Jean-Paul Clozel is a doctor. He turned to cardiology and became involved in research. Trained in several laboratories in Nancy, Paris, Montreal and San Francisco, he joined the Hoffmann-Laroche laboratory in 1985, where he contributed to major new drug discoveries. In November 1997, he left this position to found Actelion Ltd with three other researchers, where he has been Chairman and CEO since 2000. In less than ten years, Actelion Ltd has become Europe's largest biotech company.

Academic work

Jean-Paul Clozel's main academic interests have been in the field of cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology. Using a variety of technologies, he studied how conditions such as hypoxia or hypercapnia could modify patients' sensitivity to drugs such as digoxin or theophylline. He has also characterized the cardioprotective properties of certain calcium antagonists using new techniques such as the measurement of regional blood tissue using radioactive microspheres, and the measurement of cardiac contractility using piezoelectric crystals implanted in the myocardium.

Discovery of new drugs

At Fa. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, in the cardiovascular drug discovery department, Jean-Paul Clozel has been involved in three main programs:

• calcium antagonists ;
• renin-angiotensin system inhibitors ;
• endothelin receptor antagonists.

Foundation of Actelion Ltd

In November 1997, Jean Paul Clozel, Martine Clozel, Walter Fischli and Thomas Widmann founded Actelion.