Our Expertise

Paul is an established pharma executive with extensive global experience. Prior to joining Seda he was Vice President, Global Product Development at AstraZeneca, leading a group of over 350 scientists and engineers in the development of all products, manufacturing processes and analytical methods for the AstraZeneca small molecule portfolio.

AstraZeneca Global Product Development has centres in the UK, Sweden, US and China and a network of partnerships with colleagues all over the world and under Paul’s stewardship registered 10 global products.

At AstraZeneca Paul was accountable for the Drug Product CMC component of all Due Diligence assessments and was CMC lead on several multibillion dollar acquisitions. In addition, Paul is a visiting Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Manchester, UK and founder of the North West Centre for Drug Delivery (NoWCADD) at the University.

He is a proven senior manager and strategic leader in Pharmaceutical Development with experience across geographical boundaries. Passionate about the development of individual and group capabilities and the application of innovation and scientific rigour to bring new medicinal products to market.

He is recognised within the Industry and with Regulatory Agencies as a driving force in the establishment and realisation of best practice in CMC Quality by Design.

Marcel has a track record in a range of management and senior scientific positions in industry and academia. Most recently he was a Principal Scientist in Product Design and Innovation at AstraZeneca, where he was responsible for introducing the latest science, new technologies (advanced drug delivery and manufacturing) and product design thinking into the Product Development group.

Marcel has led technical activities, provided project leadership and has managed product development teams responsible for the delivery of drug projects from initial concept design through late stage development, regulatory submission and launch (including advanced drug delivery systems). He has led teams at the drug discovery-development interface, assessing the level of chemistry manufacturing and controls (CMC) technical risk and defining product design strategies in early development. Project experience has covered projects across a range of disease and therapy areas with substantial experience in the oncology field.

Paul has held several senior science leadership roles in Academia and Large Pharma.  These roles focused on applying the best science in projects to ensure optimal product performance in the patient, thus bridging pharmaceutical and clinical disciplines.

Immediately prior to founding Seda Pharmaceutical Development Services Paul was Senior Clinical Pharmacology Scientist at AstraZeneca and led the clinical pharmacology program to NDA/MAA for AZD9291/osimertinib, which had been awarded ‘breakthrough therapy’ status by the FDA.  Formerly Paul was a Principal Scientist within Pharmaceutical Development (AZ) leading both the global biopharmaceutics network and the Medicines Evaluation science community (USA, SE, UK).

Paul has been at the forefront of recent advances in the understanding of in vitro performance criteria that assure product performance in the patient including clinically relevant dissolution specifications (CRDS).  Paul has co-authored papers with FDA staff focussed on efforts to combine biopharmaceutics with ICH Q8 (BioRAM) and is past Chair of the AAPS ‘QbD and product performance’ focus group.

‪Paul A Dickinson‬ – ‪Google Scholar‬

Claire Patterson is Senior Principal Scientist at Seda with a Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the Universities of Nottingham and University College London respectively. Claire is an experienced Biopharmaceutics scientist having spent 12 years with former employer AstraZeneca with roles in Early and Late Stage Product Development, linking in vitro to in vivo product performance. Current focus areas include subcutaneous and complex parenteral biopharmaceutics (including nanomedicines) and other non-oral routes of administration.

‪Claire Patterson‬ – ‪Google Scholar‬

Effi is a Principal Scientist working in Analytical Sciences at Seda. Since her MSc and PhD and throughout, she has been working with Oligonucleotides/RNA, their synthesis, analysis and in the last 4 years – their pharmaceutical testing in a GxP environment. Coming from an organic Chemistry background and having worked with big biomolecules, she has experience in a multitude of different analytical techniques and their troubleshooting.

With her leadership experience in a CRO, she has the skills to work for Seda as a technical leader to ensure the quality of analytical data is excellent and the customers’ needs are met.

‪Effi Bätzner‬ – ‪Google Scholar‬

Alex has a background in chemistry and holds a PhD in pharmaceutics from University College London, during which he gained extensive experience in the solid-state characterisation of pharmaceutical materials, including polymorphism and co-crystallisation, combining both thermal and structural analyses to develop a full picture of the changes occurring when materials undergo phase transitions. More recently he has worked on projects in formulation development with a particular focus on the microfluidic manufacture of nanomaterials for administration of sustained release parenterals. He also has valuable experience in the development and manufacture of oral solid dosage forms.

Lorraine has over 20 years’ high quality laboratory experience at a leading global pharmaceutical company and one of the world’s leading toxicology laboratories. She is experienced in most aspects of drug development and toxicology, ranging from pre-clinical toxicology through to human clinical trials.

Fanny has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, an engineer diploma in Materials Science and a PhD in Polymer Chemistry. Following her studies, she worked as a Research Associate for 6+ years in both Academia and large Pharma focussing on polymers for healthcare and precision nanomedicine applications. She joined Seda as Senior Scientist to facilitate the development of complex parenterals using her knowledge of nanotechnology.

Essy has a pharmaceutical science background with a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast. During her PhD she worked on 3D printed systems for transdermal drug delivery and the use of microfluidics for nanoparticle fabrication along with extensive experience in a range of analytical characterisation techniques. At Seda she will use her experience in pharmaceutics within the formulation development team, focusing on oral dosage forms and complex medicines.

Paul has 33+ years’ experience in Drug Discovery and Development at AstraZeneca, specialising in novel formulation, drug delivery and product design. He has led many projects and teams in identifying, evaluating and designing novel viable drug delivery-based products and new drug delivery technologies across a broad range of routes of administration and drug modalities including many complex medicines.

From 2017 to 2021, in additional to his role as Senior Principal Scientist in Drug Delivery, Paul was the Science & Innovation Director for Drug Delivery and Product Design, accountable for driving and championing science and innovation in drug delivery and product design to create new implementable business opportunities. Paul started and led AstraZeneca’s Global Novel Drug Delivery Network for many years and is widely recognised outside AstraZeneca as an expert on drug delivery technologies and the external drug delivery environment, including patent and intellectual property aspects.

Paul has collaborated extensively with academic groups and drug delivery companies and is the co-author and co-inventor of a number of publications and patent applications. He has been a member of a range of external groups including Editorial advisory board member for the Nanomedicine journal, Scientific Advisory Board member and Programme Chair for the Controlled Release Society Conference, Scientific Consultant to the Wellcome Trust and EPSRC programme External Advisory Board member.