Qpex Biopharma’s New President Wants More Push-Pull Incentives, Opportunities for Young US Scientists

Qpex Biopharma, a Shionogi Group company, recently announced that Gareth Morgan, MS, MBA, has been appointed president. Morgan succeeds Michael Dudley, PharmD, who has retired and stepped down from his role as president and CEO. Dudley will continue to serve as a strategic advisor. Morgan was most recently senior vice president and global head of Portfolio Management and AMR Policy at Shionogi.¹

One initiative Morgan would like to see at Qpex is to hire the next generation of scientists.

“A lot of companies have gotten out of anti-infective research in the US, and we see a situation where it's harder and harder for young scientists to find opportunities,” Morgan said. “One of the things that acquiring Qpex does for, I would say, infectious disease research, is provides an opportunity for those young scientists. And Mike Dudley, in establishing the new research facility at Qpex, really has set up an opportunity for us to be able to hire some of these folks and give them opportunities.”

Despite the antibiotic market seeing continuous headwinds with its inherent challenges, Morgan also believes the proliferation of push-pull incentives could also help further antibiotic development along.

“We need governments; We need NGOs, and others to be part of the solution as well. And from the government side, we really need support with push and pull incentives...Both those things will be tremendously important to keeping companies like Qpex in the game and encouraging other companies to also get into the antibiotic development and research space,” Morgan said.

Prior to joining Shionogi in 2007, Morgan held clinical development and project management roles at large pharmaceutical companies, where he oversaw teams focusing on global and domestic registrational studies across multiple therapeutic areas. During his tenure at Shionogi, Morgan was instrumental in the company’s global siderophore cephalosporin discovery program. ¹

He has led efforts to establish several important public-private partnerships and led the establishment of a landmark license and technology transfer agreement with the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) and a collaboration agreement with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) that aim to transform access to antibiotics in low- and middle-income countries. ¹ He talks about how they were looking for partners when trying to get Shionogi’s antibiotic, cefiderocol, into low-and-middle income countries.

“Shionogi doesn't have the footprint to do that, and we looked around for partners to help. And interestingly, there was really no one single partner that we felt could do that,” Morgan said. “But when we looked at GARDP and CHAI, we found 2 organizations with great synergy, and we feel very comfortable working with GARDP and CHAI that we can actually deliver cefiderocol to low-and-middle income countries.”

Reference
1.Gareth Morgan Named President of Qpex Biopharma, Inc. Qpex Biopharma press release. October 15, 2025. Accessed October 30, 2025.
https://www.qpexbio.com/news/gareth-morgan-named-president-of-qpex-biopharma-inc/