John Ford

Dr John Ford has built innovative biotechnology companies for over 20 years. He co-founded Xention (CSO), Ario Pharma (CEO) and Metrion Biosciences (Co-Owner) and is currently the CEO of Enterprise Therapeutics, a company that is developing mutant agnostic mucokinetic drugs approaches for Cystic Fibrosis and other respiratory diseases. At Xention he was responsible for the Kv1.5 ion channel atrial fibrillation project which was partnered to Servier (up to 120M EUR). He was a member of the Executive Team at Dezima (Project Director & COO) that developed TA-8995 for dyslipidaemia (Phase 2b study published in The Lancet) and sold the company to Amgen ($300M upfront, potential deal size of US$1.55bn + royalties). In 2020, he partnered the TMEM16A portfolio developed at Enterprise Therapeutics to Roche/Genentech for £75M upfront with undisclosed milestone payments. Dr Ford holds a first class degree in Biotechnology and has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Leeds.