CV6 Therapeutics Named Innovative Company of the Year at the 2026 AIB Business Eye Awards

Dr. Karl A. Mulligan, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of CV6 Therapeutics, left, and Dr. Robert D. Ladner, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, with the 2026 AIB Business Eye Innovative Company of the Year award.

CV6 Therapeutics has been named Innovative Company of the Year at the 2026 AIB Business Eye Awards, held at ICC Belfast.

CV6 Founder and CEO Dr. Robert D. Ladner also received Highly Commended recognition in the Business Personality of the Year category, one of the event’s headline awards.

Now in their 20th year, the AIB Business Eye Awards recognize achievement, innovation, leadership and entrepreneurial success across Northern Ireland’s business community. The Innovative Company of the Year category, sponsored by Queen’s Business School, recognizes significant innovation in products, services or processes that has produced demonstrable gains for a Northern Ireland-based company.

CV6 was recognized for its work developing first-in-class investigational medicines for cancer and inflammatory diseases. Its lead oncology program, CV6-168, was developed in Belfast and is now being evaluated in a multicenter, first-in-human Phase 1a clinical trial involving patients at cancer centers in Belfast and across the UK.

Dr. Ladner’s Highly Commended recognition acknowledged his leadership in advancing CV6’s original science into clinical development and attracting international expertise and investment to a Belfast-headquartered biotechnology company. The Business Personality of the Year category was sponsored by Ardmore Group.

“Receiving this award in Belfast is particularly meaningful. We chose to build CV6 here because we believed in the quality of Northern Ireland’s scientists and its potential to become internationally recognized for drug discovery and development. Innovation in our field requires persistence, collaboration and people prepared to keep solving difficult problems. This recognition belongs to the entire team that has brought our work from scientific discovery into patients.”

Dr. Robert D. Ladner
Founder and CEO, CV6 Therapeutics

CV6 Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Karl A. Mulligan joined Dr. Ladner at the ceremony.

“To be named Innovative Company of the Year is meaningful recognition of a team that has been willing to think differently and persevere. Seeing science developed in a Belfast laboratory advance into clinical trials and be evaluated in patients has already made our unique path worthwhile. Patients are the reason we do this work, and they remain at the center of everything that comes next.”

Karl A. Mulligan
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, CV6 Therapeutics

CV6 thanks Business Eye and title partner AIB for bringing together Northern Ireland’s business community, as well as Queen’s Business School and Ardmore Group for sponsoring the two categories in which CV6 and Dr. Ladner were recognized. We also congratulate all the finalists and winners whose work reflects the strength and range of business being built across Northern Ireland.