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AMRI Promotes Takeshi Yura, Ph.D., to Vice President of Discovery and Development Services, Asia
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Integrated Leadership of Singapore and India Strengthens SMARTSOURCING™
Platform
Albany, NY (February 25, 2013)
— AMRI announced today that it has promoted Takeshi
Yura, Ph.D., to Vice President of Discovery and Development Services, Asia. Dr. Yura will report directly to Thomas
E. D’Ambra, Ph.D., Chairman, President and CEO.
Dr. Yura joined AMRI in January 2011 and most recently served as Senior
Director of Drug Discovery services in Singapore, leading the chemistry and biology
teams of AMRI’s flagship Asian integrated drug discovery operations. Effective
immediately, Dr. Yura has also assumed leadership of AMRI’s Discovery and
Development efforts at AMRI’s Hyderabad, India site.
Dr. D’Ambra said, “AMRI’s Singapore and Hyderabad operations are important and
growing businesses for AMRI and conduct projects for customers located all over
the world. With the ongoing evolution of outsourcing and a growing focus from
customers on strategic relationships, we believe that Dr. Yura’s leadership,
his focus on excellence in scientific research and his dedication to quality
and the integrity of our customers’ intellectual property will provide
integration under one leadership of what we are referring to as ‘AMRI Asia.’ This
new alignment will enable seamless transfer and execution of projects within and between sites to consistent high standards and provide
more effective project management and development of key talent.”
Dr. D’Ambra added, “We have a growing international customer base in Singapore
that has been looking to utilize the synergies of that location with our custom
library, discovery chemistry, development, analytical and kilo scale
capabilities at Hyderabad. When you also consider our large scale manufacturing
capabilities in Aurangabad, AMRI Asia is now equipped to seamlessly serve our
customers from early discovery to large scale production in this newest
application of our SMARTSOURCING™ strategy.”
Dr. Yura brings to this role more than 22 years of scientific and leadership
experience in discovery research, project management and business development. Before
joining AMRI, he was a director at Dishman Japan Ltd., responsible for sales
and all business development activities for contract manufacturing services. Before
that, he served as discovery chemistry research head at Pfizer Japan, dedicated
primarily to the areas of pain and gastrointestinal drug discovery. Prior to
Pfizer, he served as section head, medicinal chemistry at Bayer Yakuhin in
Japan focused on urology and asthma. He has held additional scientific roles at
both Ciba Geigy Japan and Tanabe Seiyaku. Dr. Yura obtained a Ph.D. in
synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Tokyo, working with Professor
Teruaki Mukaiyama until his retirement and with Professor Koichi Narasaka. He also holds an M.B.A. from the Temple
University Tokyo.
About AMRI
Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (AMRI) is a global contract research and
manufacturing organization offering customers fully integrated drug discovery,
development and manufacturing services. For over 21 years, AMRI has
demonstrated its adaptability as the pharmaceutical and biotechnology
industries have undergone tremendous change in response to multiple challenges.
This experience, a track record of success and locations in the United States,
Europe and Asia now provides our customers with SMARTSOURCING™, a full range of value-added opportunities
providing customers informed decision-making, enhanced efficiency and more
successful outcomes at all stages of the pipeline. AMRI has also successfully
partnered R&D programs and is actively seeking to out-license its remaining
programs for further development. For more information about AMRI, please visit
our website at www.amriglobal.com or follow us on Twitter (@amriglobal).
About Singapore Research Centre, Pte. Ltd.
In Singapore, AMRI provides
integrated chemistry and biology services to support drug discovery programs.
The Singapore site specializes in all medicinal chemistry services, such as
hit-to-lead and lead optimization services, and also serves as AMRI’s global biology
center. In the area of biology/in vitro
pharmacology, the Centre provides target validation; assay development; HTS;
rapid production of SAR quality data; and in
vitro ADMET support, including CYP inhibition, metabolic stability (liver
microsome assays), and aqueous solubility. As a signatory to the World Patent
Treaty, Singapore provides an environment that stringently protects
intellectual property, enabling our scientists to conduct proprietary and
cutting-edge research on behalf of our customers.
About
AMRI India Operations
In India, AMRI offers cost-competitive
chemical synthesis and kilo lab work, as well as a reliable, large-scale
manufacturing source for starting materials and intermediates. AMRI established
its presence in India in 2007. Since that time, capabilities have been built in
the areas of chemical synthesis and manufacturing, keeping AMRI’s core values
of Safety, Quality and Customer Satisfaction and Service at the forefront of
the Company’s business objectives. Today, AMRI in India has significant
capabilities and capacity across the Custom Research and Manufacturing Services
(CRAMS) space. AMRI’s Global Project Management Team has access to the
extensive experience and capabilities of all of the Company’s global locations,
and can tap into the collective problem solving and brainpower of industry
experienced managers as needed. Numerous projects are in progress or have been
completed using this integrated model, and AMRI’s operations in Hyderabad and
Aurangabad, India, are especially well-suited to be a centerpiece of a global
project team.
Contacts
Investors: Michael Nolan, AMRI Chief Financial Officer, 518-512-2261
Media: Gina Monari, AMRI Communications, 518-512-2512
