Senior Advisers

Chris was Chief Operating Officer of GW Pharmaceuticals plc for nearly 10 years, helping transition the company from a predominantly R&D company to a fully-fledged International commercial business following regulatory approvals of its lead products – which were world-firsts in their space. Following the acquisition in 2021 of GW Pharma for $7.2bn by Jazz Pharmaceuticals, he became Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Europe & International until his departure from Jazz at the end of 2022. Subsequently for 12 months he lead Destiny Pharma a clinical phase biotechnology company dedicated to infection prevention, as Chief Executive Officer. 

He has over 35 years of commercial leadership and operations experience including at GlaxoSmithKline and UCB where he was Vice President Head Of Global Marketing Operations.  Chris has worked across a wide range of geographies, functions and therapeutic areas including infectious diseases, neurology, oncology, diabetes, respiratory and immunology. Chris holds a BSc. degree in Marine Biology from the University of Liverpool.

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Giles led the GW Pharmaceuticals European build out as General Manager Europe after joining the company in 2016. As one of the first three commercial employees (ex-US) he designed and implemented the European infrastructure build as GW grew from a company with no presence outside the UK and US to a fully-fledged European organisation with more than 130 employees able to launch cannabis-based medicines. The German launch was achieved within 3years, followed by other EU5 markets coming on stream as reimbursement progressed. Those European launches led to sales in excess of $100m prior to acquisition by Jazz in 2021. Whilst at GW he also led the Government and Public Affairs strategy team (ex-US) during a period of rapid global change in the cannabinoid market. Giles has also experienced ASX and private market CEO roles.

Giles is a UK Pharmacist, with an MBA, whose early pharmaceutical commercial career progressed with Squibb, Bristol Myers Squibb, Smith Kline Beecham and UCB leading to management of complex multi-country regional P&L’s covering 24 territories in Asia, ANZ and Europe. He has significant experience in orphan diseases and neurological disorders.

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Andy Rust is a highly experienced pharmaceutical executive with direct experience marketing and selling licensed drugs in the US and in the pain sector. Andy has also served as a senior commercial executive of several international pharmaceutical companies over a 30-year career and his most recent role was as Global Head of Respiratory with Chiesi Group, an international biopharmaceutical company which has a direct presence in 31countries. At Chiesi, Andy led the strategic direction and execution of the group’s respiratory portfolio, which included products for asthma and COPD, to significantly grow revenues for the company’s respiratory range to in excess of€1.5 billion. Andy will provide the Company with expert advice on its drug development and commercialisation plans.

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