Our team

Brett Carter joined Medicines Development for Global Health in February 2022. He brings a wealth of experience in business development, corporate governance and structuring and executing corporate development transactions across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, having worked in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors for over 20 years, including as CEO of the Australian Government-funded cancer therapeutics Cooperative Research Centre, and in corporate development at GSK in London.

Brett holds a BSc (Applied Chemistry) and MBA from the London Business School, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In his spare time, he loves to travel and keep fit.

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Mark Sullivan is MDGH’s founder and managing director. He was previously a clinical programme head at GSK in London; Associate Director, Clinical at Gilead Sciences in California; and Chief Operating Officer of Australia’s vaccine design and development consortium at the University of New South Wales. He has contributed to three successful global registrational programs for HIV and hepatitis B therapeutics, has worked on 40 small molecule and biologic development programs at all stages, and led the development of moxidectin through FDA approval. Mark was the 2019 Victorian Australian of the Year, and in 2022 was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours List.

Amanda Handley is a senior director at MDGH. As Head of Development Management Amanda leads the project management function while keeping her skills sharp overseeing the late-stage development of an oral rotavirus vaccine. Prior to joining MDGH, Amanda was Senior Scientist at Bavarian Nordic GmbH. Amanda has over 20 years’ experience in development teams and has gained experience in product development teams in research, preclinical, and clinical for smallpox, HIV, and other viral vector vaccines. Amanda holds a Master of Public Health. When not making medicines for those that need them most, she seeks adventures with her family, knits beanies for babies and is learning Danish.

Danielle is a senior director at MDGH. As the Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, she oversees regulatory affairs operations and contributes to directional strategy, including global drug access and new collaboration, development, and funding opportunity assessments. Prior to joining MDGH in 2008, Danielle was an Australian Research Council/Centre of Excellence research fellow and lecturer at Monash University, Australia, with a small group of staff and post-graduate students and a broad collaborative network studying host-pathogen immunology and the biochemistry of cell death in health and disease. Danielle is a graduate of Monash University and has a PhD in immunology from the University of Melbourne. Danielle has been fascinated by immunology since she first learned about the weaponry pathogens deploy on their human hosts. When not working for global health equity, she is most likely to be found in a Melbourne coffee shop or at a park with her husband and their wolfhound.

Sally’s key responsibility is for development leadership of the moxidectin for onchocerciasis program and advising on clinical projects across development programs. Sally joined Medicines Development for Global Health in late 2013, with 18 years prior experience at GlaxoSmithKline Australia. Her experience includes staff training and team leadership for local and global Phase 2 through Phase 4 clinical trials in oncology, infectious diseases, respiratory medicine, registration and reimbursement strategy development, and scientific communications for oncology medical affairs. In her last role as scientific and medical communications manager, she was a key member of the team responsible for the reimbursement approval of a breast cancer-targeted therapy and for leadership of subsequent advocacy activities that successfully removed a barrier to its use in the reimbursement listing. As an independent consultant, she has undertaken project activities for industry, research, and government clients and was Chief Operating Officer with an ASX-listed biotechnology company for a six-month term. Sally holds a degree in pharmacy from Monash University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Melbourne. Sally lives in Melbourne with her husband and rescue greyhound, Lachie. When not in project planning meetings or authoring study protocols, she loves to spend time with her adult daughters, cooking up a storm for friends and family, and playing the cello.

Lorna is currently Vice President, Commercial Operations, Asia Pacific of Seqirus bioCSL Ltd., (a CSL company). She has enjoyed a successful 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, encompassing clinical research, business development, marketing and sales across a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including respiratory, CNS, cardiopulmonary, oncology, metabolic, psychiatry, neurology, HIV, pain, and vaccines. Lorna previously worked for GSK Australia as Commercial Vice President, before establishing Ikaria Australia Pty Ltd., a biotherapeutics company that commercialised drugs and devices for intensive care medicine. She was a director and secretary of BioMelbourne Network (an industry-led membership association for organisations engaged in biotechnology, medical technology, and health innovation in the state of Victoria). Lorna graduated with a PhD in Neurobiology (University College London) and a BSc in Pharmacology (University of Glasgow), and went on to hold academic positions at the Cardiothoracic Institute at the Royal Brompton Hospital (London) and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (London).

Mark Sullivan is MDGH’s founder and managing director. He was previously a clinical programme head at GSK in London; Associate Director, Clinical at Gilead Sciences in California; and Chief Operating Officer of Australia’s vaccine design and development consortium at the University of New South Wales. He has contributed to three successful global registrational programs for HIV and hepatitis B therapeutics, has worked on 40 small molecule and biologic development programs at all stages, and led the development of moxidectin through FDA approval. Mark was the 2019 Victorian Australian of the Year, and in 2022 was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours List.

Andrew Wilks is a serial entrepreneur with 25 years working in industry, following a highly successful academic career as a cancer researcher at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He went on to found Cytopia (1997), one of Australia’s earliest ASX-listed drug discovery companies. Since then, he has founded eleven companies in the drug discovery arena. He was co-founder of SYNthesis med chem, a global CRO with laboratories in China, and SYNthesis Research, a ‘venture-discovery’ company that funds and manages drug discovery collaborations generated from academia. Andrew holds an Adjunct Professorship at Monash University, and is an Honorary Enterprise Professor at the University of Melbourne. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS). He has received a number of awards including the JNJ AusBiotech Industry Leadership Award, the ATSE Clunies Ross Medal, and the Lackmann Award for Translational Research.

Daren is a corporate, commercial and finance lawyer with over 30 years’ experience in leading quality law firms, advising clients on significant, complex, transactional, regulatory and governance matters. His clients include and have included ASX-listed public companies, private concerns, leading universities and schools, other not-for-profit companies and peak bodies, including technology-rich, emerging, creative industry and pharmaceutical ventures. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an ANU College of Law Graduate of Distinction.

David has been a partner with Ernst & Young (EY) since 2000, serving clients in the media, technology and telecommunications sectors. David was the EY Asia Pacific Technology, Media and Telecommunications leader responsible for coordinating with global leadership to launch new initiatives and services and growing the revenue from $65m to $100m in 4 years. David has experience in working with high growth companies, as they raise funding, build their processes to scale, evolve their risk management practices and has IPO experience with iCar Asia Ltd, Touchcorp Ltd and Afterpay Ltd. David has worked with EY in the UK, US, PNG and Australia. David has a BSc in Mathematics and Accountancy (University of Dundee) and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and also Australia/NZ.

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Joanne (Jo) joined MDGH in January 2022. She leads the clinical function, working closely with all clinical project managers to enable and drive our current and future clinical objectives across the programs and to further develop and standardise our clinical processes.
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Jo joins MDGH with a wealth of clinical operations experience over more than 30 years, in her previous roles as study coordinator, study manager, clinical pharmacology scientist, project manager, clinical operations manager, site manager and monitor. She has previously worked for Novartis and a number of contract research organisations in the UK and New Zealand. She set up and managed a successful 12-bed Phase I unit in NZ. Most recently, Jo held a position as Clinical Lead at Syneos Health, a medium-size global full services CRO working at all stages of development across a range of therapy areas. She was a co-founder of the National HIV Nurses Association (UK).

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Jo has qualifications in nursing Nursing and a Master of Science degree in social research methods.

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