Experienced Board
The N4 Pharma board has a proven track record at a senior level in major international pharmaceutical companies and extensive experience of start-ups in the pharmaceutical and biotech field.
Dr Chris Britten
Non-Executive Chairman
Dr Chris Britten is an experienced pharmaceutical executive and is currently Head of M&A at Neuraxpharm, a privately-owned European CNS specialty pharmaceutical company. He has over 20 years’ experience in R&D, corporate development and investment banking. Previous roles include Global Head of M&A at Sandoz (Munich), Managing Director at Torreya Partners (London), Head of Business Development at Sanofi Pasteur MSD (Lyon) and Director, Life Sciences at Deloitte Corporate Finance (London). Chris also spent many years at GSK in both drug discovery and corporate development.
Nigel Theobald
Chief Executive Officer
Nigel has over 25 years’ experience in healthcare and in building businesses, strategy development and its implementation and a strong network covering all aspects of pharmaceutical product development and commercialisation. He was the head of healthcare brands at Boots Group plc in 2002 before leaving to set up a series of successful businesses, including Oxford Pharmascience Group plc, which he grew over 5 years into an AIM quoted company with a market capitalisation of £40 million upon departure. Nigel formed N4 Pharma in 2014.
Luke Cairns
Executive Director
Luke has spent over 16 years working in corporate finance and is a former head of corporate finance and managing director at Northland Capital Partners, an FCA regulated stockbroking firm. Having left Northland in 2014, Luke founded LSC Advisory Limited to provide advisory and consultancy services to growth companies. He has worked with many growth companies across a number of sectors and regions on a wide range of transactions, including IPOs, secondary fundraisings, corporate restructurings and takeovers. He is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries.
Dr Alastair Smith
Non-Executive Director
A scientist with extensive experience of building early stage businesses within the Avacta Group, which he founded, with over 18 years as a public company CEO. Alastair has extensive management, strategic planning and transactional experience, having led the public and private M&A activities of Avacta since its IPO on AIM, which was completed via a reverse merger. Over his tenure, Avacta grew into one of the leading AIM biotech companies comprising two divisions: a clinical stage oncology drug company advancing its proprietary pre|CISIONTM tumour targeting platform and a diagnostics business executing an M&A-led growth strategy in Europe focused on healthcare professionals.
Michael G. Palfreyman PhD.
Non-Executive Director
Dr Michael Palfreyman has more than four decades of successful drug discovery and development experience with two major pharmaceutical companies and several biotechnology companies and is currently the senior R&D advisor at Cybin Inc. Previous roles include co-founder of Scriptgen (Anadys) Pharmaceuticals, which was sold to Roche in 2011 for USD$230 million, and co-founder and CSO at Amorsa Therapeutics, Inc., developing novel treatments for depression and pain, where he oversaw a successful US$180 million exit. Dr. Palfreyman is a co-inventor on 55 issued US and European patents, multiple pending patents, and has co-authored over 150 scientific articles and book chapters.