Mene Pangalos


Sir Menelas Nicolas Pangalos is a British neuroscientist of Greek descent.
Pangalos is Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca. He is responsible for the company's research and development of new drugs to treat respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune, renal, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Pangalos is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed articles published in scientific journals and serves on the board of the Francis Crick Institute, Cambridge Judge Business School and Dizal Pharma. He is a member of the Royal Society's Science, Industry & Translation Committee. Pangalos was knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to UK science

Early life and education

Pangalos was born in Ealing, London, to a family of Greek diaspora which settled in England. Both his parents descended from the island of Chios and his mother was born there. His extended family on both parents' sides still live in Chios and he spent childhood summers there. He is fluent in Greek.
He commenced his scientific studies with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Imperial College London and a subsequent Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology from University College London. His post-doctoral training was conducted under the tutelage of Prof. N. K. Robakis at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York.

Pharmaceutical industry career

AstraZeneca

Pangalos was appointed Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca in January 2019. He previously held the role of Executive Vice President, Innovative Medicines & Early Clinical Development Biotech Unit of AstraZeneca from April 2010 to December 2018.
Since Pangalos has been working at AstraZeneca, the company's compound success rate from pre-clinical studies to launch has increased from 4% to >19%. This is above the pharmaceutical industry average of 6%.
He has overseen the discovery and development of the pharmaceutical industry's fastest-to-market medicines, from first-time in man to launch in just over 2.5 years. This drug – the EGFRm inhibitor osimertinib for non-small cell lung cancer – is now approved in more than 75 countries.
Pangalos is on the AstraZeneca Senior Executive Team and is the Executive Chair of the AstraZeneca Board Science Committee. In May 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he was appointed to the expert advisory group for the UK Government’s Vaccine Task Force, chaired by Patrick Vallance.

Pfizer

Pangalos was Senior Vice President at Pfizer from 2008 to 2010. He was responsible for 200 scientists and clinicians taking Pfizer neuroscience programmes from target identification through to proof of concept.

Wyeth

Pangalos was the Vice President of Neuroscience Research at American pharmaceutical company Wyeth from 2003 to 2008. He was responsible for overseeing the transition of more than 20 novel drug candidates into clinical development for a number of neurological and psychiatric diseases including Alzheimer's disease, stroke, schizophrenia, and pain.
Panglos previously served as Group Director and Head of Neurodegenerative Research at GlaxoSmithKline in Harlow, United Kingdom, and has held positions with SmithKline Beecham, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Academic career

Pangalos is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Biology and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He sits on the council of the Medical Research Council, co-chairs the Life Sciences Council Expert Group on Innovation, Clinical Research and Data and is a member of the UK Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board.
Pangalos has held Visiting Professorships at the University of Pennsylvania and King's College London. He is on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals – Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, Neuropharmacology and The Scientific World and is on scientific advisory boards for the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases and Rider University. Pangalos has edited the book Understanding G protein-coupled receptors and their role in the central nervous system , and a number of journal issues focused on drug discovery in the CNS.
He also mentors post doc and PhD students in his role at AstraZeneca.

Personal life

Pangalos married Kelly Charles, a fellow neuroscientist, in 2003 in Hertfordshire, England.