Hikal Ltd., the preferred long-term outsourcing partner for leading global life sciences and specialty chemicals companies today announced the appointment of Dr Vadiraj Ekkundi as the head of its R&D facility in Bangalore.

Dr Ekkundi comes with over 26 years of experience in the field of R&D activities. His experience encompasses a mix of scientific, technical as well as managerial roles. He has occupied various top level positions in leading multinational companies such as Hindustan Lever Limited, Wyeth Laboratories, Atul Products Limited, and Ciba group to name a few.

Dr Ekkundi has done his MSc from Dharwad University and PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He has also done his Post Doctoral Research from the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Braunschweig, Germany and the Boston College, USA.

"We are pleased to have Dr Ekkundi join us. Dr Ekkundi’s expertise and strong leadership capabilities will add immense value to our R&D processes and business," said Jai Hiremath, vice chairman and managing director, Hikal.

The Hikal R&D Center in Bangalore provides process research of APIs, AIs and intermediates involving multi-step synthesis. It has a successful track record in developing non-infringing processes and scaling up from lab to kilo to commercialization