Innovative research company, FibroFind Ltd, have appointed leading business man Ammar Mirza CBE as their new Non-Executive Director to help their ambitious growth plans.
FibroFind is leading innovation in the research of medicines to treat fibrosis in chronic disease. Led by a team of world experts with a combined total of 100 years of experience between them, they are currently in the early stages of ambitious plans to scale their operations, nationally and internationally.
Ammar is one of the North East’s most influential entrepreneurs. An angel investor and businessman in his own right, he has used his skills and experience to support thousands of businesses, not least through the SME Centre of Excellence, of which he is Executive Chair.
“I am honoured and proud to be joining FibroFind as their new Non-Executive Director,” Ammar says. “It is a company with an exciting future and growth plans. I have had significant experience within the Health and Life Sciences sector and I hope to bring my experience to aid FibroFind as they grow. I look forward to working with the leadership team and wider network at FibroFind to support them going forward.”
As well as significant experience leading and advising scaling businesses, leading a number of private and public sector organisations, Ammar supports the creation and implementation of the Life Science Innovation Pathway working with the Academic Health Science Network for North East and Cumbria and NHS, alongside chairing the Business Growth Board of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.
“We are excited to have Ammar on board,” Professor Jelena Mann, FibroFind CEO, says. “We know that he has some extremely valuable insights to offer us as we begin scaling FibroFind further. Ammar’s experience and knowledge make him the perfect choice to join us as Non-Executive Director and we are looking forward to our future collaboration.”
FibroFind is a rapidly developing Newcastle-based biomedical sciences company that was spun out in 2019 from research carried out by its founding scientists and directors (Professors Mann, Mann, Oakley and Dr Borthwick) at Newcastle University.
The science focus for the company is a disease process called ‘fibrosis’ which results from infections or injuries to internal organs of the human body and which underlies up to 45% of all deaths in the developed world. FibroFind has a deep understanding of the biology of fibrosis and has employed this knowledge to design bespoke biological assays with human tissues that can determine if a novel drug is able to prevent fibrosis and halt disease. At present, there are only two medicines approved for the treatment fibrosis and they are only licensed for use in a rare form of lung disease. As such, the hunt for anti-fibrotic medicines is intense and has become a multi-billion-pound industry.
The business focus for FibroFind is their proprietary human fibrosis bioassays that provide a pre-clinical service for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing medicines that target fibrosis. This business model has proved to be highly valued by its growing client base which currently stands at 89 companies based in the USA, Asia and Europe, comprised of prestigious, major blue-chip global pharmaceutical companies.
Despite only beginning trading just over 2.5 years ago, FibroFind has already been directly responsible for new medicines entering into ongoing clinical trials, this providing direct benefit to society through advancement of human health. FibroFind is now entering its next phase of business development which includes expanding its service operations into Asia, with new laboratories currently being set up in Istanbul, Turkey.