Summary
Dr. Mick Hitchcock is a bio-pharmaceutical senior executive & researcher with 40 years of experience in the development of pharmaceuticals. He spent 27 years with Gilead Sciences and helped to build it from the small, research-focused organization with 100 employees in 1993 with no products to the 5th largest pharmaceutical company (by market cap). He has contributed in a variety of roles including research, project and portfolio management, medical affairs, strategic planning, senior advisor and others. Prior to Gilead, he was with Bristol-Myers (later Bristol-Myers Squibb) for 12 years in infectious disease research and development.
He is trained as a biochemist/microbiologist, and has extensive experience in the discovery and development of new pharmaceuticals, predominantly those used to treat bacterial and viral diseases. Significant examples include treatments for HIV such as Viread, Truvada and Atripla (the latter being the first once-daily single tablet regimen for HIV therapy). Gilead also developed therapies for Hepatitis C, including Sovaldi, Harvoni and Epclusa, that produce cure rates in excess of 90% with 8-12 weeks of oral treatment.
He completed undergraduate and master's degrees in biochemistry at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in England, and a doctorate in microbiology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Although English by birth, he has been a US resident for over 40 years, currently making Reno, Nevada, his home since mid-2009. At the present time, he is involved with the University of Nevada, Reno as immediate past-chair of the UNR Foundation Board of Trustees and as a member of Advisory Councils for the College of Science and the College of Business. He is also a board member of the Nevada Research & Innovation Corporation. Through these activities he has been helping to build infrastructure at UNR including financing equipment purchases for Proteomics, Genomics and Metabolomics and upgraded laboratory space. In addition, in 2014, he established the Mick Hitchcock, Ph.D. Endowed Chair in Medical Biochemistry.
Professional Biography
- 2009 - 2019: Senior Advisor, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 2016: Interim Head, Alliance Management, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 2011 - 2013: Interim Head Respiratory Therapeutic Area & Seattle Site Lead, Gilead Sciences, Seattle, WA
- 2006 - 2009: VP, Project & Portfolio Management, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 2003 - 2006: VP, Medical Affairs, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 2002 - 2003: VP & Chief of Staff, R&D, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 2001 - 2002: VP, Discovery Team Management, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 1998 - 2001: VP, Project Management, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 1996 - 1998: VP, Strategic Planning, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 1994 - 1996: VP, Project Management, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 1993 - 1994: Director, Project Management, Gilead Sciences, Foster City, CA
- 1990 - 1993: Director, Anti-Infective Project Planning & Management, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmaceutical Research Division, Wallingford CT
- 1987 - 1990: Assoc. Dir., Virology, Bristol-Myers, Pharmaceutical Research Division, Wallingford CT
- 1986 - 1987: Assoc. Dir., Screening & Biochemical Research, Bristol-Myers, Pharmaceutical Research Division, Wallingford CT
- 1982 - 1985: Senior Research Scientist, Dept. Microbiological Research, Bristol Laboratories, Syracuse, NY
- 1980 - 1982: Senior Research Scientist, Dept. Experimental Chemotherapeutics, Bristol Laboratories, Syracuse, NY
- 1979 - 1980: Visiting Fellow, Laboratory of Experimental Pathology, NIAMDD, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
- 1976 - 1978: Research Associate, Georgetown University, Schools of Medicine & Dentistry, Department of Microbiology, Washington, DC
Research Interests
I have worked over the last 40 years to discover and develop drugs for diseases caused by bacteria (carbapenems, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides), viruses (HIV (triple combinations), hepatitis B (tenofovir prodrugs), hepatitis C (sofosbuvir based combinations), influenza (oseltamivir), CMV and herpes(cidofovir)) and fungi (various formulations of amphotericin B and azoles).
Education
- 1976: Ph.D., Microbiology, Melbourne University
- 1972: M.Sc., Biochemistry, University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology
- 1970: B.Sc., Biochemistry, University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology