LifeArc, the self-funded medical research charity, announces today that Dr Jason Slingsby has joined the Executive team as Chief Business Officer.

Jason will be responsible for developing, leading, and implementing LifeArc’s business development and partnering strategies. In this role, Jason will play a critical part in delivering our long-term vision, to drive early-stage innovation towards patient impact.

Jason joins from Oxford Biomedica, where he held a number of senior roles over the past eight years, latterly serving as Chief Business and Corporate Development Officer.

Commenting on the appointment, LifeArc CEO, Dr Melanie Lee said: “Forming strategic partnerships and innovative alliances will be key to our commitment to spend £1.3 billion by 2030, targeting areas of unmet need where we can unlock science, accelerate medical progress and have the greatest impact for patients.  We are pleased to welcome on board Jason with his wealth of experience to spearhead this.”

“This is an exciting time to be joining LifeArc, with what’s been achieved to date and the ambitions for much greater patient impact. LifeArc plays an invaluable role in the UK’s life sciences ecosystem helping to turn scientific ideas into promising therapies and diagnostic tests and I’m very excited to support this, as many patients are still left without good treatment options,” said Jason.

During his time at Oxford Biomedica, Jason was responsible for M&A, spin-outs, restructurings and other strategic business transactions to drive revenue growth and geographical expansion.  He led the acquisition of Homology Medicines’ manufacturing business in 2022, which introduced Oxford Biomedica to the US market, and was responsible for establishing and maintaining commercial relationships with a number of pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim and Novartis. He has chaired joint steering committees for strategic pharmaceutical partnerships and negotiated manufacturing agreements with AstraZeneca for the commercial supply of over 100m COVID-19 vaccine doses to the UK and EU.

Jason was also previously founder and CEO of ProtAffin AG, a clinical stage university spin-out based in Austria & the UK.  Jason holds a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, a PhD from Imperial College London in Genetics and an MBA from London Business School.