Professor Paul Rolan

Professor Paul Rolan MD, FRACP, FFPM (UK), FFPMANZCA

Clinical Pharmacologist, Drug Development Consultant

Paul is a clinical pharmacologist, drug developer and pain management physician. After obtaining specialist qualifications in general medicine and clinical pharmacology he spent two years as Director of Medicine at Cairns Base Hospital. Subsequently Paul joined the pharmaceutical industry in the UK, initially working for Wellcome Research Laboratories where he was Head of Clinical Pharmacokinetics. In 1994 he became Medical Director of Medeval, a clinical pharmacology contract research organisation spun out of the University of Manchester.

Under Paul’s leadership, Medeval became the largest clinical pharmacology contract research organisation in the United Kingdom. He was part of a management buy out team of the Company from the University and a subsequent trade sale three years later to ICON Clinical Research. He has been Principal Investigator in over 700 clinical research studies and has been an active Consultant, both to the pharmaceutical industry as well as an invited speaker to the FDA.

Paul returned to the University of Adelaide in 2005 as Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and in 2014 was also Head of the School of Medical Sciences in 2014. He left the University in 2014 to take a full time post in the pharmaceutical industry and returned to the University as Director Of Innovation in 2016. His major clinical and academic interest is in chronic pain and headache, focusing on the development of biomarkers, evaluation of novel therapies and mechanisms of disease. Paul continues to advise on drug development for the international pharmaceutical industry including roles such as Chief Medical Officer and Director of Drug Development. Paul continues to work clinically in headache and pain management in both the public and private sectors.