Ochre Bio appoints ex- Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca VP as Non-Executive Director

29th May 2025, Oxford, UK – Oxford-based Ochre Bio, a biotechnology company developing RNA therapeutics for chronic liver disease, has appointed Dr. Elaine Sullivan as Senior Independent Non-Executive Director, bringing extensive global pharma and business expertise to the company. 

Elaine will take a leading role at Ochre, supporting the board and the corporate strategy, drawing on knowledge from her positions as VP of Global External Research & Development at Eli Lilly, managing $100 million of Lilly’s assets, and as AstraZeneca’s VP, overseeing global teams. Elaine has extensive experience in executing world-wide deals, with a successful track record in developing novel medicines and has served as Non-Executive Director for several successful biotechnology companies.

Dr. Elaine Sullivan, Senior Independent Non-Executive Director at Ochre Bio, says: “I look forward to supporting Ochre Bio’s development as the company enters this dynamic moment in its journey. Ochre’s approach to liver disease therapeutics is highly innovative and particularly significant as we see levels of chronic liver disease increasing all over the globe and few alternatives to transplant. Ochre’s work combining AI with human data to discover RNA therapeutics could radically change the future of liver disease medicine, and is exciting for the pharma industry.”

Ochre Bio has also expanded its scientific team with senior hires. Dr. Julian Maller joins as Head of In Silico Biology, bringing 15 years of experience in computational biology and genomics to bolster target discovery and validation. Dr. Sarah Batey becomes Head of Portfolio Development & Scientific Operations, with deep experience in advancing drug candidates to the clinic. 

Quin Wills, co-founder and CSO of Ochre Bio says: “Elaine’s strategic insight and deep understanding of how to build successful pipelines and biotechnology companies will be invaluable as we continue developing our human data-driven platform and ex vivo liver models. I could not be more excited to welcome Elaine to the next phase of Ochre's ambitions - to progress successful RNA candidates to the clinic.”

By expanding its presence across Oxford, New York, and Taipei, the science and leadership team will play a key role in ongoing research programmes and Ochre’s multi-million-pound partnerships with GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim.

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About Ochre Bio

Ochre Bio is a biotechnology company developing novel RNA medicines for under-treated chronic liver diseases. Its proprietary discovery platform combines machine learning and big human datasets, with in-house RNA chemistry, and testing in live human donor livers. Ochre Bio is headquartered in Oxford, UK, and has research labs in New York and Taipei.

For more information, visit www.ochre-bio.com