Alan Boyd

Meet Alan Boyd

Alan is a pioneer in cell and gene therapies, having led the development of Cerepro, the first gene therapy submitted to the EMA for approval. Although not approved, Cerepro’s application set a precedent in establishing the standards required. Ultimately, Alan's work demonstrated the potential to turn DNA into an approvable medicine.

In 2005, he established Boyds to support the translation of ideas into medicinal products and treatments. His work has resulted in the development of multiple approved medicines for a variety of indications. Of the 26 approved cell and gene therapy products on both sides of the Atlantic, the team at Boyds has worked on 11 of them at some stage.

Alan is also involved with the Royal Medical Colleges and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (including as President of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine from 2015 to 2018), and an honorary professor in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences at the University of Birmingham Medical School, UK.

“People said I was crazy to go from Zeneca to a small company with limited funding, working in the relatively new area of gene therapy, but I was fascinated by the opportunity to be involved in something like this at such an early stage. The question for me was how can we turn DNA into a medicine, make it (and make it consistently), and ensure it is safe and efficacious. Up until my time at Ark Therapeutics, all of the medicines I was developing were focused on treating the symptoms of a disease. I recognized that, if successful, gene and cell therapies would be able to treat the root cause of the disease.”