Dr Gourlay has more than 30 years of experience in the development of novel therapeutics and brings considerable skills and experience to Actinogen as the Company moves into further clinical development of its lead compound Xanamem. Formerly the founding Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at US-based Principia Biopharma Inc., Dr Gourlay was responsible for the supervision of multiple pre-clinical, first-in-human, Phase 2 and 3 clinical trial programs in orphan immunological diseases, multiple sclerosis and cancer. The data generated by these trials, and Dr Gourlay’s roadshow presentations, supported a successful NASDAQ IPO of Principia Biopharma Inc. in 2018 – subsequently followed by an acquisition by Sanofi for US$3.7 billion in 2020.

Prior to Principia Biopharma, Dr Gourlay was a Partner at GBS Venture Partners, the Australian specialist life sciences and healthcare venture capital firm, where he contributed to the success of multiple clinical stage therapeutic companies including Elastagen, Spinifex and Peplin. Before GBS, and after a post doctorate in clinical pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Genentech, Inc. in the areas of pharmacoepidemiology and early clinical development.

Dr Gourlay has significant drug regulatory experience with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA) at many levels, including filing more than 10 Investigational New Drug (IND) applications, achieving several orphan drug status approvals for his Company’s product(s), and completing several biologics license applications.

Dr Gourlay is based in Sydney and holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Melbourne, a PhD in Medicine from Monash University, an MBA from Macquarie University and is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians (FRACP). He is also a specialist physician in general internal medicine.