Jorge received a B.Sc. in Biology in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1986, both from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
After a post-doctoral stay during 1986-1987 at the Centre for Biotechnology, Imperial College London, working on protein engineering, he joined industry more than 35 years ago.
The initial focus was on the development of new Clinical Chemistry analytical kits and reference materials, using enzymes as reagents and analytes, to later join the Almirall R&D team, where he has spent most of his career. Initially as Research Scientist (1989) and subsequently as Head of Molecular Pharmacology (1991), Head of Pharmacology (1997), Biology Director (2002), Director of Discovery Strategy & Alliances (2009), Research Director (2017) and R&D Institutional Relations Director (2020 – 2022).
There he has participated in more than 40 different Drug Discovery programmes (mainly around enzyme inhibitors and G-Protein Coupled Receptor modulators) for the treatment of respiratory and inflammatory diseases. These have led to several candidate drugs, acting through 10 different mechanisms of action, reaching human trials.
Main compounds he has worked with are: ebastine (antihistamine – marketed, EU and Japan), almotriptan (antimigraine – marketed EU and US) aclidinium bromide (inhaled antimuscarinic, marketed EU and US), abediterol (LAS 100977, long acting beta agonist – Phase II). LAS 191351 (Dual antimuscarinic-beta agonist molecule, Phase I).
These activities have been communicated as posters or oral communications at different meetings and congresses, as well as through the publication of more than 50 pubmed referenced full papers.
Jorge has contributed, at both the scientific and managerial level, to the establishment and progression of multiple research collaborations in the pre-competitive (i.e. IMI) and competitive spaces, using different collaboration & financing models. These involved the participation of CROs, biotech and pharma companies, as well as academic centres and institutional partners.
After more than 32 years at Almirall Jorge retired in March 2022. He’s currently member of the managing bodies of the ‘Fundación la Sociedad Española de Farmacología’ (SEF) and of the ‘Spanish Drug Discovery Network’ (SDDN).
