Our Team
Dr Pascal Hickey (BPharm, PhD)
Chief Executive Officer
Pascal Hickey has over 20 years’ international experience in pharmaceutical development and operations, and has held a range of R&D management responsibilities in innovative and rapidly growing biotechnology companies. He has over 10 years' experience in developing allergy therapeutic agents and prior to joining Aravax, Dr Hickey was a Vice President on the R&D management team at Circassia Pharmaceuticals (UK).
Other prior appointments include roles at Chiron and PowderJect Technologies. Dr Hickey received his Bachelor of Pharmacy from the Victorian College of Pharmacy and PhD from Monash University, Australia.
Dr Sara Prickett (BSc, PhD)
Chief Scientific Officer
Sara Prickett has over 15 years’ research experience in cellular immunology and was responsible for the preclinical development of Aravax's peanut allergy therapy. Prior to Aravax, Dr Prickett held senior research posts at Alfred Health and Monash University where she played a major role in the research underpinning the peanut allergy therapy being developed by Aravax.
Dr Prickett received her Bachelor of Science from Sheffield University and PhD from Imperial College, London.
Dr Ralph Zitnik (M.D.)
Chief Medical Officer
Ralph Zitnik has over 23 years’ experience in clinical development having held positions at Bayer, Pfizer, Immunex, and Amgen. He has run clinical programs in COPD, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and osteoporosis. Among many other roles, he led a global development team for Enbrel (etanercept, a TNF antagonist) at Amgen. He subsequently served as Chief Medical Officer in a number of smaller privately held companies.
Dr. Zitnik has an MD degree from Rush University, and was trained in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine and critical care medicine at Yale University where he spent time on faculty.
Dr Paul Laidler (BPharm, PhD)
Director Product Development
Paul Laidler has over 20 years' pharmaceutical development experience having held a number of roles within large Pharmaceutical companies including Zeneca/AstraZeneca and a number of rapidly developing biotechnology companies including PowderJect Technologies, Chiron Vaccines, PowderMed and most recently Circassia Pharmaceuticals. Prior to setting up as an independent consultant, Dr Laidler was Vice President of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Circassia Pharmaceuticals.
Dr Laidler received both his Bachelor of Pharmacy and PhD degrees from King’s College London.
Dr Matthew Moyle
(BSc, PhD)
Head, Commercial Development
Matthew Moyle is a biopharma veteran with extensive experience in the discovery and development of novel therapeutic agents. He has led R&D groups at Boehringer Ingelheim, Amgen and Tanox, among others, resulting in the delivery of more than 20 drug candidates that have advanced to clinical testing, and the approval thus far of two products.
Prior to joining the Aravax team, Dr Moyle was Chief Scientific Officer at AnaptysBio. Dr Moyle received his BSc and PhD degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto and completed postdoctoral studies at Genentech.
Judy Bingham (BPharm, MHA)
Director Clinical Operations
Judy Bingham has over 20 years' clinical development and regulatory strategy experience in the Australian and international pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, including 10 years as Senior Director, Consulting Services at Kendle International (now Syneos Health) and pharmaceutical companies Faulding (now Pfizer) and CSL.
Judy has a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Victorian College of Pharmacy, is a Fellow of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia and has a Masters in Health Science from Latrobe University.