From culture to clinic: Alison Mason on making science work at scale

“We’re doing real science. For real people. And we’re doing it together. That’s what matters most to me.”

The science behind cell culture and fermentation rarely makes headlines. But without it, no treatment would reach a patient. Alison Mason knows this better than most. She leads the cell line and upstream process development team and provides chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) leadership to support the biologics pipeline at Ipsen, helping turn early-stage science into ready-to-use clinical material.

Her work at Ipsen’s Wrexham site includes one of the company’s largest clinical development programs. “It’s a complex molecule, and we manufacture it in-house,” she explains. “We’ve developed the process from early development through to late-stage clinical production.”

Alison’s role blends precision and persistence. “You need to make sure the yield is right. The quality is consistent. That each batch can be trusted. And when something’s off, you fix it—not alone, but with the team.”

This mindset carries into her work on partnered assets too. She leads CMC input for several discovery-stage oncology candidates, including those from Ipsen’s collaboration with Marengo Therapeutics. “The partnership is really energizing,” she says. “We bring complementary skills to the table, and the science is pushing boundaries.”

What Alison values most are the people who work together to make Ipsen innovation happen. “You can have the best plan, but without the right people, it goes nowhere,” she says. “Here, at Ipsen, we have a team that shows up for the work and for each other.”