Julian Golec

Julian Golec

Independent Consultant

Julian Golec PhD FRSC retired as Senior Vice President of R&D and site head for Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Ltd (VPEL) during summer 2016. He trained as a chemist at the University of Hull and has 30 years experience in drug discovery. Prior to Vertex, Julian worked for Hoechst Marion Roussel (later Aventis) and then Xenova, a Slough based biotech. He left HMR in 1996 as project leader of a joint project with Vertex that led to the first interleukin-1 converting enzyme inhibitor (pralnacasan) for arthritis. He then became Director of Research at Xenova where he moved Traiquidar, a multidrug resistance inhibitor for oncology, into the clinic and helped secure a multi million pound collaboration with Eli Lilly on PAI-1 inhibitors for cardiovascular diseases.

Involvement with Vertex started as a collaborator in 1993, then as senior manager at the company in 1998. He served on the VPEL Board of Directors between 2001 and 2013. As a contributor to the management of Vertex’s global research strategy, he provided strong advocacy for the company’s continued investment in UK research and development. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc pioneered the use of structural biology in the small molecule drug discovery process. Major successes included the discovery of treatments for HIV (agenerase), hepatitis C (telepravir), and cystic fibrosis (ivacaftor and lumacaftor). Julian remained intimately involved with the early drug discovery process through the Abingdon research group. Their recent successes included the first Aurora/ Abl inhibitor and the first ATR inhibitor to enter clinical trials.

In Summary, Julian Golec has gained breadth of experience from having been involved, scientifically and managerially, in a company’s progress, from its beginnings to its current multibillion-dollar status.