The award, presented by Medicines New Zealand, takes a broad view of success and is designed to recognise and celebrate the efforts of an established New Zealand researcher who has made a significant scientific or clinical contribution to the development of innovative medicines or vaccines.
This year’s award recognises Professor Furneaux for a distinguished career that has translated New Zealand scientific excellence into the discovery and development of new medicines. His contributions to carbohydrate chemistry and drug discovery have advanced pharmaceutical innovation both nationally and internationally.
Professor Furneaux is a distinguished scientist at the University’s Te Kāuru—Ferrier Research Institute. His particular interest is in carbohydrate chemistry, glycotherapeutics and their development through-to-manufacture for clinical trials. With extensive experience in research commercialisation, Professor Furneaux is named as an inventor on 22 international patent families, many licenced for commercialisation. “At Ferrier, we continue to advance a range of innovative small-molecule and RNA therapeutics that have the potential to make a real difference to patients worldwide,” he says.
He has published extensively in internationally reputed journals and collaborated with partners both within New Zealand and overseas. This includes a 32-year collaboration with Professor Vern Schramm, Department of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, which led to the drug Mundesine®, approved in Japan for treatment for a T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of cancer related to white blood cells.
Professor Furneaux says it is an honour to be recognised by Medicines New Zealand.
“I’ve served on the selection panel for the Innovation Jump Start Award, which supports outstanding early-career researchers. Medicines New Zealand has created an exemplary selection process that combines rigour with direct engagement between applicants and the panel. The opportunity to hear first-hand about the aspirations and achievements of emerging researchers has been both enlightening and deeply inspiring.”
A Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, he was inducted into the BioTechNZ Hall of Fame in 2026, and serves on the GlycoSyn–Ferrier collaboration team and the Canadian Glycomics Network (GlycoNet) Research Management Committee.
Previous recipients of the Award for Excellence in Innovative Medicines Research, which has been celebrated since 2022, include Professor Peter Browett, Professor Ed Gane, Professor Dame Margaret Brimble and Professor Richard Robson.
Professor Furneaux received the award at a ceremony held in Parliament on Wednesday 19 August.