Our Leadership Team
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Ivan Coulter, PhD, MBA
Director Dr. Ivan Coulter leads Eden BioPharma Limited (Eden), a specialist pharmaceutical/biotech advisory consulting firm. Eden specialises in supporting key aspects of innovation, product and corporate development within the pharmaceutical/biotech sector. Key areas of experience include business and strategic planning, fund-raising, IP strategy and execution, market evaluation and positioning, business development, selecting and managing contract research organisations, conducting technical, clinical and commercial due diligence as well as corporate governance oversight. Operationally, Ivan has led translational research, clinical study design and execution, established GMP facilities, assembled scientific and clinical advisory boards and has overseen regulatory strategy and clinical supply activities.
Ivan founded Sigmoid Pharma (renamed Sublimity Therapeutics) to develop, from conception, an innovative drug delivery platform, SmPill®, and to create innovative products to treat gastrointestinal and autoimmune diseases. Under Ivan’s leadership, Sigmoid’s multidisciplinary team advanced its lead product for the treatment of ulcerative colitis to Phase IIb readiness, developed an oral vaccine platform and established two GMP facilities. In parallel, Sigmoid secured US FDA Orphan Drug designations relating to Graft-versus-Host Disease. Sigmoid raised €100M and concluded licensing deals with Dr. Falk GmbH (Europe) and PharmaScience (Canada). Ivan is the lead inventor on multiple patents spanning technologies, products and platforms. Winning the InterTradeIreland All-Island Seedcorn Competition and the inaugural Irish Times Innovation Award recognised Ivan’s entrepreneurial and innovation leadership. Prior to founding Sigmoid, Ivan was General Manager of NTera Ltd (a nanotechnology company) where he led teams developing nanotechnology-enabled drug delivery and diagnostics platforms. Before setting up Eden, as CEO of ATXA Therapeutics, Ivan led a successful fund-raise to enable the progression of a novel thromboxane prostanoid receptor antagonist, orphan designated for pulmonary arterial hypertension, towards the clinic. Ivan is a member of the advisory board of AMBER, an SFI-funded advanced nano- and bio-materials innovation centre, and was an Irish government appointee to the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (State Fisheries Board), Irish Research Council and Nutramara (Teagasc/Marine Institute) boards. Ivan holds a BSc. (Hons.) degree in Pharmacology and a PhD in Cancer Research/Genetics from University College Dublin, was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institut Curie, Paris, obtained a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance (CDipAF) from the ACCA, and received his Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Johnson School of Graduate Management, Cornell University, USA. To augment his extensive experience as an executive and non-executive director Ivan completed a Diploma in Corporate Governance. Research topics during his postgraduate and postdoctoral included the utilization of antisense oligonucleotides, viral vectors and transposons to modulate gene and cell function. |