Board & Key Staff
Professor John Horton - Chairman of the Board | |
 | John is a medical practitioner with 25 years experience in drug development in industry. For the last 17 years John has worked exclusively in Developing World Medicine – malaria, helminths, leishmaniasis, diarrhoea etc. and was the moving force and ‘father figure’ of the tropical disease initiatives in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). John was closely involved in establishing the Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, and was a member of GATB scientific advisory committee. At GSK, John ensured involvement in 3 Public Private Partnerships with the WHO (Lapdap, Lapdap + artesunate and an early stage antimalarial) and in developing concepts for access in public health to these products. Over the years John has acted as an advisor in a number of WHO programme initiatives (e.g. global helminth elimination). Although now retired from GSK, John continues to work part time for WHO in their drug development programmes, and holds academic appointments in Liverpool and in Perth, and is a founding trustee of the Malaria Consortium, a UK NGO.
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Dr Wayne Best - Managing Director | |
 | Wayne has almost 30 years experience in synthetic and medicinal chemistry both in academia, government and industry. Wayne obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Organic Chemistry from The University of Western Australia. He then spent two years at Imperial College in the UK where he obtained a DIC, followed by a year at the Australian National University in Canberra. Wayne then took up a position with ICI Australia's Research Group in Melbourne where he spent over four years designing and synthesizing a range of biologically active compounds, particularly agrochemicals. During this time Wayne was seconded for six months to ICI Agrochemicals' Jealott's Hill Research Station in the UK to work on the rational design of a novel herbicide target. Following ICI, Wayne returned to Western Australia and spent the ten years preceding Epichem at the Chemistry Centre (WA) where he was responsible for the formation and running of the Medicinal & Biological Chemistry Section which undertook collaborative R&D into drug discovery and contract synthesis for the drug discovery and pharmaceutical industries. Wayne is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and currently holds appoinments as an Adjunct Associate Professor at both Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia.
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Dr Colette Sims - Director | |
 | Colette has over ten years experience in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry both in Australia and overseas. Colette obtained her BSc (Hons) at the University of Western Australia, and completed her PhD (Organic Chemistry) at the same institution. Colette then took up a position at the Chemistry Centre (WA) to work on an anti-HIV drug discovery program, before completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching. Following this Colette moved to Canada for a year and a half where she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Calgary. Colette returned to Australia to take up another position at the Chemistry Centre (WA) where she spent over seven years, and was engaged in contract synthesis and drug discovery projects. Prior to joining Epichem, Colette headed the Medicinal and Biological Chemistry Section. Colette holds an appointment as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Murdoch University.
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Dr Robert Gauci - General Manager | |
Robert completed both his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Chemistry at James Cook University, synthesising a range of macrocyclic and cryptand molecules for selective metal-ion binding and small molecule complexation. Robert then spent two years in Malta working as R&D Manager for Amino Chemicals, a large-scale batch manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and a subsidiary company of Dipharma Italy. Robert returned to Australia in 2004 when he joined Epichem. During his work for Amino Chemicals and Epichem, Robert has been involved in managing projects ranging from the parallel synthesis (10mg) of analogue libraries for potential drug targets, to pilot scale (15kg) synthetic method validation of active pharmaceuticals. Robert has been Epichem's General Manager since 2007.
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Dr Martine Keenan - Head of Drug Discovery | |
 | Martine is a medicinal chemist with 10 years professional experience in drug discovery, including 8 years in a multinational pharmaceutical company. Following a PhD in natural products synthesis at Kings' College in London, and post-doctoral studies in Germany developing chiral catalysts for asymmetric hydrogenation, Martine took up a medicinal chemistry position in the neuroscience division of Eli Lilly in the UK. Martine has expertise in identifying novel hits, designing new analogues, computer-aided drug design, using SAR analysis to develop compounds into new leads and optimising molecules towards drug candidates. Martine moved to Perth, Australia and joined Epichem in 2008 working primarily in the field of infectious diseases, and managing drug discovery projects.
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Mr Barry Epstein - VP of Marketing | |
| Barry Epstein is a sales, marketing, business development and paramedical expert with more than 25 years international and national experience in healthcare, biotechnology, information technology and several other industries. He was senior manager with a Fortune 500 company - Jonhnson & Johnson Ultrasound - in the USA with worldwide product marketing and clinical validation experience where he was responsible for acquiring industry leadership and generating more than USD$70 million per annum through launching many new and highly innovative medical diagnostic products. Barry has held senior positions in several privately operated Australian medical services, biotechnology/drug discovery companies and Not-For-Profit organisations. He was listed in Who's Who in Business in Western Australia for two consecutive years. He has published articles in national Australian professional journals in marketing techniques and was a contributing author for a scientific/medical textbook published in New York city - Doppler Echocardiography in Heart Disease. Barry is an active member of the Licensing Executive Society of Australia and New Zealand, AusBiotech Association and the Australian Institute of Management. |
