About Us

COMPANY MISSION

Our mission is to provide value-added chemistry and biopharmaceutical services to enable our clients to accelerate their product development programs and build long-lasting collaborative relationships. Our goal is to provide value through efficient, timely, and cost-effective solutions that meet our clients’ needs. NJ Bio embraces the standards of teamwork, confidentiality, and reliability with innovative solutions to our clients’ most challenging research requirements. Customer satisfaction is our highest priority.

OUR PEOPLE AND CULTURE

We have highly talented and experienced laboratory chemists and biologists with a tremendous passion for chemistry and biology resulting in unique solutions to client programs. Furthermore, our corporate culture is collaborative, communicative, and adaptable. Most importantly, our scientists strive to deliver quality services in a cost-effective and timely manner.

Our Team

Nareshkumar Jain, Ph.D. – President, CEO and Chairman

Dr. Jain is the founder and CEO of NJ Bio and co-founder of Amar Chemistry Pvt. Ltd. He is also a member of Robin Hood Ventures, a leading Mid-Atlantic investment group. Prior to founding NJ Bio in 2018, Naresh served as Global Head of Chemistry and Senior Vice-President of ADC Biomanufacturing at Abzena. In 2009, he founded the chemistry-based CRO, The Chemistry Research Solution LLC (TCRS), and served for six years as Managing Director of the company until its acquisition by Abzena in late 2015. Naresh has over ten years of medicinal chemistry experience at Johnson and Johnson, where he worked on advancing new drug molecules from early lead to lead optimization and clinical trials. He has co-authored over 60 publications, patents, and book chapters. Among his notable achievements are the total syntheses of complex natural products including the antibiotics vancomycin and rutamycin. Naresh received his Ph.D. from Boston University with Prof. James Panek, and was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California with Prof. K.C. Nicolaou. Naresh received extensive leadership training through the Advanced Management Program at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.

Ralf Mueller, Ph.D. – Chief Business Officer

Dr. Mueller is NJ Bio’s Chief Business Officer and his responsibilities include the company’s overall business development, proposal management, and marketing activities. Ralf has more than twenty years of experience working for chemistry and biopharmaceutical CROs and CDMOs, covering the fields of business development, custom synthesis, process development and cGMP manufacturing. His previous positions include Senior Executive Director of Business Management with NJ Bio, Senior Director of Business Development with Abzena, Senior VP of Chemistry & Business Development with The Chemistry Research Solution LLC as well as Director of Chemistry with Alchem Laboratories Corporation. Ralf received his doctor title in organic chemistry from the University of Freiburg, Germany, and then worked as Postdoctoral Associate with Prof. Raymond Bergeron at the University of Florida on the synthesis of a “Hypusine reagent” and polyamine analogues. He has co-authored 15 research articles on potential drugs against cancer (i.e., polyamine antiproliferatives), dyslipidemia (i.e., long hydrocarbon chain acids and diols, related to bempedoic acid), and other topics.

Libu Mathew, B.S., CPA – Chief Financial Officer

In his role as NJ Bio’s Chief Financial Officer, Libu is providing financial guidance and related executive support to NJ Bio’s administrative operations. Libu is an experienced finance professional, specialized in accounting and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) with more than twelve years of work experience in diverse financial positions at several companies in the healthcare manufacturing and service sectors. Libu also has a background as a financial auditor and previously headed the Accounting Department of a major car parts manufacturing company in Philadelphia. Libu obtained his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Drexel University, Philadelphia, and is certified as a Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Bram Karsten, Ph.D. – Vice President of Chemistry and Flow Sciences

Reva Raghupathi, Ph.D., M.B.A. – Vice President of Strategic Alliances

Dr. Reva Raghupathi has over 25 years of experience in global marketing and strategy, business leadership, biomedical research and non-profit enterprise. In 2018, Reva founded Verika, LLC, which delivers strategy and marketing solutions for social impact and entrepreneurial organizations. Prior to that, Reva worked for Merck & Co. in various roles of increasing responsibility. She was Executive Director of Global Marketing from 2011-2018. As Executive Director, Primary Care, she developed global strategy and priorities to achieve target growth for the substantial Primary Care business and led a multi-year, cross-functional initiative to transform new product planning. As Executive Director, Diabetes Franchise, she was the global commercial leader on diabetes product development teams. She guided commercial activities in licensing and business development, delivered successful deals and led long-term strategy efforts.

