Dr Phil Kearney (Chair)
Director; Member: Strategic, Finance Risk & Audit Committee
Phil holds a Ph.D. from Monash University, which was followed by post-doctoral training at the Murdoch Institute in Melbourne and University College London. He also holds a MBA from the University of Sydney. Dr Kearney began his career as the Head of the Research Laboratory in one of Australia’s leading Haematology Departments at St Vincent’s Hospital (SVH), Sydney. The theme of the laboratory was anti-sense and ribozyme mediated ablation of bcr-abl expression in chronic myeloid leukaemia. After 12 years at SVH, he moved to Europe to lead preclinical oncology at Active Biotech, Sweden, and then took over as Head of Biology at Santaris Pharma, Denmark. In the latter, the highlight was the first publication of regulation of a microRNA in non-human primates in the prestigious Nature journal.
He joined Merck Sharp & Dohme Australia in 2007 as the key scout for innovative research and development in Australia, New Zealand, India and some parts of South East Asia. In his time with MSD, he has led or been part of the team who have transacted deals worth more than $2B, covering acquisition, licenses, and R&D collaborations with biotech’s and academic institutions. Inclusive of the publicly disclosed license to Vaxxas patch technology for vaccine delivery, and the license of the Bionomics alpha 7 PAM for cognition.
Dr Kearney is currently chair of the board at Amaroq Therapeutics, Chair of the SAB at Gertrude Biomedical and a member of the Cureator Investment Committee. He is also a specialist reviewer for the Australian Research Council (ARC), Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) (NZ), Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), and Cure4CF.
