PharmaBlock appoints Dr. Shijie Zhang as Chief Technology Officer

PharmaBlock Sciences recently announced the appointment of Dr. Shijie Zhang as Chief Technology Officer. Shijie joins the company from Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was Director of Process Chemistry and API Manufacturing, CMC.

Dr. Shijie Zhang brings over 20 years of combined experience in medicinal chemistry, process chemistry, and API manufacturing. Before joining PharmaBlock, he led the CMC API team at Agios for the two FDA-approved therapies (Idhifa, Tibsovo), by managing and overseeing API development programs and manufacturing activities spanning from preclinical stage to commercial stage, and preparing API sections of regulatory filing documents, including IND, IMPD, NDA, and briefing documents.

“We are thrilled to welcome Shijie on board, and he is truly a key addition to our leadership team,” said Dr. Minmin Yang, Chairman of PharmaBlock. “His unparalleled knowledge and intimate experience in bringing drugs from preclinical stage to commercial makes him the best person to lead our rapidly growing CDMO business, and critical to our future strategies.”

PharmaBlock started its business by providing lab-scale building blocks and medicinal chemistry services to support drug discovery. With more pharmaceutical R&D projects adopting its products advanced from discovery to preclinical and clinical research, even into commercialization, PharmaBlock sensed great demand in expanding process and manufacturing capabilities. Since the joining of Dr. Jing Li, former Associate Director at Merck & Co., Inc., as Vice President of Process Chemistry two years ago, PharmaBlock has made great progress in expanding process chemistry and implementing process technologies. Bringing Dr. Shijie Zhang to the team will get a step further to improve the QA system, and extend competence in process development and manufacturing to support clients’ late phase and commercial programs, thus strengthening the company’s competitiveness in CDMO business.

“I am delighted to join PharmaBlock, and I have witnessed its remarkable and rapid growth. With its strong leadership role in building blocks business, and impressive progress in process chemistry capabilities, PharmaBlock has a solid foundation to win in CDMO business,” said Dr. Shijie Zhang, “I look forward to working with the tremendous team, helping fulfill its commitment to accelerating pharmaceutical innovation from research, to development, to commercial.”