Former Covid-19 Taskforce chief appointed chair of Oxford-based SpyBiotech

By Nicky Godding

13 February 2023

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SpyBiotech, The biotechnology company with a novel vaccine platform technology that can target infectious diseases, cancer, and chronic diseases, has appointed Eddie Gray, MBA, as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Mr Gray joins the Board as an independent director.

Mr Gray was Chair of the UK Government Covid-19 Antivirals Taskforce during the peak of the pandemic, successfully identifying and securing supply of at-home treatments for the most vulnerable patients who contracted the virus. He is a Board member of The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the UK press regulatory body.

Gray has over forty years of global experience in the life sciences industry, twenty five years of that time at GlaxoSmithKline PLC culminating as President of the European Pharmaceutical business and member of the Corporate Executive Team. During this time, he was extensively involved in leadership of vaccine and other anti-infectives businesses. From 2013-2019 he was CEO of Dynavax Technologies, a California biotechnology company. During his tenure, Dynavax raised sufficient funds to plan and complete the clinical program, achieve FDA approval and successfully launch its first product, a vaccine for prevention of Hepatitis B.

Eddie said: “SpyBio’s internal proprietary SpyTag/SpyCatcher protein superglue enabled VLP-based technology can be incorporated with different platforms to create a plug- and-play toolbox for vaccine development with several advantages and has immense potential across various applications.”

Mark Leuchtenberger, Chief Executive Officer of SpyBio, added: “Given his deep operational experience and extensive knowledge about virus transmission and prevention, Eddie is an excellent addition to the Board of Directors during this critical time for our company.

“We look forward to his leadership as we endeavor to advance our lead candidate toward the clinic and continue development of our cost-effective and highly scalable technology.”

SpyBio is a biotechnology company with a novel vaccine platform technology to target infectious diseases, cancer and chronic diseases. The company was spun out of the University of Oxford in 2017 by Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) and has raised $39mm to date.

Based on science developed at Oxford, SpyBio’s novel vaccine platform is based on a proprietary protein “superglue” technology which binds antigens to vaccine delivery platforms in a way which minimizes delivery risk and enhances immunogenicity and efficacy. The technology is potentially one of the safest and most effective ways to create vaccines: cost-effective and highly scalable. This makes it ideal for use against infectious diseases in challenging environments, such as in the developing world, but also with potential application in non- infectious disease settings such as cancer.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.