Pharma R&D, life sciences operations veterans to guide market expansion strategy and commercial launch of the company’s predictive oncology platform
LONDON, UK, Tuesday 10th December — Concr, a London-based TechBio company that applies astrophysics-derived computational models to solve translational challenges in cancer treatment and care, today announces the appointment of Dr Judith Reece and Jay Campbell to its Advisory Board.
Dr Reece brings over two decades of experience leading digital and data transformation in pharmaceutical R&D, including as Executive Director of Corporate Strategy at AstraZeneca and VP of Digital Development at GSK, where she led the integration of data-driven technologies into drug development and clinical practice with a focus on improving patient outcomes, accelerating decision-making and driving operational efficiency across global portfolios.
Mr Campbell is a financial services and life sciences operations veteran who led several venture investments for the Cancer Research Institute and served as the Chief Business Officer of publicly listed Immutep Ltd. Previously, he was a life sciences investment banker for over a decade, executing strategic and financing transactions representing over $13.4 billion (approx. £10 billion) in value.
These appointments come as Concr transitions from technological and scientific validation to commercial scale-up. Building on the multiple ongoing clinical studies with the NHS, Concr is expanding its partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, contract research organizations, research institutes, and healthcare centers across the US, UK, and Europe.
Concr addresses one of oncology’s most costly challenges: the high failure rate in drug development trials. Over 90% of cancer drugs fail between Phase I and approval, which represents the worst success rate of any therapeutic area, and with each failed drug representing an estimated R&D loss of £4.4 billion. Concr’s mission is to change this through predictive modelling that stratifies therapies most likely to work for each patient's unique biology, to de-risk and expedite early drug development, and ultimately, improve patient outcomes.
The expanded Advisory Board will advise on commercial strategy and market expansion as Concr scales its predictive platform, FarrSight®. The technology uses Bayesian computational methods originating in astrophysics to build “digital twins” of an individual patient’s molecular biology. These models can predict how a tumour will respond to treatment using a fraction of the data typically required, reflecting real-world scenarios where data is fragmented.
FarrSight® is currently used by biotech and pharma companies to identify complex biomarkers, de-risk trials, and increase the probability of drug success, while healthcare researchers use it in retrospective research studies to explore the biology of response and resistance to standard-of-care therapies and to inform the design of future trials.
"Judith and Jay both understand how to bring innovation from the lab into patient care," said Dr Irina Babina, CEO of Concr. "With Concr’s predictive modelling, we aim to reshape clinical trials and treatment experience for cancer patients who are running out of time and options. Their experience in building bridges between technology developers, pharmaceuticals and healthcare systems will be crucial as we bring cancer prediction one step closer to real-world patients across different markets."
Dr Judith Reece commented: "Healthcare is shifting from looking backwards at data to using systems that can learn and adapt in real time. At Concr, I plan to support the team in navigating the commercial and ethical challenges of bringing AI into clinical decision-making. To ensure real-world impact, we must embed intelligent systems in ways that clinicians can trust, regulators can interrogate, and patients can see the benefit in their outcomes and experience of care."
Jay Campbell commented: “I am thrilled and honoured to have the opportunity to partner with Concr at this crucial stage of the Company’s development and evolution to a commercial enterprise. The field needs to embrace and leverage technological advances to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of cancer therapy development. Concr’s FarrSight® predictive platform reflects this and deserves to be in every company’s R&D toolbox.”
About Concr
Concr is a London-based TechBio company that uses astrophysics-derived methods to predict which cancer treatments will work for individual patients. Its FarrSight® platform creates digital twins, simulations of a patient’s molecular biology, to match them with effective therapies and help drug developers design better clinical trials. Founded in 2018 by Matthew Foster, Dr Matthew Griffiths, and Dr Uzma Asghar, CEO Dr Irina Babina leads the team of eight. Concr has raised ~£4M from investors including Cambridge Enterprise, R42 Group, Oncology Ventures, and Debiopharm Innovation Fund, in addition to two Innovate UK-funded clinical studies. Concr works with partners including the NHS, Roche, and the Institute of Cancer Research.
For media inquiries:
Yeona Choi
Nara Communications
yeona@naracommunications.com
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