Dr Simon Hirst

Simon is Sygnature’s founder and Chief Executive Officer. He is an entrepreneur and industry veteran with 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector.  As well as founding Sygnature in 2004, he was an early-stage investor and Director of Peak Proteins Ltd (now acquired by Sygnature), and a co-founder of Step Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotech based in France.

Simon began his research career as a medicinal chemist at AstraZeneca and later moved to OSI Pharmaceuticals where he was part of the senior leadership team. He has been engaged in the full spectrum of drug discovery programmes – from hit finding to candidate selection. Simon has a BSc (Hons.) in chemistry and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Nottingham, and undertook post-doctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh.