Synthetic Methods in Drug Discovery

David Blakemore has spent his entire career in the pharmaceutical industry. Following his post-docs in Cambridge and Paris, he joined Warner-Lambert as a Group Leader in the Discovery Chemistry group.  In 2001, he joined Pfizer in Sandwich and is currently the Synthesis Lead for the World-Wide Medicinal Chemistry Group at Pfizer Neusentis. Part of David’s role is in liaising with academics to highlight key areas of chemistry that could be of real value to the pharmaceutical industry and to develop interactions in those areas. Paul Doyle has spent his entire career at the interface of chemistry and biology in the service of drug discovery. After his first degree in chemistry at Oxford, Paul completed his D.Phil. at the University of Sussex studying bio-organic synthetic chemistry. He spent a 15-year early career in a wide variety of therapeutic discovery programmes at the Wellcome Foundation before establishing one of the first UK discovery CROs, Biofocus. In 2008, Paul joined Peakdale as CEO. Yvette Fobian has spent the majority of her career in the pharmaceutical industry. After completing her PhD and spending a year in Monsanto’s Corporate Research, she joined the Medicinal Chemistry Group in Searle/Monsanto in 1997 and ultimately Pfizer in 2003 following a series of mergers and acquisitions. In her most current role, Yvette is in an excellent position to see first-hand the needs and impact of synthetic enablement for both small and large scale delivery within the discovery team.

Lithium, Magnesium, and Copper:  Contemporary Applications of Organometallic Chemistry in the Pharmaceutical Industry; C-N Bond Formation via Hydrogen Transfer; Synthesis of Sulfonamides; Asymmetric Methods and Their Use in the Pharmaceutical Industry; Fluorination Approaches; The Development of Csp3-Csp2 Coupling Methodology; Catalytic Amide Bond Forming Methods; Accessing Novel Molecular Motifs and Monomers