Watch: Meet our team: Dr Geoffrey Nichol

With nearly 30 years’ experience in drug development that includes C-suite and senior positions at BioMarin, Medarex Inc and Novartis, Dr Geoffrey Nichol, M.B., Ch.B., M.B.A. brings valuable clinical and commercial acumen to the HaemaLogiX Board of Directors.

In this short video, Dr Nichol provides an overview of his professional background and details his long-standing interest in HaemaLogiX’s targets and technology. 

Video: An Introduction To Dr Geoffrey Nichol

Transcript

I'm a New Zealander and I'm a grateful graduate of the University of Otago, medical school, in New Zealand. I did advanced Training in New Zealand and Australia and ended up in a fellowship in Brompton Hospital in London.

I was a thoracic physician and in London and I became very interested in joining the industry which was going through a very exciting stage at that time and I did join the industry. I spent a total of 12 Years between Smithkline Beecham and Novartis and eventually rising to the level of Vice President, reporting to Jörg Reinhardt, who is the current chairman of Novartis, who at that time was the head of development and it was an amazing experience. It was a fantastic education in the theory and practice of drug development.

The next thing that happened was that I joined Medarex as the Head of Development.  Medarex at the time was a the first fully human monoclonal antibody company and it happened to also make the antibody which HaemaLogiX has been taken through development since then.

The big impact on my life and on therapeutics was the development at Medarex of the first checkpoint inhibitors for the immune-oncology indications of melanoma and related indications and we took those first antibodies through development and it paydirt with really what has become a revolution in the treatment of cancer.

After that, I have spent significant amount of time in gene and cell therapy and the past 5 years I have been working as the Chief Medical Officer at BioMarin, which is a rare diseases company, again with a significant focus on gene therapy.

Because we made the antibody for HaemaLogiX, I already knew the management team and I knew the scientists. I had a deep respect for them and I've had the chance to keep up with the development of KappaMab. I've also seen the data on the CAR-T that has been developed in collaboration with Peter Mac and I can spot an investment thesis when I see it and I believe I've spotted it here so it was not a difficult decision to join the Board and do everything I can to help HaemaLogiX to succeed.