Dr. Bruce Sargent joined AMRI in 2001, bringing over 20 years of drug discovery experience from Boots Pharmaceuticals in the UK (latterly Knoll Ltd., the UK division of BASF Pharma), where he was Head of Chemistry. While there, he managed research projects in several therapeutic areas, with a particular focus on CNS and metabolic diseases. During his career, Dr. Sargent and his team delivered twelve compounds into advanced preclinical testing, nine of which reached Phase I human clinical testing. In particular, Dr. Sargent was closely involved with the discovery and development of the anti-obesity agent sibutramine (Meridia®/Reductil®). In addition to scientific and departmental management responsibilities, Dr. Sargent had strategic involvement in portfolio, licensing, M&A and collaborative activities. Dr. Sargent’s involvement at Knoll was international, managing groups in Spain and India and collaborating extensively with groups in Germany and the USA.

Dr. Sargent joined AMRI as a Director of Medicinal Chemistry and held responsibility for several customer relationships, covering a wide range of therapeutic approaches. In 2003, Dr. Sargent moved from Medicinal Chemistry services to become Vice President of Discovery R&D, establishing AMRI’s internal drug discovery group and taking responsibility for AMRI’s in vitro biology, metabolism & biotransformations and natural product operations. In this role, Dr. Sargent held responsibility for AMRI’s own R&D portfolio and for discovery-phase strategic collaborations and partnerships. During his time in this role, AMRI announced a strategic license deal of its CNS program and several strategic natural product collaborations. AMRI has also announced the progression of internal programs to candidate status, now moving toward first in human (phase I) studies.  Most recently, Dr. Sargent was appointed to Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery and leads AMRI's Global Drug Discovery organization.

Dr. Sargent is a member of the American Chemical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He obtained his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Cambridge and his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester. Dr. Sargent is named as an inventor on multiple patents and responsible for several publications and presentations.