Professor Malcolm Stevens OBE, B.Pharm, PhD, DSc, DSc Hons (London), CChem., FRSC Chief Scientific Officer

Malcolm Stevens studied Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham and graduated with a B.Pharm (1st Class Hons) in 1960, followed by a PhD in 1963. He was British Empire Cancer Campaign Fellow at Nottingham (1963-1965) before moving to Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh as Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry (1965). In 1972 he moved to Aston University in Birmingham as reader, then Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Until September 2006 he was Director of the Cancer Research Campaign Experimental Cancer Chemotherapy Research Group, based at the University of Nottingham, where he led a highly productive research effort culminating in the discovery of six novel compounds that have progressed into clinical trials, two of which are now on the market. One of these, temozolomide, is now approved world-wide as a treatment for brain tumours and is marketed by Schering-Plough Corporation.

Malcolm's work has been recognised by numerous national and international awards: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Interdisciplinary Research Award (1991); Royal Pharmacuetical Society Harrison Memorial Medal (1994); Tom Connors Award of the British Association of Cancer Research (2002); RSC George and Christine Sosnovsky Award for chemical contributions to cancer research (2002); RSC Malcolm Campbell Award (2003); and the American Association of Cancer Research Bruce Cain Award (2003). In 1999 he received an OBE for his achievements in anticancer drug discovery, and in 2005 was awarded an Honorary DSc by the University of London.

In addition to his association with Pharminox he was a founder director of two companies set up in the early 1980's, Aston Molecules Ltd and Coordinated Drug Delivery Ltd (which subsequently became Vectura), which have progressed to a trade sale, and merger and listing on AIM, respectively.