Michael Saunders

Biography

 Michael Saunders has been discovering novel drugs and selecting therapeutic targets for 25 years. At argenx for more than 6 years, he is currently responsible for External Research and the Innovative Access Program. At argenx, he has contributed to the discovery of four antibodies in clinical and preclinical development, for establishment and maintenance of academic collaborations and Alliance Management with Pharma partners (Shire, Bayer, Eli Lilly) and obtaining 4 Research Grants (>9M€). Prior to joining argenx, Michael Saunders working for Ablynx NV as an independent senior interim project director leading the successful Nanobody Landgrab program selecting 100 therapeutic targets, and resulting in the identification of Nanobodies of therapeutic relevance against these targets, 20 patent applications, 4 internal drug development programs and 5 scientific publications. Within Ablynx Michael also led an internal drug discovery program and an external program as Alliance Manager with Boehringer Ingelheim. Previously he was Director Pharma Discovery at Devgen and between 1992 and 2001 Senior Scientist and Project Leader at GSK at the French Drug Discovery Unit. Michael Saunders holds at M.A. from Cambridge University (UK), a PhD in Biology from the University North Carolina (USA) and undertook postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Professor Pierre Chambon in Strasbourg (France).  He also received general management training (EMBA) at ESSEC (France) and Mannheim Business School (Germany).

Research Interest

Antibodies in clinical and preclinical development