Prior to these roles, Reva rapidly progressed through assignments in sales, market research and product marketing at Merck & Co. She helped launch blockbuster products on US brand teams in the antibacterials, cholesterol reducers and diabetes areas. Reva conducted post-doctoral research in neuropharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania and medicinal chemistry at the University of Iowa. In 2015, Reva served as a Richard T. Clark Fellow with the Merck Fellowship for Global Health.

Reva’s academic qualifications include a BPharm (First Class) from the University of Mumbai, PhD in medicinal chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University and MBA in healthcare management and marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was recognized as a Palmer Scholar (top 5%). She completed an MS in nonprofit leadership from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2019.

Julien Dugal-Tessier, Ph.D. – Director of Innovative Chemistry and Bioconjugation

David Fry, Ph.D. – Distinguished Research Leader

Dr. Fry joined NJ Bio as Distinguished Research Leader in early 2019. David has expertise in NMR analysis of proteins, peptides, and small molecules; structure elucidation and confirmation by NMR; protein analysis; ligand-binding studies by NMR; and 2D and 3D multinuclear NMR experiments. Prior to joining NJ Bio, he served for three years as Vice-President of Protein Chemistry at The Chemistry Research Solution LLC. David has 27 years of drug discovery experience as Head of Structural Chemistry at Hoffmann-La Roche and is a globally recognized expert in the use of NMR to discover small molecule drugs for protein-protein interaction (PPI) targets. David’s research highlights include pioneering work on Interleukin-2 inhibitors, the Ras-binding domain of c-Raf, design of a PYY peptidomimetic (clinical candidate), and an essential role in the discovery of the Nutlin series of MDM2-p53 inhibitors. He has directed numerous initiatives including fragment-based lead discovery and the building of PPI-targeted screening libraries. David has co-authored over 50 publications.

Thomas Markotan, M.S. – Senior Research Fellow Chemistry

Tom joined NJ Bio’s chemistry team as Senior Research Fellow. He is an organic chemist with over twenty years of industrial research experience as well as several years of academic research experience. Tom is an expert in planning and conducting multi-step organic syntheses on milligram- to multi-gram scales and has spent the last eight years working on the design and synthesis of payload-linkers for ADCs, one of which is currently advancing into clinical trials. Prior to joining NJ Bio, Tom held R&D positions with Abzena and The Chemistry Research Solution LLC (TCRS) as Associate Director of Chemistry and Senior Scientist, respectively, as well as with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals R&D and 3D Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was part of a team that progressed two potent, orally active thrombin (FIIa) inhibitors into clinical trials. Tom’s work at TCRS contributed significantly to the success of the company. Tom received his M.S. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and is a co-inventor on 37 U.S. and World patents and a co-author in seven peer-reviewed journal publications.

Board of Directors

Nareshkumar Jain, Ph.D. – President, CEO and Chairman

Dr. Jain is the founder and CEO of NJ Bio and co-founder of Amar Chemistry Pvt. Ltd. He is also a member of Robin Hood Ventures, a leading Mid-Atlantic investment group. Prior to founding NJ Bio in 2018, Naresh served as Global Head of Chemistry and Senior Vice-President of ADC Biomanufacturing at Abzena. In 2009, he founded the chemistry-based CRO, The Chemistry Research Solution LLC (TCRS), and served for six years as Managing Director of the company until its acquisition by Abzena in late 2015. Naresh has over ten years of medicinal chemistry experience at Johnson and Johnson, where he worked on advancing new drug molecules from early lead to lead optimization and clinical trials. He has co-authored over 60 publications, patents, and book chapters. Among his notable achievements are the total syntheses of complex natural products including the antibiotics vancomycin and rutamycin. Naresh received his Ph.D. from Boston University with Prof. James Panek, and was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California with Prof. K.C. Nicolaou. Naresh received extensive leadership training through the Advanced Management Program at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.

Ronald Gold

Ronald Gold began his generic pharmaceutical career in 1988 as a sales representative for quality companies such as Par Pharmaceuticals, Hi-Tech Pharmacal, Invamed Labs and others. In 1992, he founded Rising Pharmaceuticals as President and CEO, where he quarterbacked all aspects of the business, including sales and marketing, product development, accounting, budgets, government rebates, regulatory and other functions. In 2010, he oversaw the sale of Rising to Aceto Corporation (ACET), continuing as President and COO of Rising for two and a half years before exiting and starting Leading Pharma. He is currently CEO and Chairman of the Board of Leading Pharma.

Anjanish R. Gondalia

Anjanish is Vice President of Operations of Leading Pharma. He began his career in the pharmaceutical industry working as a business development analyst & product planning at Corepharma for finished dosage products. Later Anjanish went on to join Apicore, where he focused on business development and marketing for APIs for the US & ROW market.

