GVK Biosciences has appointed Dr John Ellingboe as senior vice president, Discovery Chemistry. He will report to Manni Kantipudi, president, GVK Biosciences.

Prior to joining GVK BIO, Dr Ellingboe worked with Wyeth Research and Pfizer for 25 years in senior scientific positions and has extensive background in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. During the course of his time at Wyeth, he established a core parallel synthesis group, a lead identification group, and an integrated medicinal chemistry group working in all phases of drug discovery. His responsibilities included the identification of leads and development candidates across multiple therapeutic areas and leading a department across several research sites. The chemistry group worked closely with screening sciences, computational chemistry, X-ray crystallography, and drug safety and metabolism groups to identify optimal development candidates. While at Wyeth, he initiated and managed a large chemistry partnership with GVK BIO. Dr Ellingboe received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Reed College and a in Organic Chemistry from MIT. He has over 150 publications, presentations and patents to his name.

“As senior vice president, Discovery Chemistry, John will lead the Medicinal Chemistry efforts of various Collaborative Research programs and will play a key role in guiding the company’s future Collaborative Research efforts,” said, G V Sanjay Reddy, managing director, GVK Biosciences.

“GVK BIO is making significant investments to further strengthen its Collaborative Research capabilities. The company is working on several collaborative research projects with Big Pharma and we look forward to John’s rich experience in Medicinal Chemistry and Discovery to guide these programs,” said Dr J B Gupta, senior vice president, Collaborative Research & Biology.