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Alex Devereson

PartnerLondon

Advises bio-pharmaceutical companies and investors on innovation and growth through holistic R&D transformations and at-scale deployment of digital and analytics across the value chain

Alex is a Partner in our London Office. He serves pharmaceutical, vaccines and biotech companies on Research and Development transformations across a wide range of topics including innovation, franchise, portfolio and lifecycle management strategy, operations, organization and M&A. He also works extensively with clients on maximizing the value of digital and analytics at scale across the value chain, with a focus on applying advanced analytics to help companies enhance their understanding of disease biology and patient outcomes in drug discovery and clinical development. Alex also serves investors on a range of topics across the investment lifecycle, in the tech-enabled healthcare space and works extensively with players across the UK Life Sciences ecosystem.

Recent examples of his work include:

  • Leading a multiyear analytics transformation with QuantumBlack for a leading pharmaceutical company, including vision and strategy, building of core analytics platforms and use case delivery, build up of dedicated analytics capabilities in a new organization and operating model, and process changes to systematically embed use of analytics
  • Helping a leading pharmaceutical company deliver an end-to-end transformation of their Clinical Development organization
  • Developing cutting edge methods for AI-enabled target identification, molecule design, indication selection and trial simulation and helping pharmaceutical companies deploy them at scale
  • Advising on several enterprise, franchise and asset growth & lifecycle management strategies across oncology, immunology, respiratory, rare diseases, neurology, infectious disease, and primary care conditions
  • Leading over 30 commercial due diligence, exit preparation, and portfolio strategy projects for healthcare technology companies

Before joining McKinsey, Alex wrote his PhD thesis on mRNA localization and localized translation at the University of Oxford, and has published in peer-reviewed journals on mechanisms of localized translation, mRNA processing, super-resolution microscopy methods and molecular condensates.

Published Work

How artificial intelligence can power clinical development,” McKinsey & Company, November 2023

The company landscape for artificial intelligence in large-molecule drug discovery, Nature, August 2023

Understanding the company landscape in AI-driven biopharma R&D, Nature, May 2023

Quarterly value releases: Transforming pharma through digital and analytics—fast,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022

How AI could revolutionize drug discovery,” McKinsey & Company, November 2022

How AI can accelerate R&D for cell and gene therapies,” McKinsey & Company, November 2022

AI in biopharma research: A time to focus and scale,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022

Generating real-world evidence at scale using advanced analytics,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022

The UK biotech sector: The path to global leadership,” McKinsey & Company, December 2021

Ten battlegrounds for digital and analytics in life sciences,” McKinsey & Company, August 2020

Creating value from next-generation real-world evidence,” McKinsey & Company, July 2020

Private equity opportunities in healthcare tech,” McKinsey & Company, May 2019

Education

University of Oxford, Christ Church
PhD, chromosome and developmental biology

University College London
BSc, biology