Professor John Westwick

Professor John Westwick has achieved international success both in academia and the pharmaceutical industry.  Professor John Westwick was formerly Head of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of Bath from 1990 until 1998 and is best known for his research and extensive publications on the molecular mechanisms of inflammation and pioneering studies into the functional significance of ion channels in inflammatory cells. He has published over 150 original research papers and review articles.  He left academia in 1998 to head up the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Horsham until 2012.  During his time, he was responsible for strategy and implementation dedicated to drug discovery and early development in respiratory, leading a group of 300 scientists.   His tenure saw development and growth of research and clinical activities in cystic fibrosis, pulmonary arterial hypertension, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, severe asthma and COPD.  Since 2012, he has advised organisations in target validation, drug discovery, biomarker discovery and validation, proof of concept design, early development.