Dr. Yonghua Gai is Senior Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry. He joined Pharmaron in 2010. Prior to this, Dr. Gai held various senior scientific positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Enanta Pharmaceuticals, where he made key contributions to many 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, preclinical development and drug candidates selection. Dr. Gai and his colleagues discovered and developed 5 compounds which advanced to clinical trials, and two of them have been marketed products for the treatment of HCV.
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 near 60 issued patents/patent applications and peer-reviewed scientific publications.