Alan Barge
Chief Executive Officer 4C Biomed
Alan trained in medicine at Oxford and London, and specialised in haematology and oncology, completing research and clinical fellowships in Seattle in 1990. He specialized in the treatment of leukaemia and bone-marrow transplantation.
He joined the American biotechnology company Amgen in 1990, as European Medical Director, and was responsible for the European, and subsequently Worldwide development of Neupogen® (filgrastim), in patients with cancer and leukaemia, as well as HIV and infectious disease.
In 1999 he joined AstraZeneca, and was asked to establish a team, responsible for early phase oncology drug development. This team took many new drugs into Man for the first time, leading the development of gefitinib (Iressa®) and Olaparib (Lynparza®).
In 2003 he was made responsible for the re‐focusing of the development, and was subsequently appointed VP of Clinical and Head of Oncology and Infection, responsible for
building and managing a large development group, and the execution of AstraZeneca’s oncology portfolio globally.
Alan left AstraZeneca in 2011 and co-founded ASLAN Pharmaceuticals, a Singapore-based biopharmaceutical company which focuses on Asia-prevalent cancers. In 2023 he helped found Tilikum Therapeutics in the UK, which also focuses on early-stage oncology assets.
Alan is a is now CEO of 4C Biomed Ltd., a biotechnology company developing second-generation immunotherapeutic monoclonal antibodies
Seminars
- Leveraging patient-derived tumour systems to identify and validate novel targets across both tumour and immune cell populations
- Understanding how human-relevant screening approaches can uncover therapeutic opportunities missed by conventional preclinical models
- Evaluating the translational relevance of novel immunotherapy targets and therapeutic strategies in tumours resistant to first-generation checkpoint inhibitors
- How can clinical observations and reverse translational insights be used to improve future model development and regulatory confidence?
- What role should patient-derived and human-relevant tumour models play in identifying novel targets and improving candidate selection?
- Which biological, translational, or clinical endpoints provide the strongest evidence that a programme is ready for progression?
- Audience Q&As
