Vice President

Discovery Chemistry

Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc.

Biography: As Vice President of Discovery Chemistry at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. in Nutley, N.J., Dr. Nader Fotouhi manages the activities of Medicinal Chemistry, Combinatorial Chemistry, Biostructure, Physical, and analytical chemistry, as well as the activities of the New Leads Chemistry Initiative, which is part of a global effort in Lead Generation. His areas of focus include Oncology, Metabolic Diseases, Inflammation and Autoimmune diseases. His research interests have focused on enzyme inhibition and protein-protein interaction, and they include matrix metalloproteases for the treatment of osteoarthritis, cell-adhesion molecules for the treatment of Asthma, transplant rejection, and psoriasis, as well as cell-cycle regulation for the treatment of solid tumors. He has held leadership roles on 2 drug discovery projects, and has been a member of an international life cycle management team responsible for the development of a cell-cycle inhibitor currently in clinical trials. He is a member of the Senior Management team in Nutley, and chairs a core senior management team that sets project priorities and resource allocation. He is also a member of the Roche Global Chemistry Team, which develops global chemistry strategies. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, and held a postdoctoral position from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The economic pressures placed on the Pharmaceutical industry to generate new chemical entities have resulted in a drive to shorten drug discovery cycle times, and to reduce the attrition rate, and thus reduce cost. In addition, the wealth of knowledge that is being generated from Biology will impose even greater pressures on the Medicinal Chemist to come up with more selective, efficacious, and safe molecules. The increasing number of potential targets that may lead to novel therapeutics necessitates a more parallel approach in lead identification and lead optimization. Ultra-high throughput screening, virtual screening, predictive technologies, and reduction of vast amounts of data to knowledge to drive decision making will undoubtedly play key roles in our ability to more quickly and effectively increase the odds of drug discovery. To further enhance the likelihood of success, virtualization of research, and organizational flexibility are also an essential component of drug discovery.