I started Empirilogic to apply and to expand my experience in pharmaceutical and biotech R&D.

I am a Ph.D. pharmacist with more than 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology product development. Some of the domains I have been working in are: formulation development, assay development, in vivo pharmacology and pharmacokinetics, biotechnology, process development, statistics and data analysis

I have worked in a few academic settings in cardiovascular pharmacology and in international groups developing novel controlled release systems for cancer treatments based on chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I like the interface between different disciplines. It is an area where learning creates understanding

My industrial experience allowed me to learn how to achieve your goals with limited availability of resources. Helping build up a CRO business in formulation development and analytical development services has been key in understanding customers’ needs. With OctoPlus, I have partnered in more than 200 product developments, with both small molecules and biologicals. Most of these developments needed specialised controlled release formulations

My journey changed a bit when the focus became the development of generic complex injectables at Dr. Reddy’s Labs. It sounds like an impossible task to make a viable generic version of an innovator product in a short time without knowledge of its production process. Thinking with the final target in mind and shaping a strategy around that are the keys to success. It helped me to embrace new fields: risks analysis, quality by design and data science. These disciplines are important in creating clarity and value of strategies, studies and experiments. It doesn’t hurt that it accelerates the development process as well!

Tools like machine learning, modelling and structured risk analysis help me to focus on what is important to make the best decisions in pharmaceutical product development

Ruud Verrijk