Sai Life Sciences has announced the appointment of Dr Dean Edney as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Process Research and Development. An accomplished scientific leader and industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in small molecule pharmaceutical process and product development, Dean Edney will split his time between the company’s R&D centre in Hyderabad, India and the new R&D facility in Alderley Park, Manchester, UK.
Making the announcement, CEO and Managing Director of Sai Life Sciences, Krishna Kanumuri said, “We are delighted to welcome Dean on board Sai Life Sciences as we open our new Process R&D facility in Manchester, UK. His joining strengthens our vision of creating a world-class, global process R&D organisation that applies cutting-edge scientific approaches and technology to rapidly deliver high-quality scientific output irrespective of the geographical location.”
As part of its organisation-wide transformation initiative, Sai Nxt, the company aspires to enhance its Process Research & Development (PR&D) capability allowing customers to accelerate their research and development programmes and deliver commercial products through the rapid application of high-quality science to all areas of API process research, development and manufacturing. It will achieve this by combining expertise in rapid, cost effective, process optimisation and scale-up in Hyderabad with expertise in application of new technology and parallel and statistical approaches to process development in Manchester into a single global PR&D organisation.
Commenting on his appointment, Dean Edney said, “I am incredibly excited to be joining Sai Life Sciences at a time of significant investment and growth. My aim is to ensure that the investment in facilities and technology is matched by investment in people and capability, thereby accelerating our clients’ ability to deliver new medicines to patients.”
Previously, over a 25-year career at GlaxoSmithKline, Dean demonstrated a strong track record of cross-functional leadership to deliver projects and develop capability across all phases of API process research and development, from early non-clinical supply and route scouting through to validation of commercial control strategies. Dean received his BSc in Chemistry and PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Nottingham, UK.