Oban, Scotland – 1st December 2009: Aquapharm Biodiscovery Ltd, a leading marine biotechnology company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Jon Williams as Business Development Director. Jon’s primary focus will be to drive forward the commercialisation of scientifically validated, sustainably sourced functional ingredients and industrial biotechnology products derived from Aquapharm’s collection of marine micro-organisms.

Jon will apply his unique blend of expertise in business development, natural product exploitation and microbial fermentation to seek new commercial partners to engage in discovery and product development partnerships. These collaborations will support Aquapharm’s efforts to build a diversified portfolio of sustainably produced products for application in a wide range of high-value markets including personal care, nutrition and bio-production of specialty chemicals and API.
Jon will also work with Aquapharm’s existing partners, including Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Croda International, to build on these alliances and seek further avenues for collaboration.

Jon has gained an enviable business development track record from a range of progressively more senior management positions held at, respectively, Summit plc, Avecia and AEA Technology. Jon joins Aquapharm from Summit plc where, as Managing Director of Summit (Wales), he established and led a new business unit focused on the exploitation of botanically derived bio-active ingredients. Prior to Summit plc, Jon successfully developed and led the European Business Development team at Avecia Biologics, a microbial-derived biologics business based in the UK.

Dr Andrew Mearns Spragg, CEO of Aquapharm said “Jon’s considerable experience in the commercialisation of natural products will be invaluable as we build a portfolio of bioactive ingredients and industrial biotechnology products derived from Aquapharm’s unique collection of marine micro-organisms. This appointment will catalyse our efforts to establish sustainable, diversified sources of revenue and act to support the longer-term development of novel pharmaceutical candidates.”

Commenting on his appointment, Jon added “I’m excited to be joining the Aquapharm team and particularly looking forward to applying my commercial expertise to support Aquapharm’s efforts to build its pipeline of revenue-generating products.”

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About Aquapharm Biodiscovery Ltd.

Aquapharm is a leading marine biotechnology company pioneering the discovery, isolation and development of novel, marine-derived bioactives for application in a wide range of commercial sectors, including pharmaceuticals, functional ingredients and industrial biotechnology. The company is based at the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology in Oban, Scotland.

Aquapharm has built a substantial and specialised collection of marine bacteria and fungi from a variety of diverse habitats. Through the application of its proprietary technologies to this collection, the company has been able to stimulate the production of novel, biologically active products with broad chemical diversity. To accelerate its discovery efforts, Aquapharm is currently preparing one of the world’s largest marine-derived compound libraries.

For more information, please see www.aquapharm.co.uk