Prior to Leading, Anjanish was Director of Operations at Terrene Pharmaceutical & Director of Operation at a pharmaceutical manufacturing start-up, Kalintis Healthcare. His experience working in formulations and APIs provides a unique and advantageous insight to the pharmaceutical industry.

Anjanish is a Member of the Board of Directors of NJ Biopharmaceuticals LLC d/b/a NJ Bio. In addition, he is also Managing Director & member of Board of Directors for Kalintis Healthcare, an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient manufacturer focused on the R&D, pilot and commercial development of high-value APIs and Intermediates.

Priya Nayak, Ph.D.

Priyashri (Priya) Nayak is Director of Alliance Management at NJ Bio and Vice-President of Business Development & Alliance Management at NJ Bio’s affiliate, Amar Chemistry Pvt. Ltd in India. Priya is an angel investor with Robin Hood Ventures and has supported investment in family-owned entrepreneurship companies and sports clubs. Priya has 23 years of broad experience in global consumer healthcare companies including Glaxo SmithKline, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, and Prestige Labs, as well as with a start-up company, The Chemistry Research Solution (acquired by Abzena). She has led technical teams that successfully developed and commercialized global products for brands such as Aleve PM®, Bayer® Aspirin®, Aspirin® plus C, Alka-Seltzer®, Benadryl®, Sudafed® Listerine®, Bengay®, Tums®, and Citrucel®, contributing to over a billion dollars in sales. Priya received her Ph.D. in Industrial Pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Allied Health Sciences, Boston, and a Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University Department of Chemical Technology (now ICT), Mumbai.

Scientific Advisory Board

Ravi Chari, Ph.D.

Rakesh Dixit, Ph.D., DABT

Rakesh Dixit is an accomplished executive, inventor, and scientist with over 30 years of success with top biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Medimmune – AstraZeneca. Rakesh was selected by his biopharmaceutical peers as the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Pharmaceutical Industry by PharmaVOICE in 2015. From 2006 to 2019, Rakesh was a Global Vice President of the Biologics R&D at Medimmune – AstraZeneca, where he was a pivotal contributor to the approval of Imfinzi (anti-PD-L1 mAb) for the treatment of lung and bladder cancer, Fasenra (anti-IL-5R afucsolytated mAb) for asthma, brodalumab (anti-IL-17) in collaboration with Amgen for psoriasis and moxetumomab (anti-CD22-PEA immunotoxin) for hairy cell leukemia. His areas of expertise include discovery, early and late preclinical development, safety assessment, DMPK and translational sciences of small molecule drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapy products. Rakesh is a key opinion leader in the ADC world and recently received World ADC’s highly prestigious award for “Long Standing Contributions to the ADCs”.

Jagath Reddy Junutula, Ph.D.

Dr. Junutula is the Senior Vice President, Research & Development at ModMab Therapeutics, Inc. He has over 15 years of experience in oncology drug discovery and more than 25 years of experience in the life science research as a biochemist/molecular cell biologist. Dr. Junutula supervised and trained researchers in the antibody based discovery projects. He developed a novel THIOMAB technology platform to obtain engineered Antibody Drug Conjugates with defined number of drugs to improve therapeutic utility. Dr. Junutula contributed and collaborated with several cross-functional teams in discovery research, pre-clinical research and manufacturing to move antibody based therapeutic molecules from discovery to IND, authored over 100 patents/peer-reviewed publications, and presented work at numerous international conferences. His specialties include Target Discovery in Oncology, Antibody Discovery and Development, ADCs and Bi-specific antibodies.

Zhihua Sui, Ph.D.

Zhihua is an experienced drug hunter and a leader in drug discovery in both big pharma and biotech. He is VP, Head of Chemistry and Head of Strategic Outsourcing at Agios Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA. Before joining Agios, Zhihua spent a couple decades at Janssen Pharmaceutical R&D of Johnson & Johnson, rose through the scientific and management ranks to Sr. Scientific Director/Janssen Fellow and led various medicinal chemistry teams as well as platform chemistry. Over the years, Zhihua’s teams advanced more than 20 compounds into clinical stage for treatment of cancer, rare genetic diseases, reproductive disorders (men’s and women’s health), inflammation and diabetes. Zhihua has extensive experience in drug discovery platforms such as SBDD, FBDD and mechanism-based designs and protein degradation. Zhihua is a co-author or co-inventor on more than 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals, invited lectures and patents. Zhihua is experienced in diligence of external assets and in outsourcing management. Zhihua did postdoctoral research at UCSF, received Ph.D. from Heidelberg University in Germany and MS/BS in China.