company is actively recruiting patients for Ph1 trials for its IKS014 (Anti-Her2) and IKS03 (anti-CD19) programs and recently announced dosing of its first IKS014 patient. Iksuda anticipates initiating pre-clinical/clinical development of it’s first in class, Anti-CA242 (IKS04) ADC for the treatment of GI cancers in Q1 2024 and continues to deepen its research stage portfolio.
Prior to Iksuda, Dave led Actavis’s biosimilar programmes and started his industrial career by joining Cobra Biologics before moving to Eden Biodesign, where he led its process development capabilities prior to its acquisition by Watson Pharma.
In addition, Dave holds the positions of NED at Leaf Expression Systems, Chairperson at Daresbury Proteins and advises several biotech companies, investment groups and provides local support to Newcastle University’s MRC Confidence in Concept Fund.
Advancing ADCs with an end-to-end approach Wednesday @ 3:15 PM
Claire holds a degree in agriculture and a PhD in biochemistry and has worked in the leadership of scientific associations for 20 years. She started her career within the UK Cambridge biotech cluster and was a co-founder and Manager of the Council of European BioRegions, a network of biotechnology clusters across Europe in Brussels, she also took on the role of SG for the European Biotechnology Network (EBN) in 2012, working across sectors, organisations and countries as part of the EBN mission to facilitate collaboration.
In 2017, Claire became Director General of the globally-focussed Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA) which she successfully led until November 2020 when she joined EuropaBio as Director General. In addition to her current role at EuropaBio, she is also the Chair of the International Council of Biotechnology Associations (ICBA) and Governing Board Member for the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI).
She has a driving interest in collaboration across the value chain to develop the business of science, and the role of internationally networked policies, programmes, skills, finance and infrastructures to create a strong landscape.
Riding the geopolitical wave Wednesday @ 10:00 AM
"Dave brings over two decades of international experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing and supply chain strategy. During his 20+ year tenure at GSK, he held several senior leadership positions, including Vice President of Primary Supply chain and Vice President of Manufacturing Strategy.
Following his time at GSK, Dave served as Managing Director of the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre at CPI, where he led initiatives to accelerate innovation and collaboration across the industry.
He now serves as Chief Executive Officer of Digital Technologies Group (DTG), where he continues to advance innovation in pharmaceutical manufacturing through digital transformation and strategic leadership."
AI in action: Case studies in medicines manufacturing Thursday @ 11:30 AM
Housekeeping Wednesday @ 9:30 AM
UK strategy update Wednesday @ 9:45 AM
Sam Whitmarsh is Director of Analytical Science and Digital Transformation at CatSci, bringing over 20 years of R&D experience from AstraZeneca, BP, and CatSci. After completing a PhD at the University of Bristol, he joined AstraZeneca specialising in analytical science, before establishing BP’s UK mass spectrometry facility and leading its Global Analytical Science Network.
Joining CatSci in 2020, Sam now heads the company’s Analytical business unit, driving innovation and delivery for customers while leading CatSci’s digital transformation strategy – integrating high-throughput experimentation, data analytics, and AI-driven predictive tools across development. He is also founder of LabLinks, a digital platform enabling connected laboratory workflows and data orchestration across the scientific sector. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Sam serves on the Separation Science Interest Group and is a passionate advocate for the role of digital and analytical science in accelerating innovation.
AI in action: Case studies in medicines manufacturing Thursday @ 11:30 AM
