Deborah Harland was already heading up scientific licensing within the UK-listed drugs maker GlaxoSmithKline for four years before joining its corporate venturing unit, SR One, in 2005 as a general partner.
Put in charge of establishing SR One’s European investment office, the Bath and London University graduate has brought her experience to bear in a number pharmaceutical roles including clinical development, medical affairs, and business development.
She was elevated to the role of partner and vice-president of business investments at SR One in 2009. She is a non-executive director at VHsquared, Mission Therapeutics, F-Star, Bicycle Therapeutics and Protaffin Biotechnologie.
From these portfolio companies, her more recent investments include 2014’s $32m series A for Bicycle Therapeutics, which followed a $5.7m round in 2012, $30.4m for Mission Therapeutics in 2013, and $9.4m in the same year for F-Star Biotechnology’s series A. She also worked with fellow corporate venturer Roche on a $39.3m round for central nervous system focused life sciences firm Addex Pharmaceuticals a year before its IPO in 2007, worth $134.5m. What is more, she worked on antibody therapeutics firm Ablynx’s 2006 series C, worth $50m, ahead of its IPO, which also took place in 2007.