Malcolm Weir
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
HEPTARES
Switzerland
Biography
Malcolm has a BSc and PhD in biochemistry and biophysics from Imperial College, London. He was Head of the Biomolecular Structure Department and then the Molecular Sciences Division of GlaxoWellcome with responsibility for 300 people engaged in target validation and lead discovery. During this time he led the application of structural biology and modelling to drug discovery, resulting in the advancement of clinical candidates to a wide range of diseases. He joined the structural bioinformatics and drug discovery company Inpharmatica Ltd as CEO in 2000, growing it from the spin-out stage to a 100-person company. Inpharmatica was sold to Galapagos NV in 2006. He joined MRC Technology in 2006 in order to establish Heptares Therapeutics Ltd in July 2007, as co-founder and CEO. Malcolm was elected Visiting Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College, London in 1997 and is on the Chemical Biology Advisory Board at the same university. He served on the Council of the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council from 2004-2011. Malcolm received the Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize 2015, awarded by the UK Royal Society of Chemistry’s Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector, in recognition of his contribution to GPCR drug discovery. In 2016, he received an honorary DSc from the University of Hertfordshire for services to research.
Research Interest
BIOCHEMISTRY
