Crystal Pharmatech Appoints Robert Wenslow as Vice President of Business Development

JIANGSU, CHINA, April 06, 2011 (Press-News.org) Crystal Pharmatech, the first solid state pharmaceutical research CRO in China, today announced that Robert Wenslow, Ph.D. has joined its executive committee as Vice President of Business Development, effective April 4th, 2011. Reporting directly to the CEO, Dr. Wenslow will be responsible for driving the growth of company's business, especially in the US and European markets, as well as be intimately involved in strategic planning and key decision making of the rapidly growing company. Dr. Wenslow will be based in Crystal Pharmatech's New Jersey office.

Dr. Wenslow obtained his Ph.D in physical chemistry from Pennsylvania State University. Before joining Crystal Pharmatech, he had spent 14 years at Merck with increasing responsibilities. For the last 6 years, he has been an Associate Scientific Director in charge of API physiochemical characterization for all development compounds. At his previous position, he was responsible for directing members of the characterization lab while advancing characterization tools to be utilized in pharmaceutical development. His group supported on average 30 projects per year. They contributed to salt and polymorph selection, preparation of registration documents, and specification setting in the area of solid-state characterization for both bulk drug substance and drug product. This was accomplished by providing fundamental characterization, problem solving, method development and method validation. His research involved applying novel ssNMR techniques to characterization of pharmaceutical materials with respect to problem solving. Bob has presented as invited lecturer at over 10 conferences, has published over 20 peer reviewed journal articles, and is co-author on over 10 patents.

"Leaving Merck was no easy decision" explains Robert Wenslow. "I had spent my entire professional career there and have watched solid state research evolve over the last 14 years. What truly attracted me to Crystal Pharmatech were the scientists, the innovative business model, and last but not least, the facilities. I have been involved with the core members in advancing cutting-edge science in the field of solid state characterization for over 7 years. Crystal Pharmatech labs based in Suzhou, China are truly state-of-the art. From the high throughput and high resolution X-ray Powder Diffractometer (XRPD) to the modulated Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), from the latest model of Raman Microscope to the most advanced solid state NMR instrument, every key piece of equipment is installed and ready to solve problems. Additionally, the strategic collaborations they have established with the Chinese Academy of Sciences guarantee that basically every tool is at our fingertips to perform any solid state task. The chance to join this core team and drive the business is exhilarating. For years I've seen the impact of not truly understanding the solid state properties of your APIs. I've also witnessed first hand the gaps in data obtained from current solid state service providers. I now have the opportunity to work with this team to offer the pharmaceutical industry the truly high quality solid state solutions at exceedingly competitive prices."

"We are very excited to have Bob join us in the executive committee. Bob's boarding will significantly bolster the scientific rigor and global impact of our company" explains Alex M. Chen, CEO of Crystal Pharmatech Co., Ltd. "Our leadership team now has a combined 40 years of experience in solid state research at top pharmaceutical companies. If something can happen in the solid state, whether API or drug product related, one of our core team members has probably dealt with it in the past and knows how to solve the problem."

For more information, please visit: http://www.crystalpharmatech.com/

Crystal Pharmatech is the first China-based technology-driven CRO that focuses on the specialized field of solid state information for active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulations. It helps its clients to discover and select the optimal solid phase for development as well as aid in developing the best formulation based on solid, scientific understanding. It provides its clients a complete and satisfactory solution to the problem they face instead of merely running experiments and collecting data.