C4X Discovery appoints Cathy Tralau-Stewart as new science chief

The AIM-traded firm said Dr Tralau-Stewart had more than 20 years of senior academic and industry leadership experience, with a “broad and in-depth” knowledge of drug discovery and translation of early research innovation into drug discovery programmes.

Previously, she was senior director of alliances for Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the strategic development and management of academic alliances for Takeda in the United States, Australia, Japan and Europe.

Having started her career at GlaxoSmithKline, Dr Tralau-Stewart moved into academia where she held senior leadership roles building drug discovery portfolios through to phase 3 clinical studies at Imperial College London, the University of California San Francisco, and the Stanford University-Takeda Alliance for Innovative Medicines.

C4X said Dr Tralau-Stewart was previously involved in advising on, evaluating and due diligence for more than 500 projects, and had supported and facilitated the translation of over 40 therapeutic technologies towards the clinic from academiam.

It described her as an “expert” in transforming therapeutics projects from target identification and validation through lead optimisation to clinical proof-of-concept in many therapeutic areas, including inflammation and neurosciences.

She has published more than 25 publications, and was the inventor of three granted patents and a non-inventor contributor of “many more”.

“Cathy is a highly respected scientific leader with strong and deep drug discovery expertise and we are delighted and proud that she will be joining the team here at C4XD,” said chief executive officer Clive Dix.

“Her experience in building drug discovery portfolios and advancing programmes into clinical development will enhance the work of the team here at C4XD and expand our portfolio through her strong academic and industry network.

“We warmly welcome Cathy and look forward to working alongside her."

Cathy Tralau-Stewart added that it was a “fantastic opportunity” to work at an “innovative” drug discovery company.

“C4XD has made incredible progress to date and I am excited to be joining the team to build on and advance the portfolio towards future commercial partnership that could improve the lives of patients in need of new treatment options.”

At 1020 GMT, shares in C4X Discovery Holdings were up 0.24% at 43.1p.