Martelet departs NetScientific

François Martelet (pictured) yesterday resigned as chief executive of UK-based commercialisation firm NetScientific to pursue other career opportunities and help the embattled company balance its finances.
Martelet will leave the company on April 30 under the terms of his contract. He is to be replaced by Ian Postlethwaite, the chief financial officer at NetScientific, who will discharge the duties of both roles going forward.
Martelet has led NetScientific since 2015, serving as executive chairman over his tenure for the company’s four diagnostics-focused portfolio companies – Wanda, Vortex Biosciences, Glycotest and ProAxis.
Wanda and Vortex, both spinouts of University of California, Los Angeles, were offloaded to investment firm EMV Capital in March 2019, to concentrate NetScientific’s remaining resources on ProAxis and Glycotest, respective spinouts of Queen’s University Belfast and the Baruch S Blumberg Institute together with Drexel University, as well as therapeutics-orientated PDS Biotechnology.
Earlier in his career, Martelet spent roughly one year at biopharmaceutical firm Stallergenes Greer as senior adviser to the CEO and to the interim senior vice-president of its international division. He was also chief executive of oncology businesses TopoTarget from 2010 until 2012 and of Avax Technologies between 2007 and 2009.
NetScientific delisted from the Aim stock exchange in February 2019 after announcing a shortfall of at least $4.8m, in terms of projected costs and cash resources, at the end of 2018. Wanda and Vortex’s sale has since reduced the deficit, but NetScientific must still work to contain annual central costs then forecast at $2.6m.
– Image courtesy of LinkedIn