Yonghua Gai, Ph.D.

 

Dr. Yonghua Gai is Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Pharmaron. Before joining Pharmaron in July 2010, Dr. Gai held various senior scientific positions in Bristol-Myers Squibb and Enanta Pharmaceuticals. He brings in over 16 years experience in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. At BMS and Enanta, Dr. Gai made key contributions to a number of medicinal chemistry programs in Infectious Diseases (antiviral, antibacterial), Immunology & Inflammation and CNS. His expertise and skills include hits identification, hit-to-lead, lead optimization, chemical process, pre-clinical development and drug candidates selection. Dr. Gai and his colleagues discovered and developed 4 compounds (in different therapeutic areas) which advanced to clinical trials.

 

Dr. Gai received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from University of Hangzhou, M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC) under the supervision of Professor Yongzheng Hui, and his Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry from University Pierre & Marie Curie (Paris, France) under the supervision of Professor Marc Julia. He then did his postdoctoral research with Professor Stephen Hanessian at University of Montreal (Montreal, Canada) before starting his industrial career. Dr. Gai is a co-inventor/co-author of more than 55 issued patents/patent applications and peer-reviewed scientific publications.