David Roblin

David Roblin is a distinguished physician-scientist, drug developer, and life sciences executive with over 30 years of experience in drug R&D, contributing to the development of 11 approved medicines. He is the founding CEO of Relation, a company that deploys AI and high-resolution biology to transform the understanding of disease and develop a portfolio of transformational medicines. In the last 24 months, Relation has signed collaborations with total upfront and research milestones of over $250 million, alongside several billion in potential downstream milestones.

Prior to Relation, David served as President of R&D at Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT), a multibillion-dollar, publicly traded, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. Earlier, as COO at the Francis Crick Institute (Crick), he led the launch of the UK's flagship biomedical research institute, building a cross-sector translational ecosystem that established extensive industry and clinical partnerships, achieved direct patient impact, and delivered 15 spin-out companies that collectively raised over £1.5 billion in follow-on financing. He remains Senior Fellow of Scientific Translation at the Crick. Before Crick, he spent over 20 years in pharma at Bayer and Pfizer, where he was SVP and Head of European R&D.

Beyond Relation, David is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and the Academy of Medical Sciences, and holds honorary professorships at St George's and Swansea University. He also serves as Non-Executive Director of Nxera Pharma (TSE: 4565.T) and Chair of Centauri Therapeutics.