Professor Sir Menelas (Mene) Pangalos has made outstanding contributions to drug discovery and life science across multiple pharmaceutical companies; leading scientific and cultural R&D transformation, pioneering private-public partnerships, developing new scientific talent and guiding UK life science strategy.

Most recently at AstraZeneca, as Executive Vice President of BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Mene has helped improve productivity >6-fold and launch of over 20 new medicines. One of the key drivers behind the AstraZeneca R&D transformation has been the creation and implementation of a 5R Framework: right target, right tissue, right safety, right patient, right commercial, by which all projects are assessed on their scientific merit. This framework remains highly cited and used by many institutions as a foundation for their drug discovery and development programmes.

He has championed a uniquely open approach to working with academia and non-governmental organisations, shifting the nature of private-public collaborations. This has been evident during the pandemic, forging the collaboration with Oxford University in just 10 days, to ensure the rapid development and approval of one of the most widely used COVID-19 vaccines, delivered at not-for-profit during the pandemic.