Management

Camille G. Wermuth, PharmD, PhD, Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Prestwick Chemicalis a former Professor of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France. He became interested in Medicinal Chemistry during his two years of military service in the French Navy at the "Centre d'Etudes Appliquées à la Marine" in Toulon. During this time, he worked under the supervision of Dr. H. Laborit, the scientist who invented artificial hibernation and discovered chlorpromazine. Pr. Wermuth's research combines synthesis and molecular modeling, and concentrates mainly on CNS diseases. This has led to the development and synthesis of many research tools for the Neurosciences and to the development of a new psychotropic drug. His present interests focus on GABAergic and cholinergic drugs, dopamine D3 receptor ligands, and CRF receptor antagonists. Pr. Wermuth is the author and co-author of over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers. He holds over 60 patents. He is the author, co-author, and editor of several books or book chapters. His most recent book, "The Practice of Medicinal Chemistry," first published in 1996, re-edited in 2003 was translated into several languages, including Japanese and Chinese. Pr. Wermuth has been awarded the Charles Mentzer Prize of the Société Française de Chimie Thérapeutique, the Léon Velluz Prize of the French Academy of Science, and the Prix de l'Ordre des Pharmaciens by the French Academy of Pharmacy. He is Corresponding Member of the German Pharmaceutical Society, and was nominated Commandeurs des Palmes Académiques. He has been nominated President of the Division of Chemistry and Human Health of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Thierry Langer, Pharm MS, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, joined Prestwick Chemical, Inc. in April 2008. His previous employment had been Professor at Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck, Austria, where he began his career after completing a post doctoral fellowship at the Université Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg, France) with Prof. C. G. Wermuth in 1992. Prof. Langer holds an M.S. degree in Pharmacy (1988) and a Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, 1991) from the University of Vienna, Austria. In 2003, together with Prof. Stuppner and Dr. Wolber (University of Innsbruck, Austria) he founded the spin-off company Inte:Ligand GmbH, in which he also was CEO prior to joining Prestwick Chemical, Inc. His research interests have been focused on computer-assisted medicinal chemistry, including pharmacophore-based methods as well as 3D-QSAR molecular modeling techniques. Since 1993 he established at Innsbruck University the Computer Aided Molecular Design Group, was appointed Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1997, and served as Head of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and of the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department in 1998 and 1999. Prof. Langer is a well known scientist in the field of computer aided molecular design: His scientific work has culminated in more than 150 original articles and invited reviews in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters, one edited book, and more than 200 presentations at scientific meetings.

Bruno Giethlen, PharmD, PhD, is Head of the Medicinal Chemistry Department at Prestwick Chemical, Inc. Prior to joining Prestwick Chemical, he was Senior Research Chemist at Albany Molecular research, Inc. (Albany, NY) for 1 year where he worked on oncology program. Before this period, he spent 3 years at Eli Lilly & Co. (Indianapolis, IN) as Visiting Scientist working on CNS projects. Dr. Giethlen is co-inventor of 12 patents and co-author of one peer-reviewed scientific paper. He graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Louis Pasteur University (ULP) in Strasbourg, France in 1990. He obtained a M. Sc. in Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry from the same University in 1991, before his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry under the supervision of Pr. C.G. Wermuth. His thesis, developed in collaboration with Sanofi-Synthelabo, has set up an exhaustive SAR of the first non-peptidic antagonists of Corticotropin Releasing Factor. After having spent one year as assistant professor at the ULP, he engaged himself for a two years post-doctoral fellowship at the same University in collaboration with Eli Lilly & Co. He spent part of this tenure at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis. Since Dr. Giethlen joined Prestwick Chemical, he has participated in several collaborative research projects, with 3 drug candidates in clinical trials, including 1 in Phase III and 2 in Phase I clinical trials.

Paul Bikard, joined Prestwick Chemical, Inc. as Chief Financial Officer in July 2003 with responsibility for finance, human ressources, administration and legal affairs. His previous employment, since 2000, had been as VP Finance & Corporate Communication at Transgene, a listed biotechnology company. Prior to joining Transgene, Paul was an Audit Manager with Ernst & Young (formerly Arthur Andersen), with responsibility for international clients and helped clients through their IPO or financing rounds. He had specialized in the health care industry and in cross-border transactions. He has prior experience as an auditor in France, North America and Central Europe.

Marie-Louise Jung, PharmD, PhD, is Sales Manager, Europe of Prestwick Chemical, Inc. in Strasbourg. Prior to joining Prestwick, Dr. Jung was a manager at the Strasbourg branch of Antibody Solutions, a biotechnology company headquartered in the U.S. specializing in customized monoclonal antibodies. At Antibody Solutions, she developed a hotline for custom service in antibody production and participated in a small molecule detection research program using immunological methods. Prior to joining Antibody Solutions, Dr. Jung worked for 10 years in various research laboratories at the Louis Pasteur University on setting up cell culture tests for the detection of anti-cancer activity. Dr. Jung is a graduate of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Louis Pasteur University. Her Ph.D. is in Pharmacology.

Eric Jamois, PhD, is Vice-President of US Operations for Prestwick Chemical, Inc. in San Diego, CA. Prior to joining Prestwick, Dr. Jamois was Vice-President of Business Development for Strand Life Sciences, a drug discovery technology company based in Bangalore, India. He was also Director of Business Development at Inpharmatica (now BioFocus) and Accelrys where he structured multiple licensing agreements and strategic relationships. He holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from North Carolina State University and a Chemical Engineering degree from Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Lille (ENSCL).

Jean-Marc Simon, M.S. in Biochemistry, complemented by one year specialized studies in chemical and biologic analysis ("D.E.S.S. diploma"), Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg. He joined Prestwick Chemical, Inc. in April 2001 as Quality Assurance Manager for both the Medicinal Chemistry and Library departments. His role includes the supervision of the Prestwick Chemical Libraries department. Prior to joining Prestwick, Mr. Simon has worked in the European Center of Diabetology Studies in Strasbourg, where he collaborated on the development of a screening test system for early diabetes, type I.