Dr Mike Trower

Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Mike is a Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of NeRRe, who recognised and championed the belief that next generation neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists such as the company’s lead clinical asset orvepitant could present an exciting new approach to effectively treat neuronal hypersensitivity disorders with significant unmet need including chronic refractory cough.  Mike was deeply involved in the acquisition of the Company’s neurokinin antagonist portfolio from GSK and the initial Series A fund raising to launch NeRRe in 2012.

Mike was also Co-founder and CSO of KaNDy Therapeutics a Women’s Health company focussed on developing elinzanetant, a unique dual mechanism neurokinin-1,3 receptor antagonist, as a novel and truly transformational non-hormonal therapy for treatment of symptoms of the menopause and related Women’s Health conditions.  KaNDy was acquired by Bayer Pharmaceuticals in September 2020.

Prior to founding NeRRe, Mike worked in pharmaceutical industry R&D at GSK for nearly 20 years, where latterly he was VP & Head of the External Drug Discovery Group in the Neurosciences Centre for Excellence for Drug Discovery (CEDD). In this position he successfully implemented the CEDD externalisation strategy and advanced a portfolio of preclinical and clinical pipeline assets.

Mike has BSc (Hons) and PhD degrees in biological sciences and has held post-doctoral positions at DuPont Inc in Delaware, US, and at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK, under the Nobel laureate Professor Sydney Brenner.