About us

Jan started his medicinal chemistry trajectory in high school, studying chemical and pharmaceutical technology from 2005. He received his undergraduate degree in medicinal chemistry from The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, and continued to earn his Ph.D. in the same field at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Following his doctoral studies, Jan spent his postdoctoral period at the Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery Center in Baltimore. He then returned to Czechia and started a collaboration with IOCB Tech, ultimately joining the team officially in 2023.

jan.skacel@uochb.cas.cz

Barbara holds a Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the Groningen University Institute for Drug Exploration in the Netherlands with hands-on experience in different-sized biotech companies and clinical trials site. As a Marie Curie fellow, Barbara pursued her postdoc in functional studies focusing on inflammatory bowel disease at the University of Michigan, USA. With her solid scientific background, she joined a biotech Enantis, the first spin-off from Masaryk University, where she established the biological division and deepened the biological R&D. Afterwards, she contributed significantly to the preclinical development of cancer immunotherapies using the antibody-drug conjugation (ADC) platform (SOTIO Biotech).  Barbara joined the IOCB Tech team in January 2023.

barbara.hrdlickova@iocbtech.cz

Adrian Bradley is a Partner and Chartered Patent Attorney at Cleveland IP, the London-based intellectual property firm.

He trained as a patent attorney in the pharmaceutical industry and has worked extensively on Supplementary Protection Certificates and advises on regulatory data exclusivity.

Adrian particularly enjoys working with universities to assist them in commercializing their technology. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Reading and has developed a business game to help academics understand the commercial potential of their research.

Adrian is a regular speaker on patent-related matters and delivered a TEDx Talk at the National Technical Library, Prague, in February 2016, the video can be found here.

John is a neuropharmacologist by training, having pursued an academic career in the Department of Physiology at the University of Oxford before pursuing a varied career in clinical research with Sandoz (now Novartis), venture capital (with a 3i subsidiary) and technology transfer (Imperial Innovations, Imperial College London).

He co-founded an oncology company (Sterix Limited) in 1998 as a joint spin-out from Imperial College and the University of Bath raising £8M in syndicated VC funding, negotiating multi-£million partnerships and out-licenses and completing a Phase I clinical trial for the company’s lead product. The company gave rise to numerous successful lead optimization programmes in oncology, women’s health, and diabesity and was subsequently acquired by The Ipsen Group with several of Sterix’s drug candidates ultimately entering clinical development (19 clinical trials to date with two compounds currently in Phase II).

Dr. Normanton worked with Ipsen, including as Director of Commercial Project Planning, and has broad experience in clinical development, venture funding, technology transfer, strategic IP management, business development and early stage university spin-out management. Since then, he has provided consultancy advice to academia, start-ups, and pharma via his consultancy companies, Oxandia Limited and ArgantriX Limited.

He is now ‘launch’ CEO for a number of collaborative university spin-outs (from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Swansea & Bath, and the Karolinska Institutet) operating across multiple clinical areas including oncology, antimicrobials, and neurodegeneration.

Vit is currently acting as a Director of Regulatory Science and Clinical Development in Pharminvent.

He is profoundly skilled in the area of Clinical Development strategies/study design/data mining, which he gained in multinational pharmaceutical companies e.g. Sanofi, Zentiva Inhalationprodukte and Zentiva. His background includes over 15 years of research experience covering areas of clinical pharmacology and phase I as well as phase II and III studies particularly in inhalation drug development, generic development and pain and obesity management.

Educated at the 3rd faculty of medicine in Charles University and resident at the Bulovka hospital department of infectious disease, Vit also served a three years tenure as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Health Science Center, the University of Tennessee in the US.

As a professional, Vit had facilitated the design, strategic development and data mining of bioequivalence, pharmacodynamics and clinical studies. As a member of the PharmInvent team, he is responsible for driving the processes for clinical development strategy including but not limited to scientific support, protocol development, scientific evaluation, and data interpretation.

Jiri Michal is a highly experienced professional in the pharmaceutical industry. He has been with Zentiva for 36 years and served as its CEO from 1993-2010.

Ursula Vogel, a biopharmaceutical industry veteran, started her career at Merck & Co (MSD) in West Point, PA, USA, where her research led to significant discoveries in the field of oncology. After another R&D position at Rhone-Poulenc (Sanofi), she was recruited to launch the European operation of the pioneering US biotech Genetics Institute (Pfizer) where she was responsible for managing key product development and business development activities for several programs, including InductOs(R), BeneFIX(R)and DiscoverEaseTM. She then joined ZS Associates where she co-managed the newly established European headquarters.

In 1999 she started her own independent consulting practice, specializing in providing C-level business development support to companies in all stages of the deal-making process. In this capacity, she has led in /out licensing and other partnering efforts for large pharmaceutical companies, publicly traded biotech companies, and VC backed companies (USA, Europe, and China), resulting in an extensive list of transactions. She has also served as an Advisor to top tier venture capital and private equity firms, not-for-profit entities, foundations, and universities and has a broad experience across various therapeutic areas and modalities.

Ursula holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cambridge University, a B.Sc. from Imperial College and an MBA from INSEAD.

Is an expert in Public Relations and Public Affairs. He has over twenty years of experience in media and PR, both from the private sector, state administration or international corporate business. His domain is a strategic and crisis communication. Martin is also a sought after lecturer in many aspects of communication. He completed his Ph.D. studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague with specialization in communication and psychology.

opatrny@prclinic.eu