Pharma People

Orchid ropes in Dr Gopalan to head its drug discovery initiatives

Our News Bureau - Chennai

Chennai-based pharmaceutical major Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals recently announced that it has appointed Dr B Gopalan, an industry stalwart in the area of pharma R&D to head its drug discovery and development activities.

Dr Gopalan will be designated as Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Orchid Research Laboratories, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Orchid focused on New Drug Discovery activities.

Dr Gopalan's achievements in the area of new chemical entity (NCE) research have been well acclaimed. With over 33 years of experience in the R&D space, Dr Gopalan brings with him a rich knowledge base spanning all areas of R&D like chemistry, biology and patents among others. A doctorate in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Madras, Dr Gopalan has an impeccable record of identifying lead molecules and taking them right through to the licensing stage. He also has several worldwide patents and publications to his credit.

According to a company note, prior to joining Orchid, Dr Gopalan held leadership positions in leading pharma companies like Syntex Research and Bristol-Myers Squibb in the US and Sun Pharma, Glaxo, Glenmark and Matrix in India. Dr Gopalan also had a two year stint of post-doctoral work at Harvard University with Professor E J Corey, a Nobel Laureate.

Dr Gopalan's scientific leadership coupled with the company's state-of-the-art infrastructure and diversified NCE pipeline, will be sure to make Orchid Research Labs a formidable drug discovery entity in the global pharma space.