SYNthesis med chem names European chief

Melbourne-headquartered CRO SYNthesis med chem has appointed a new European operations chief to support its expansion in the region.

The company has named Dr Nigel Ramsden as vice president of medicinal chemistry and head of European operations.

Ramsden will be based out of the company’s new facility at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, which opened in September.

He joins SYNthesis from Cellzome, where he was head of drug discovery. Cellzome was recently acquired by GlaxoSmithKline for £61 million ($105.3 million).

“During my time at Cellzome I employed SYNthesis med chem as our major chemistry CRO and I was impressed by their ability to deliver complex synthetic routes to tight timelines and to impact on the design of molecules,” Ramsden said.

“When I was offered the opportunity to help with their development plans, I was delighted to accept.”

SYNthesis’s business model involves combining Western medicinal chemistry expertise with cost-effective and scalable synthetic chemistry capacity from China. The company has labs in Melbourne and Shanghai as well as its new UK facility.