Alistair Henry

Drug discovery leader at UCB. Presented at Session I on drug discovery by design — listening to human pathobiology and back-translating from approved molecules.

Key Arguments

• Human biology trumps everything — with FDA evaluation of New Approach Methods (NAMs), this stops being aspirational
• Three molecules, three lessons:
  • Romosozumab (Evenity) — born from ultra-rare genetics (~60 patients worldwide)
  • Rozanolixizumab (Rystiggo) — driven by patient need → FcRn inhibition
  • Bimekizumab (Bimzelx) — pre-AI atom-level design: >28,000 variants → 1 drug
• F in human peripheral blood: IL-17A initiates, IL-17F drives the late phase. Mouse shows no IL-17F signature — the mouse tells a clean, wrong story
• Back-translation from bimekizumab revealed monocyte-driven biology and IL-23 upstream of IL-17A/F, complicating the textbook “waterfall” model
• Atom-level design pre-dates “AI for proteins” and still holds up — the lesson isn’t tools, it’s resolution of thought

On Talent

The trait to hire for: perpetual curiosity — comfort with ignorance, willingness to challenge dogma, ability to listen to data over groupthink.

“That doesn’t mean we were smart. It means we did think. Sometimes I wonder whether we really look at the data the way we should.”