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Tyers, Mike
As one of Canada’s leaders in functional genomics, Professor Mike Tyers has helped advance our understanding of the genetic and biochemic…
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Pharmaceutical sciences spin-out specialist wins Lifetime Achievement Award
12 November 2009
Professor Howard Stevens, who has contributed greatly to pharmaceutical research in academia, industry and as an entrepreneur, has been chosen to receive the 2009 Nexxus Lifetime Achievement for Life Science Award. The Award recognises an individual who has made significant contributions to raising the reputation of the West of Scotland as a centre of excellence for life sciences.
Professor Stevens' career, spanning nearly 40 years, has seen him achieve many things from the development of drugs that help improve millions of lives, to positively influencing and inspiring the many students and colleagues he interacts with each day.
Today, Professor Stevens focuses his work on 3 areas - scientific research and education, public service to the pharmaceutical sciences sector and the transferring of technology from academia to industry through the development of spin-out businesses.
"It is an enormous privilege to have spent a life-time working in the pharmaceutical sciences, firstly in industry and then more recently, in academia,"
he said. "Those of us working in this field sometimes have the opportunity of improving the nation's health and if I have had the good fortune to have made a small contribution to this end, then I can ask for no more. I feel humbled in receiving this Award as I have been surrounded by many very talented colleagues, both young and old, and this Award should properly be shared amongst the many and not given to only one."
Early in his career, as the Head of Pharmaceutical Development at Synthélabo in Paris, Professor Stevens developed 6 new drugs marketed in Europe, including Kerlone (betaxolol) and Ambien (zolpidem). He also invented Tildiem LA (diltiazem), the first once-a-day formulation of this blood-pressure lowering drug.
In 1988, he returned to Scotland and began his transition from big pharma to academia by joining the board of a University of Strathclyde drug-delivery spin-out, PolySystems Ltd. Although the company was eventually sold to RP Scherer Corporation, Professor Stevens stayed and invented several time-delayed drug delivery systems and a novel ophthalmic drug delivery system called OptidyneTM.
In 1995 he left Scherer to continue his research interests in controlled release drug delivery as the Pfizer Professor of Explorative Drug Delivery at the University of Strathclyde.
Throughout his academic research career, Professor Stevens always kept one foot in industry however, and has devoted much effort to the commercialisation of academic research which has made a significant contribution to the Scottish biotech sector.
Since joining the University of Strathclyde, he has played major roles in the formation and development of 3 successful biotech spin-out businesses (Bio-Images Research Ltd, CrystallografX Ltd and XstalBio Ltd). In 2010, after receiving a Scottish Enterprise "Proof of Concept" award in relation to his current project focusing on oral drug delivery technology, he plans to launch a fourth spin-out business, Tempus Pharmaceuticals.
In addition, as Assistant Head of the Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Strathclyde, Professor Stevens has been tireless as an educator and public servant. Of 17 students he has assisted in completion of their doctoral degrees, 4 now work in academia and 13 in the international pharmaceutical industry.
Professor Stevens serves on government committees involved in regulatory approval of medicines and broader professional matters including the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Great Britain. He has received numerous awards, is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is also named as inventor on 20 drug delivery patents.
Originating from Bolton, Lancashire, Professor Stevens gained a pharmacy degree from the University of London and his PhD from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. He retires from academia in 2009. Professor Stevens has three children (two girls and one boy, all working in the life sciences) and two stepdaughters. He lives in Dalserf, Larkhall, with Lys, his artist wife and in his spare time enjoys classical music, opera, oil painting and hill-walking.
As Professor Stevens was travelling abroad, the Award was accepted on his behalf by his brother, Professor Malcolm Stevens, University of Nottingham, in front of more than 130 representatives of industry, academia and the NHS who joined Nexxus at Oran Mor in Glasgow on 11 November 2009 for the fifth Annnual Nexxus Life Science Awards.
For further information contact Jan Clark, Marketing Communications Manager, Nexxus T: 0141 330 1987, E : j.clark@nexxuscotland.com.
