LEK's McIntyre joins BioTech Capital board

Dr Lisa McIntyre, the head of LEK Consulting's Asia-Pacific life sciences practice, has joined the board of Sydney-based pooled development fund BioTech Capital (ASX:BTC).

McIntyre, originally a biochemist with degrees from Sydney University and a PhD from Cambridge, has been a consultant for the life sciences for 12 years. Since returning to Australia from the US in 2002, she has worked with local biotechs Amrad, Biota, Progen and other groups, including CSIRO and Mayne Pharmaceuticals. During her years in the US, she advised Genentech, Genzyme, Chiron, Celera and Millennium, as well as venture-backed biotechs.

She is a director at the Garvan Institute and a past member of the NSW Cancer Research Advisory Council, as well as an advisor to the New Zealand government.

The BTC position is her first with an Australian biotechnology company. Taking the BTC board position was possible partly because of a relaxation of LEK's partnership rules, she said. BTC's pooled development fund status also made it easier for her to take the role.

"I like the team [BTC's CEO Harry Karelis] has put together," she said, as well as BTC's roster of investee companies, which currently includes Alchemia, Biocomm, Clinical Cell Culture, Continence Control Systems, Pacific Knowledge Systems, Proteome Systems, Starpharma, Stem Cell Sciences, Xenome and XRT.

McIntyre said she had a "very good look" at the Australian biotechnology sector before returning to Australia, and would not have ventured back had she not been impressed.

"The science here is just as good as it is in the States," she said. "We should be proud of the fact that we have the sixth-largest biotechnology sector in the world, although we're by no means the world's sixth-largest economy."

McIntyre replaces foundation director Irene Lee on the BTC board. The company said increased demands on her time from other directorships prompted Lee's resignation.

Peplin board changes

Meanwhile, Brisbane biopharma Peplin Biotech (ASX:PEP) has also had a board shake-up.

Gary Pace, the co-founder, CEO and chairman of development-stage biopharma QRxPharma, has joined the board as a non-executive director, while existing board member Brett Heading and company founder Jim Aylward are to resign their board positions.

Boston-based Pace is a board member on several US-listed life science companies. He is also a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and adjunct professor at the University of Queensland, as well as a director of ResMed, Transition Therapeutics, Celsion and Protiveris.

Aylward will continue with Peplin in his role as director of innovation research. In a statement, he said Peplin's progress in commercialising its lead anti-cancer candidate PEP005 gave him confidence in the company's future success.

"With the appointment of our new commercially oriented management team, Peplin's future is in very good hands, he said. "I feel comfortable stepping aside at the board level and returning to the laboratory where I have had my major successes."

Heading, a partner at law firm McCullough Robertson and a non-executive director since Peplin's IPO in 2000, resigned from the board yesterday. Peplin's chairman, Cherrell Hirst said Heading volunteered to resign to enable Pace's appointment.