Bob Holland qualified in medicine and obtained a DPhil in neurobiology at Oxford University. After hospital medical practice he joined the pharmaceuticals industry in 1985, working for The Wellcome Foundation, Solvay, The Upjohn Company and AstraZeneca. He played leading roles in the development of significant medicines in the CNS and oncology therapeutic areas, maintaining a special interest in clinical pharmacology, biomarkers and patient segmentation. From 1999 to 2004, Bob was worldwide head of clinical pharmacology and experimental medicine at AstraZeneca. He then became worldwide head of the CNS therapeutic area responsible for Discovery and Development activities for psychiatry, neurology, analgesia and anaesthesia. In 2010, Bob created an entirely new function within AstraZeneca (personalised healthcare and biomarkers) dedicated to the invention of patient segmentation tools to enable the identification of patients most likely to respond to AstraZeneca drugs. After retiring from AstraZeneca in 2012, Bob became Chief Medical Officer of Oxford Gene Technology. He is a Non-Executive Director of Newron Pharmaceuticals SA, a publicly listed company that has recently brought to the market a novel drug for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. He also serves as a consultant to The Wellcome Trust and to several large and small pharmaceuticals companies.

 neurobiology Development of significant medicines in the CNS and oncology therapeutic areas