Les Browne

Leslie Johnston Browne (pronounced Brown; February 3, 1950, Glasgow, Scotland) is a chemist and entrepreneur. Browne made important drug discoveries throughout the late 20th and early 21st century in the pharmaceutical industry. His most well known commercialized contributions include drugs for the treatment of various forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition to the discovery of Fadrozole, the first marketed non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor for the treatment of estrogen-dependent breast cancer, he led the team that discovered Diovan®, the second angiotensin II antagonist ever to be marketed. He has been a pharmaceutical industry leader and visionary for the last decade making public speaking appearances at both business and technical conferences across the globe.

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Browne is widely considered to be one of the drug discovery's most versatile leaders of the early 21st century combining world leading acumen in hands on drug discovery with some of the managerial acumen of a seasoned entrepreneur. He is also a prolific writer having authored numerous publications and patents covering a broad range of therapeutic areas including CNS, cardiovascular disease, inflammation and cancer. He currently has 17 patents to his name.

Dr. Browne has over twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has devoted the most distinguished years of his career to entrepreneurship in the pharmaceutical space. He is currently the President and CEO of Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery. Dr. Browne was the Chief Operating Officer at Iconix Pharmaceuticals, a leading chemogenomics company, where he led the research, development and informatics operations and launched Iconix's first product, DrugMatrix®.

Dr. Browne started his career working for the pharma giants. Before joining Iconix Dr. Browne held several positions at Berlex/Schering AG, including Corporate Vice President, Berlex Laboratories, Inc. and President of Schering Berlin Venture Corporation. At Berlex Biosciences he rebuilt the drug discovery operation and championed a number of important pharma-biotech deals for Berlex, including a combinatorial chemistry collaboration with Pharmacopeia. Before Berlex, he was with Ciba-Geigy, where he discovered Fadrozole, the first marketed non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor for the treatment of estrogen-dependent breast cancer. He also managed cardiovascular research at Ciba-Geigy Ltd., in Basle, where one of the group's achievements was the discovery of Diovan®, the second angiotensin II antagonist ever to be marketed.

Dr. Browne received his B.Sc. at Strathclyde University, in Glasgow, Scotland. After receiving his Ph. D. from the University of Michigan, he was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at Harvard with the Nobel laureate Professor Robert Burns Woodward.