Etienne Cousin
Life Sciences · Strategy & Operations · London
About
I’m a London-based life sciences strategist and operator interested in how scientific innovation becomes investable, scalable, and clinically useful.
I studied Biology at Oxford and Biotechnology at Imperial before spending four years in life sciences strategy consulting, mostly at L.E.K. Consulting. There, I worked across biopharma, medtech, and healthcare on growth strategy, commercial due diligence, and market access.
I now work as Head of Strategy & Operations at PreComb Therapeutics, a Series A precision oncology startup using patient-derived tumour microtissues to support drug discovery and translational research. I joined as an early commercial hire and have since worked across fundraising, board materials, investor reporting, partnerships, commercial execution, and strategic transactions.
My interests sit at the intersection of science, data, capital allocation, and execution. I’m particularly interested in AI-enabled drug discovery, the quality of the experimental systems behind it, and the clinical and industrial bottlenecks that determine whether better science actually leads to better medicines.
This site is a home for my writing, projects, and notes on those themes. Outside of work, I’m usually reading or playing racquet sports.
Experience
Jan 2025 — present
Head of Strategy & Operations
PreComb Therapeutics · London / Zurich
Early commercial hire at a VC-backed Series A precision oncology startup using patient-derived tumour microtissues to support drug discovery and translational research. Work across fundraising, investor materials, board reporting, commercial partnerships, revenue generation, strategic transactions, and day-to-day operations.
Nov 2023 — Dec 2024
Founder / Independent Consultant
Independent practice · Asia / London
Built an independent consulting practice from scratch after moving to Asia, learning how to sell work, write proposals, win clients, and deliver without institutional support. Worked with founders, startups, investors, and corporates across strategy, fundraising, commercial diligence, preclinical development planning, competitive analysis, and go-to-market. Particular focus on early-stage life sciences and biotech companies translating technical science into fundable commercial stories.
2020 — 2023
Life Sciences Strategy Consultant
L.E.K. Consulting & CB Partners · London
Advised biopharma, medtech, healthcare services, and investor clients across growth strategy, pricing and market access, commercial due diligence, and market entry. Learned how to structure ambiguous scientific and commercial questions, pressure-test assumptions quickly, and turn imperfect evidence into clear recommendations for senior decision-makers.
Education
2019 – 2020
MSc Biotechnology
Imperial College London
2016 – 2019
BA Biology
University of Oxford
Writing
Projects
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Project
Trialscope
— Clinical trials intelligence tool with ontology-driven synonym expansion across ~6,000 disease subtype mappings · GitHub