Menelas N. Pangalos

Sir Menelaos (Mene) Nicolas Pangalos is a British neuroscientist of Greek descent.

Pangalos is Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca. He is responsible for the company's research and development of new drugs to treat respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune, renal, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Pangalos is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed articles published in scientific journals and serves on the board of the Francis Crick Institute, Cambridge Judge Business School and Dizal Pharma. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and sits on their Science, Industry & Translation Committee. Pangalos was knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to UK science.

Early life and education

Pangalos was born in Ealing, London, to a family of Greek diaspora which settled in England. His parents were from the island of Chios and his mother (née Psarros ) was also born there. His extended family on both parents' sides still live in Chios and he spent childhood summers there. He is fluent in Greek.

He commenced his scientific studies with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (First Class Honours) from Imperial College London and a subsequent Ph.D. in neuropharmacology from University College London.

Pfizer In April, 2009, Pfizer announced that Pangalos would serve as the Chief Scientific Officer for Neuroscience, and that the role would be effective when the merger of Wyeth and Pfizer completed in 4Q, 2009. His time with Pfizer was brief, since Pangalos joined Astra Zeneca in 2010. According to Pangalos' linked-in profile, Pangalos was Senior Vice President at Pfizer from 2008 to 2010. This is above the pharmaceutical industry average of 6%.

Academic career

Pangalos was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 2022. the Royal Society of Biology and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He sits on the council of the Medical Research Council (MRC), co-chairs the Life Sciences Council Expert Group on Innovation, Clinical Research and Data and is a member of the UK Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board.

Pangalos has held Visiting Professorships at the University of Pennsylvania and King's College London. He is on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals – Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, Neuropharmacology and The Scientific World and is on scientific advisory boards for the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases (King's College London University) and Rider University. Pangalos has edited the book Understanding G protein-coupled receptors and their role in the central nervous system (CNS), and a number of journal issues focused on drug discovery in the CNS.

He also mentors post-doc and PhD students in his role at AstraZeneca.