ARUK UCL Drug Discovery Institute Seminar Series:  Johan Luthman

It is my pleasure to invite you to our latest drug discovery seminar by Johan Luthman, who will talk about the path to therapeutic breakthroughs for patients with neurodegenerative diseases from the industry discovery and development perspective. Johan is EVP and Head of Research and Development at Lundbeck where he oversees drug discovery and drug development functions, including medical affairs and is focused on expanding Lundbeck’s pipeline of transformative medicines for brain diseases across all clinical phases through external and internal innovation. During Johan’s leadership, Lundbeck has undergone a major transformation of its RD organization, with a shift in strategic focus further towards specialist and rare, indications in neurology, psychiatry, and pain as well as a change in the company’s biological research areas.

Before joining Lundbeck, Johan was SVP & Head of Clinical Development, Neurology Business Group, at Eisai Pharmaceuticals, where he engaged in programs from preclinical development to Phase 4 studies with current programs in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementing disorders, such as dementia with Lewy bodies, epilepsy, sleep disorders and obesity. Prior to Eisai, Johan was VP at Merck Inc leading early development activities in neuroscience. Before then, Johan was CEO at GeNeuro SA, Geneva, during its build-up phase. Prior to GeNeuro, Johan was SVP & Therapy Area Head of Neurology, Immunology & Inflammation Research at MerckSerono S.A, Geneva. Johan began his pharmaceutical career in 1991 at Astra/AstraZeneca, Sweden, where he held various R&D leadership positions in both discovery and early development.

Johan studied medicine and dentistry at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. In parallel with clinical practice, he obtained a Ph.D in Neurobiology in 1989. He continued as a research fellow in Pharmacology & Psychiatry at the University of Colorado. Johan was subsequently appointed associate professor in Neurobiology at Karolinska Institute and visiting professor in Pharmacology at the University of Chile, Santiago. He obtained business training at SIMI, Copenhagen and Thunderbird & MIT/Sloan Management Institute, Cambridge, MA.

Johan has published ~100 peer-reviewed scientific papers. During his years in industry, Johan has been involved at some stage of the development of more than 15 drugs that reached the market.  Johan has been engaged in numerous public-private pre-competitive consortia efforts, he also regularly acts as a reviewer and scientific board member for major national and international funding agencies and peer reviewer of major scientific journals.