Aston Particle Technologies

About Us

Our Background

APT has a seasoned industrial management team with decades of experience in large Pharma and Biotechs.

The company was formed in 2016 as a spin-out from Aston University to commercialise the multi-patented iDPC technology and support our partners in their drug development programmes.

Investors and Grant Funding Raised

APT is a technology-focused company which prides itself in providing forward thinking scientific solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. To date, APT has raised more than £2million from grants and investment funds.

To find out more about our case studies, please click view our section on iDPC Formulation.

Management Team

male photo ceo

Dr David Wyatt – Chief Executive Officer

David is a pharmaceutical scientist (holding a PhD in Surface Chemistry and Colloid Science) with extensive medicine development experience.

During 32 years with GlaxoSmithKline, he held a range of senior scientific and management positions spanning the development of 5 major new chemical entities from molecule selection to be amongst the gold standard respiratory medicines in today's marketplace.

Immediately prior to joining APT, David was the Vice-President and Head of the Respiratory Centre of Excellence for New Product Introduction within GSK Manufacturing and has a broad appreciation of what it takes to champion a good idea to bring it to industrial reality.

Afzal 4 scaled

Prof Afzal Mohammed – Founder and Chief Technical Officer

Afzal is a Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutics at Aston University with more than 15 years of extensive experience in medicines development, material characterisation, developing novel pharmaceutical processes and formulations and is the lead inventor for the dry particle coater.

His work has been funded by a total of £3.9 million in research income from the pharmaceutical industry, EPSRC, MRC, Innovate UK and BBSRC.

male

Dr Ian Smith – Founder and Chairman

Ian has 40 years experience in the drug delivery industry. Previously, he has led the inhalation and device product development groups at both Glaxo and Pfizer. He was also Head of Medical Device Development at PA consulting and R & D Director at Andaris.

In 2001 he founded the drug delivery company Meridica and led the organisation as CEO until 2004, when it was acquired by Pfizer and valued at $140 million.

Most recently, Ian is director of H12 Consulting, which provides strategic advice to industry and investors on drug delivery technologies.

female picture

Elizabeth Dainty - Chief Financial Officer

Elizabeth has over 15 years of experience as a qualified chartered accountant in both the commercial and charity sectors. She qualified at KPMG working in both audit and tax.

She was Financial Accounting Manager at Ceva Logistics (previously TNT Logistics) for over 8 years where she managed fiscal and monthly reporting, treasury and taxation and worked on a variety of projects.

After a short career break she moved to the Valuations department at KPMG, valuing unlisted companies.

male picture

Dr Jasdip Koner – Development Director

Jasdip is a GPhC registered pharmacist holding a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Delivery from Aston University.

He is currently the Principal Scientist and Project Operations Manager at Aston Particle Technologies (APT). He augments and maintains his professional development in monthly patient-facing duties at a local pharmacy. He was one of the first employees of APT as a senior formulation scientist with an initial focus on developing the range of application areas for iDPC.

He has made key contributions to the scale-up of the iDPC technology from benchtop to pilot and has championed the application of Quality by Design in formulation optimisation. He currently directs all in-house programmes of research in novel formulations and coordinates collaborative development programmes with partners across the industry from programme design to execution.

male picture

Dr Abdul Ershad – Business Development Manager

Abdul obtained his PhD from Aston University and co-sponsor Colorcon Ltd and has developed into a multi-disciplined scientist who has acquired a thorough knowledge of early-phase drug development with commercial and clinical awareness.

He has worked in the R&D sector for over 8 years holding a number of senior positions across various institutions including the NHS/Public Health England where he served as Lead Research Scientist to assist in managing clinical development programs, strategic planning, and the evaluation of related public health investments.

Abdul was employed across industry as a career scientist including Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer respectively, as well as academia in various research-based roles (including Aston University and De Montfort University). Abdul is passionate about advancing innovative technologies to provide forward-thinking solutions and shape global pharma conversations.