CAMBRIDGE, England, October 31, 2018 (Newswire.com) –RxCelerate, one of the leading out-sourced drug discovery and development platforms in the United Kingdom, announced today it has opened UK-based chemistry operations at The University of Warwick. The new operation will be led by Dr Nigel Ramsden, who joins RxCelerate on a full-time basis as Executive Vice President, Chemistry Operations, working closely with Dr David Fox in the Department of Chemistry at Warwick.
RxCelerate has previously offered small molecule discovery services through a network of expert consultants, collaborators and partnerships with contract research organisations in the UK, US, India and China. The new UK-based operation represents a significant expansion in capacity, but also allows RxCelerate to work on synthetic routes too challenging for out-sourcing.
“Investing in a chemistry operation in the UK compliments our business model,” said Dr Jill Reckless, CEO of RxCelerate. “This capability allows us to offer timely chemical and analytical solutions to our clients where tighter control over experimental execution is required.”
“I am excited by the opportunity to join a rapidly expanding business, with a unique ability to deliver solutions to challenging problems in medicinal chemistry, scale-up synthesis and analytics” said Dr Nigel Ramsden, who earned his stripes as a medicinal chemist during a decade-long stint at GlaxoSmithKline before joining Cellzome, where he was responsible for developing drug discovery pipelines in Alzheimer’s Disease and inflammatory diseases.
Dr David Fox, Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, said, “We have delivered numerous chemical solutions, from chemical probes and clinical candidates to scalable process routes to RxCelerate and its clients over a number of years and are delighted that they have made this investment to expand and develop the relationship further.” Professor Mike Ward, Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick, added, “We are delighted to see this new partnership between RxCelerate and Warwick’s chemistry department. Close links between academia and industry are of ever-increasing importance as they allow exciting new science to be translated into real-world impact and benefit to society as quickly and effectively as possible and we look forward to seeing the fruits of this new partnership.”
RxCelerate operates a unique model, allowing clients to out-source complete drug discovery and development programs to a team of world-class drug developers obviating the need for internal expertise usually required when out-sourcing to contract research organisations. Founded in 2012, the company initially built its reputation on the quality of its preclinical models of human diseases, but rapidly expanded to offer a comprehensive, turnkey drug discovery and development solution.
Following the acquisition of Cambridge-based Total Scientific in May this year, RxCelerate gained in-house GxP capabilities, as well as the world’s most extensive commercial Phenome-Wide Association Study (PheWAS) platform.
“Opening a chemistry operation in the UK strengthens further the unique RxCelerate offering,” said Founder and Chairman, Dr David Grainger. “Nigel Ramsden and David Fox are two talented drug discoverers, marrying extensive commercial experience with strong academic chemistry credentials. Together they can tackle any problem, however tough, and deliver high-value solutions to our clients in a timely fashion.”