Adherex Selects Brian Huber As Chief Scientific Officer

Life Science Partner connects accomplished research executive with cancer therapeutics company

Life Science Partner announces the placement of Brian E. Huber, Ph.D., as chief scientific officer (CSO) at Adherex Technologies, Inc., in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. As CSO, Huber will lead a 20-person research and development team focused on the preclinical development of compounds. He and his team will provide scientific intelligence and guide decisions about potential clinical effectiveness and regulatory strategies. A biopharmaceutical company, Adherex discovers and develops cancer therapeutics through its pioneering platform for tumor vascular targeting.

“Brian’s a prime example of a scientist who thrived after his original transition from academia. In the ’90s, he was at Glaxo, which was known for its modern, innovative research organization,” says Thomas H. Callaway, Life Science Partner’s founder and president. “During that time, he demonstrated great entrepreneurial instincts and an ability to build high-performance drug development infrastructures. Adherex’s broad oncology pipeline should benefit from his work.”

A successful manager, Huber has managed multiple departments and large staffs at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. As a researcher who has secured many patents, he has contributed extensively to the literature and has frequently lectured at and organized symposia.

Huber comes to Adherex from GlaxoSmithKline where, most recently, he held the position of vice president of biology and pharmacology drug discovery. In this role, he was accountable for seven departments with total staff numbering 170, held therapeutic responsibility in more than a dozen areas, managed the portfolio from strategy through target selection and preclinical development, and chaired both joint ventures and major strategic alliances.

Under Glaxo Wellcome, he was director, and more recently vice president of the division of pharmacology with responsibility for the departments of cancer biology, rheumatic diseases, the metabolic diseases and virology.