Speedel Experimenta AG fully established - starts its medicinal chemistry program

05.09.2002

Basel/Switzerland, September 2, 2002 - The Speedel Group, a pharmaceutical company, active in cardiovascular and metabolic drug development, based in Basel, Switzerland, announced today the opening of its lab facilities at the Innovation Center in Allschwil and the start of its medicinal chemistry activities.

Speedel Experimenta, a member of the Speedel Group, operates in the field of medicinal chemistry and focuses on synthesis and lead optimizations. Its mission is to expand Speedel's Business through own experimental activities: to optimize the synthesis of development compounds and identify potential development candidates by chemical lead optimization.

The Team is headed by Dimitrios Goundis, Managing Director, who has a degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Oxford (UK) and diversified management experience gained through previous positions held at Roche, the Medicines Company and Speedel Pharma AG. Peter Herold, a PhD in Organic Chemistry, is the Director of Chemistry. He has wide-ranging experience in drug discovery, medicinal chemistry and project leadership, acquired in various positions at Ciba-Geigy, Novartis and Solvias AG. He was awarded "Hero of Chemistry 2000" by the American Chemical Society for his contributions to the discovery of ®Diovan, a cardiovascular blockbuster of Novartis. Senior scientists, who are experts in medicinal chemistry and molecular modeling, include Robert Mah, Stefan Stutz and Vincenzo Tschinke.

Outstanding Scientific Advisory Board

The activities of Speedel Experimenta are guided and challenged by a world class Scientific Advisory Board, uniting outstanding experts in chemistry and biology. The mos recent addition to the Scientific Advisory Board are: Prof. Royi Noyori, University of Nagoya, Japan, Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner in 2001, and Prof. Markus Grütter, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Zürich, an expert in crystallography and rational drug design.

Initially, Speedel Experimenta will focus its lead optimization efforts on renin inhibitors, an area where Speedel has established a leadership position with both the development of Aliskiren (SPP100) and the acquisition of Roche's renin inhibition know-how.

"Our team has carefully developed the first project flowchart and prepared the set-up of our state of-the-art laboratories at the Innovation Center In Allschwil over the last months. We are enthusiastic that the first experimental activities at the bench could start as scheduled", commented Dimitrios Goundis and Peter Herold at the opening ceremony. "We will expand Speedel's business opportunities by combining entrepreneurial spirit and efficiency with the use of modern chemistry know-how for synthesis optimization and, importantly, the identification of additional development candidates. To Speedel's known "passion for development", we add Eperimenta's " passion for medicinal chemistry".

https://www.bionity.com/de/news/13794/speedel-experimenta-ag-fully-established-starts-its-medicinal-chemistry-program.html