Dr Antonio Felici has spent almost 30 years driving drug discovery and development in antimicrobial resistance, within both big pharma and CROs. Dr Felici is Vice President of Academic Partnership at Evotec, where he leads the identification of novel therapies and therapeutic approaches, in collaboration with academic institutions, through EXTEND, a start-up studio funded by Evotec SE, CDP Venture Capital Sgr., and Angelini Ventures. Since 2024, Dr Felici has also served on the board of AUROBAC Therapeutics, a biopharma founded by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, bioMérieux and Evotec SE.
Dr Felici was central to the development of the infectious disease groups both at Aptuit and Evotec SE, where he worked alongside more than 100 specialists in the field as AMR Therapeutic Area Leader to manage activities across three sites. His scientific contributions have supported significant advancements in the field, including the development of novel anti-Acinetobacter baumannii compounds. Additionally, he was actively involved in the definition of experimental strategies to develop novel approaches to treat severe infections.
Following his Postdoctoral studies at the University of Liege and the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Dr Felici joined the Centre of Excellence of Drug Discovery of Glaxo Wellcome, where his work focused on the enzymology of metallo-ß-lactamases. In this role, Dr Felici led fully integrated, multi-site discovery and development projects on novel antibiotic molecules, and later established the Microbial Biochemistry Lab, which has since been implemented during the transition to GlaxoSmithKline.