With an extensive track record in commercialising proprietary drug discovery platforms, Dr Butt joins Orbit to oversee the Company’s development into a service driven drug discovery company, with a focus on identifying candidate peptides against challenging targets, such as G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).
Prior to joining Orbit, Dr Butt most recently served as on the board and as Chief Business Officer of IONTAS, a privately held company exploiting mammalian display technology in the discovery of novel antibodies with inherent biophysical properties that align with speedy progression through manufacturing. The Company was sold to FairJourney Biologics in 2021 to create a global antibody discovery service company. Before that, as head of business development, he was part of the management team that took Abzena onto The London AIM market. Following this IPO, Abzena acquired two US companies to create the foundations of the current CDMO. Prior to Abzena, Dr Butt was head of business development and part of the executive management team at Antitope, which resulted in the sale of Antitope to Polytherics, with the joint parties then rebranding as Abzena.
“Neil is an accomplished biotech leader across all the areas and competencies that are required to run a successful business. His extensive experience in commercialising platform technologies, as well as his track record in growing and expanding service-based biotech companies, will be critical as we enter a new stage of growth for Orbit Discovery,” said Dr Tom McCarthy, Chairman of Orbit Discovery. “On behalf of the entire Orbit team, I welcome Neil and look forward to his contributions.”
Dr Neil Butt, CEO Orbit Discovery, said: “I believe Orbit Discovery is poised to exploit the challenging area of membrane spanning therapeutic peptides and proteins. The technology platform the team has developed is ideal for functional screening, which is a critical technology gap in optimising the drug discovery process and reducing risk in finding suitable leads for later development. I am looking forward to the challenges ahead and working with a team of talented and dedicated scientists.”