Paul A. Hopper

Paul A. Hopper (born 1956) is an Australian bioentrepreneur who has been associated since 2003 with a number of biotechnology companies, most of them publicly traded.

Background

Born in PNG to a prominent post WW2 Australian colonial family, Hopper was educated in Sydney at the King's School, Parramatta and subsequently received a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Political Science from the University of New South Wales.^[1] In 1988 he cofounded Alpha Healthcare, an Australian private hospital group based in Sydney where was managing director until 1999. He began his career as a bioentrepreneur in the early 2000s.

Australian Cancer Technology, 2003–2005

Hopper's first biotechnology company was the ASX-listed Australian Cancer Technology Ltd, where he was CEO based in Sydney from September 2003 to February 2005. Among the drugs which Australian Cancer Technology worked on during this period was RP101,^[2] a small molecule which, by binding to heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27), was designed to prevent the induction of resistance to chemotherapy. By early 2005 Hopper had relocated from Sydney to San Diego in order to further developer Australian Cancer Technology, but shortly after the move he resigned.^[3]

Investment banking in California, 2005–2014

In California in November 2005 Hopper joined Cappello Global, an investment bank based in Los Angeles. Hopper had been the Australian representative of Cappello since 2002.^[4] At Cappello in California he became Head of the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Group as well as the Australia Desk. Over the next nine years Hopper was involved in the corporate development of a number of Life Science companies,^[5] including:

• Polynoma (Founder). This company is developing a therapeutic melanoma vaccine called seviprotimut-L, based on various antigens shed by three cultured melanoma cell lines. The vaccine's Phase III trial, which initiated in 2012, is one of the world's largest Phase III melanoma trials.^[6]
• Bone Medical (Executive chairman July 2005^[7] to July 2007^[8]). This company was focused on oral delivery of large peptides using aromatic alcohols as absorption enhancers, with an initial focus on calcitonin and parathyroid hormone.
• Somnomed (Director July 2007^[9] to September 2011^[10]). This company (ASX: SOM) is commercialising a dental appliance to treat sleep-disordered breathing.
• Cell Aquaculture (Executive chairman August 2007^[11] to March 2008^[12]). This company's technology was designed to raise premium fish in a land-based recirculating system assembled with modular components.
• pSivida (Director July 2008^[13] to January 2014^[14]). This company (Nasdaq: PSDV, ASX: PVA) is commercialising controlled-release drug delivery systems.
• Fibrocell Science (Director September 2009^[15] to November 2010.^[16] This company (Nasdaq: FCSC) is developing regenerative fibroblast cells.
• iSonea (Director October 2010^[17] to March 2012^[18]). This company (ASX: ISN) is commercialising a monitoring system for respiratory disorders.

Current biotechnology companies, 2014 –

Hopper returned to Australia in 2014 in order to further develop a number of biotechnology companies of which was an executive. Hopper is currently on the board of three ASX-listed companies:

• Imugene (ASX: IMU, Executive chairman), a cancer immunotherapy company which he joined as a director in October 2012^[19] and which he helped structure in its present form in 2013, becoming Executive chairman in December of that year.^[20]
• Viralytics (ASX: VLA, Non-Executive chairman), a company currently developing an oncolytic virus where Hopper has been a director since September 2008^[21] and chairman since November 2008.^[22]
• Prescient Therapeutics (ASX: PTX, Executive Director), a small molecule drug developer focused on cancer where Hopper has been a director since May 2014.^[23]

References