New medicines for lasting change

Mark Sullivan is MDGH’s founder and managing director. He was previously a clinical programme head at GSK in London; Associate Director, Clinical at Gilead Sciences in California; and Chief Operating Officer of Australia’s vaccine design and development consortium at the University of New South Wales. He has contributed to three successful global registrational programs for HIV and hepatitis B therapeutics, has worked on 40 small molecule and biologic development programs at all stages, and led the development of moxidectin through FDA approval. Mark was the 2019 Victorian Australian of the Year, and in 2022 was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours List.

Kate has spent her career working to prove that global health is an investible asset class. Her work has focused on bridging the gap between commercial investment and development funding, including the management of the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF) and establishing a financing strategy for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Kate’s former clients include development agencies of the UK, Germany, Canada, Norway, Australia, and Netherlands; the World Bank; African Development Bank; private foundations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and sovereigns in Africa and the Middle East. Kate is currently Chief Investment Officer at Univercells, working to create a new precedent for what it means to build mission-driven businesses in biotech. Prior to Univercells, Kate led healthcare initiatives at Lion’s Head Global Partners, an investment management and financial advisory firm focusing on frontier markets. Kate has lived and worked in the UK, US, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. She holds a MA(Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Magdalen College, Oxford University; a Master of Public Administration Dual Degree from the London School of Economics and Colombia University’s School of International and Public Affairs; and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Dr Michael Elliott, FRCP (London UK) has thirty years of pharmaceutical industry experience following six years in hospital medical practice. Currently he is Vice President, ACE (Australia, Canada, Europe) Medical Affairs, Gilead Sciences, London, UK and prior to this role was Vice President & Medical Director, GlaxoSmithKline Asia Pacific for 10 years. In the pharmaceutical industry, Michael has a wide range of global experience in medicine development, commercialization, governance, and strategy. He led global development programmes of early stage and late-stage compounds and has worked within the local operations divisions of a UK company (SB) and US companies (Schering-Plough, GSK) as well as within global R&D. For nine years, Michael has held his leadership role with Gilead Sciences during an accelerated growth phase which has included expansion and twelve launches of novel medicines in HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Haematology/Oncology. His six years of clinical practice included experience in Infectious Diseases, Cardiology, Chest Medicine and Diabetes/ Endocrinology. Michael is based in Sailsbury UK, has a diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine UK, holds an MBA and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Lorna is currently Vice President, Commercial Operations, Asia Pacific of Seqirus bioCSL Ltd., (a CSL company). She has enjoyed a successful 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, encompassing clinical research, business development, marketing and sales across a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including respiratory, CNS, cardiopulmonary, oncology, metabolic, psychiatry, neurology, HIV, pain, and vaccines. Lorna previously worked for GSK Australia as Commercial Vice President, before establishing Ikaria Australia Pty Ltd., a biotherapeutics company that commercialised drugs and devices for intensive care medicine. She was a director and secretary of BioMelbourne Network (an industry-led membership association for organisations engaged in biotechnology, medical technology, and health innovation in the state of Victoria). Lorna graduated with a PhD in Neurobiology (University College London) and a BSc in Pharmacology (University of Glasgow), and went on to hold academic positions at the Cardiothoracic Institute at the Royal Brompton Hospital (London) and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (London).

Andrew Wilks is a serial entrepreneur with 25 years working in industry, following a highly successful academic career as a cancer researcher at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He went on to found Cytopia (1997), one of Australia’s earliest ASX-listed drug discovery companies. Since then, he has founded eleven companies in the drug discovery arena. He was co-founder of SYNthesis med chem, a global CRO with laboratories in China, and SYNthesis Research, a ‘venture-discovery’ company that funds and manages drug discovery collaborations generated from academia. Andrew holds an Adjunct Professorship at Monash University, and is an Honorary Enterprise Professor at the University of Melbourne. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS). He has received a number of awards including the JNJ AusBiotech Industry Leadership Award, the ATSE Clunies Ross Medal, and the Lackmann Award for Translational Research.