Tony leads Worldwide Research & Development’s Medicinal Sciences, a group that encompasses the small molecule and large molecule partner lines that enable and accelerate Pfizer’s end-to-end portfolio to deliver medicines and vaccines to patients.
Prior to this appointment,Tony served as the the head of Worldwide Medicinal Chemistry. Tony also served as Head of Chemistry and Exploratory Medicinal Sciences in Sandwich from February 2007 and Head of Chemistry from April 2004. Tony joined Pfizer as a Scientist in the Department of Discovery Chemistry at Sandwich in 1992. Over the period of the next 8 years he made a number of contributions to the delivery of development candidates in various projects from within the Sexual Health, Urology, and Gastrointestinal Therapeutic Areas. He was appointed to the post of Manager in 1999 with responsibility for Anti-Infectives Chemistry and played a leading role in the discovery of Maraviroc, a CCR5 antagonist for the treatment of HIV, for which he was awarded the RSC Malcolm Campbell Prize in 2005, and was a co-recipient of the ACS Heroes of Chemistry Prize, the Prix Galien USA and Scrip Awards in 2008 and the PhRMA Discoverers Award in 2010. This period of time also saw Tony leading the team that discovered Lersivirine a new non cross resistant non nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor that is currently in Phase II. In recognition of these achievements Tony was awarded the UCB Ehrlich Prize for excellence in medicinal chemistry by the EFMC in 2010.
Tony received his BSc in 1987 and PhD in 1990 in chemistry from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, before completing post-doctoral studies with Professor Steven Ley, FRS at Imperial College in London working on the total synthesis of azadirachtin, one of the most complex molecules ever to have been synthesized, and a project that has only recently been completed.
Tony has active interests in many areas of medicinal chemistry and has held positions on a number of UK funding council review boards such as the BBSRC and EPSRC. He was elected to EPSRC Council in 2010. Tony is also co-editor in chief of the new RSC journal, Medicinal Chemistry Communications, and was editor of volume 41 of Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry in 2006. Tony is an author or inventor on more than 50 scientific publications and patents and has given invited lectures at a number of International Conferences on Medicinal Chemistry. Lastly, Tony is a Visiting Professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.