SHANGHAI, Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Sundia MediTech Company, a leading CRO service company in China, announced today that Dr. Xiaochuan Wang has resigned as Chairman of the Board due to health reasons. Ms Cathy Yen, Sundia’s current CEO, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Board and Dr. Chen Chen, Sundia’s Senior Vice President for more than two years, has been appointed as the new CEO. The company also announced the addition of Dr. Chen Chen and Mr. Yusuke Oku as two new members to the Board.
Dr. Xiaochuan Wang submitted her resignation to the Board earlier this month following her doctor’s advice and recommended Dr. Chen Chen to join the board and become the new CEO. “We have been searching for years to find the right person to lead Sundia after me and we think Chen is a good fit. I feel very fortunate that he decided to come on board with us”, said Dr. Xiaochuan Wang.
Dr. Chen Chen has served as Sundia’s Senior Vice President since 2009. “Chen brings invaluable expertise as we work to anticipate and meet our customers’ evolving needs for CRO capabilities,’' Said Dr. Xiaochuan Wang, “With over 19 years of experience in Medicinal Chemistry, Drug development and asset management, Chen’s extraordinary vision and leadership will guide Sundia to be the most innovative and valuable CRO company. The Board has complete confidence that Chen is the right person to be our next CEO,” added Ms Cathy Yen.
Prior to joining Sundia, Dr. Chen worked at Neurocrine Biosciences, a drug discovery and development company in San Diego, USA for 15 years. He served as the Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry for over four years and Project Manager for several drug discovery programs. In his research and management positions at Neurocrine, Dr. Chen achieved many outstanding scientific and industrial accomplishments, including the development of two small molecule antagonists, NBI-42902 and elagolix (aka NBI-56418), of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor into clinical studies. Elagolix, the most advanced in this class, is currently finishing Phase II trials by Abbott/Neurocrine for the treatment of endometriosis. Dr. Chen is responsible for the design, synthesis and development of NBI-30775 (R121919), a small molecule antagonist of the corticotrophin-releasing factor receptor as the first-in-class compound advanced into clinical trials for depression/anxiety. Dr. Chen also led the GPR-119 agonist project that resulted in the discovery of several potent lead compounds. All these projects resulted in the collaboration of Neurocrine with international pharmaceutical companies. In addition, Dr. Chen successfully led several other research projects, including the discovery of NBI-31772, the first small molecule inhibitor for the insulin-like growth factor-I/IGF-binding protein. Dr. Chen has extensive experience in CNS drug research and GPCRs as drug targets. His knowledge also includes neuropathic pain and metabolic disorders. His research interests extend to clinic and pre-clinic pharmacokinetics of small molecules and the relationship with their chemical properties.
Dr. Chen received his Ph.D. degree from the prestigious Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry under the supervision of the late Professor Yao-Zeng Huang, member of the Chinese Academy of Science. He also obtained his postdoctoral training with Professor Sir Derek H. R. Barton, a Nobel Laureate at Texas A&M University in the USA. Dr. Chen has so far published near 130 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals such as J. Am. Chem. Soc., J. Org. Chem., J. Med. Chem., and J. Biol. Chem. He has written numerous review articles on the topics of drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. He is the co-inventor of over 25 US patents. He has been invited to give presentations in numerous scientific conferences such as the Gorden Conference of Medicinal Chemistry and the ACS National Meeting.
“The position of Chief Executive Officer of Sundia is an outstanding opportunity to lead a company with a promising future,’' said Dr. Chen Chen. " I will make the utmost efforts to ensure that Sundia becomes a leading integrated pharmaceutical CRO company and provide high-end CRO services with rich R&D content to our customers and partners.”
“I will continue to focus on the company’s long term vision and strategic opportunities. I am very excited to work with Chen as we strive to continually build an exceptional company”, said Ms. Cathy Yen. ''I want to personally thank Xiaochuan for her contributions in the past 8 years. Her accomplishments and achievements have successfully enabled Sundia to position itself for next stage of growth.”
As one of the founders and key executives of the company, Dr. Xiaochuan Wang made significant contribution to Sundia, guiding the company through a period of rapid growth and expansion. The Board, employees and shareholders of Sundia gratefully acknowledge her achievements. “I want our customers to be excited about what we did. I am confident that the newly appointed executive members will provide the right leadership to Sundia”, said Dr. Xiaochuan Wang. “As a board member, I will continue to work with our team to build Sundia into an even better company.”
