Karen Featherstone

2024-12-12T09:32:29+00:00

Meet The Team

Dr Karen Featherstone

Karen Featherstone

PhD

Karen is a Medical Writer with extensive experience in communicating health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) through a range of market access materials. Having worked within a global contract research organisation, she has a track record of delivering high quality, evidence-based materials to clients from across the pharmaceutical industry (from the top ten global pharmaceutical companies to small biotechnology companies) and across multiple disease areas. Karen has a comprehensive understanding of clinical trial design and clinical safety data and enjoys bringing this experience and her broad scientific knowledge to the Safety Science team.

James Sidaway

2026-06-23T18:02:58+01:00

Meet The Team

Sid Apconix | ApconiX

James Sidaway

PhD

James is an experienced and innovative toxicologist, having worked for over 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry with AstraZeneca and as an independent consultant. As a molecular-investigative toxicologist, he helped resolve safety issues for a wide range of drug discovery and development projects across the major therapy areas. He has also developed advanced in vitro models for organ toxicity screening, pioneered the application of novel technology and informatics platforms and has a strong track record of delivering Target Safety Assessments (TSAs).

James leads our rapidly growing Safety Science Group that delivers Acuity TSAs and related data-oriented toxicology services and products. He enjoys developing team expertise and bringing new and diverse skillsets and capabilities to the fold, including in data science. James is a member of the HESI Working Group for the Safety of Targeted Protein Degraders and regularly publishes in peer-reviewed journals, including a 2026 article in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

Read more here

Blueberry Therapeutics

2021-06-10T14:51:59+01:00

Blueberry Therapeutics

The challenge

Blueberry Therapeutics is a dermatology biotech company developing innovative topical drugs for a range of diseases, using a novel ‘nano-delivery’ platform. This technique significantly enhances the penetration of drugs into cells and tissues. ApconiX was set the challenge to provide guidance on the most appropriate nonclinical safety studies needed to support the clinical development of Blueberry’s new treatments for fungal infection.

The solution

We worked closely with Blueberry scientists to develop an innovative strategy to support the initiation of clinical studies on their lead compound. We started by identifying the specific scientific questions that needed to be addressed and focusing on the data needed to answer them. By utilising existing information from numerous sources, we were able to build a case to present to regulatory agencies that sufficient evidence was already available to support the safe use in clinical studies.

The benefit

By performing a systematic analysis of published data, we developed a clear scientific rationale to support the proposed clinical trial design, without the need for further nonclinical studies to support ‘First time in Man’ testing.

The outcome

This work was discussed at a successful face-to-face meeting with European regulators resulting in approval for Blueberry to begin clinical testing of this novel therapeutic agent.

The Testimonial

“The support that we received from the Apconix team has been excellent and they have helped us both in developing our nonclinical safety thinking and in providing direct support for the clinical trial application. We’re looking forward to continuing our collaboration as we progress our exciting new medicines into later-stage development and hopefully the clinic”

Dr. David Cook. Chief Scientific Officer, Blueberry Therapeutics
Go to Top