David Owen

As VP Research at Starpharma I lead the team that discovered and developed a deep pipeline of dendrimer-drug conjugates for human health, as well as applications of dendrimers in industrial and agrochemical applications. During this time I was the lead scientist involved in the discovery and development of the DEP® platform with 4 candidates that transitioned into clinical trials;

1. DEP® docetaxel: Phase 2 clinical trials as both a monotherapy and combination with gemcitabine in patients with lung, pancreatic, oesophageal, cholangiocarcinoma and gastric cancers.

2. DEP® cabazitaxel: Phase 2 clinical trials as a monotherapy against prostate, as well as advanced ovarian, gastro-oesophageal, cholangiocarcinoma, and head and neck cancers.

3. DEP® irinotecan:” Phase 2 clinical trial as a monotherapy and combination on patients with platinum resistant ovarian cancer, as well as colorectal, breast, pancreatic, lung, and oesophageal cancers.

4. AZD0466: Licensed to AstraZeneca is in a Global Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with advanced relapsed/refractory leukemia (NCT04865419), withdrawn July 2023.

I have a strong record in building national and international research collaborations; working with multiple pharmaceutical companies e.g. AstraZeneca, Genentech, Merck, GSK, Eli Lilly, ChaseSun and others (generating >$9 M in external R&D revenue), as well as strong collaborations with academic groups e.g. Prof Christopher Porter from Monash University; Prof Kristopher Thurecht from the University of Queensland; and the late Prof Carleen Cullinane from the Peter MacCallum Cancer [generated > $2.6 M in research support from schemes such as; ARC Linkage, Cancer Australia, the Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF). More recently with the ARC’s Industrial Transformation Research Hub].

Over my career, I have mentored and supervised 10 postdoctoral fellows, >36 PhD level scientists and co-supervised 1 PhD student to completion. Several of these scientists have moved on to senior leadership roles in industry. I have held advisory roles in the ARC Centre of Excellence in CBNS (Nov 2014 – Dec 2020) and the Pharmaceutical Science Advisory and Stakeholders Group, Monash University (2014 – 2019). I have 48 published works; 1,647 citations, h-index = 23 (Scopus/SciVal, 2023), I am listed as an inventor on 4 granted patents and 18 patent applications.