BioAscent appoints Nick Moore, PhD to steer growth in US

To support its ongoing growth in the US, BioAscent has appointed Nick Moore, PhD to head up business development in North America. BioAscent works with companies of all sizes and already supports a number of US biotech customers with both compound management services and drug discovery projects.

Dr Moore, is an internationally recognized drug discovery specialist with over 35 years’ experience in all aspects of discovery and development, from early compound identification to clinical Proof of Concept. He has directed a range of drug discovery programs spanning multiple therapeutic indications, including leading the preclinical development of the $5bn blockbuster Zyprexa (olanzapine) for Eli Lilly, and has worked with the pharmaceutical, biotech and academic drug discovery/development communities. Dr Moore has held senior roles in the US and the UK, and with both in-house and contract research organization experience – most recently including Charles River Discovery Services – he is ideally placed to support BioAscent’s customers and develop the company’s North American business.

“Working with customers varying from the smallest academic spin-out to large pharma, and being able to offer customized services to meet their exact requirements was a real draw for me”, said Dr Moore. “BioAscent’s capabilities in drug discovery and compound management are an especially good fit with VC-funded biotechs, because we offer a rare mix of leading infrastructure and scientific excellence. We can really contribute scientifically to their project teams, and also provide compound management expertise to ensure that the right compounds are shipped to the right place, at the right time, in the right format – and in the most cost-effective and trackable way.”

BioAscent offers a fully integrated range of drug discovery services, including de novo assay development, target analysis and bespoke screening strategies, compound screening, medicinal and synthetic chemistry, and computational chemistry. In addition, the company offers compound management services that also include on-site, on-demand access to its Compound Cloud diversity library of 125k lead-like IP-free compounds. This means that smaller biotechs can access ‘big pharma’ facilities easily and dependably.

Commenting on the appointment, Paul Smith, BioAscent’s CEO said: “Having state-of-the-art facilities and a broad range of services are really important to BioAscent’s offering, however it’s the excellence of our people that makes the real difference to our customers. Nick’s track record in drug discovery and development, including being a recipient of the prestigious ‘Society for Medicines Research Award for Drug Discovery’, is a clear demonstration of our policy of hiring the best people, and we look forward to further expanding our customer base in North America.”