AMRI Further Expands Discovery Capabilities in India

ALBANY, N.Y., June 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a long-term strategic plan to further AMRI's discovery capabilities in India, AMRI (NASDAQ: AMRI), a leading global contract research and manufacturing organization, announced the hiring of two experts in medicinal and computational chemistry at its research center located in Hyderabad, India (HRC). Simultaneously, the company announced the completion of the relocation of custom library synthesis resources and capabilities to HRC from the Company's Budapest, Hungary operations. The new hires and relocation of resources provide additional flexibility to enhance productivity and client service for AMRI's global drug discovery operations, which draw upon a broad spectrum of service capabilities from multiple sites.

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Srinivas Nanduri, Ph.D., was hired as Director of Medicinal Chemistry in India, reporting to Subramanyam Maddala, President of India Operations. In addition, Suneel Kumar Bommisetty, Ph.D., was hired as Senior Research Associate of Computational Chemistry, reporting to Dr. Nanduri. These newly created positions will further strengthen AMRI's capabilities in problem-solving medicinal chemistry and complement its current strength in custom synthesis at HRC.

"Dr. Nanduri and Dr. Bommisetty bring a high level of medicinal chemistry expertise, a strong track record of industry experience and additional drug discovery project management experience to the Hyderabad site," Mr. Maddala said. "AMRI is committed to providing best-of-class services to our customers, and servicing the entire value chain of contract research services. These additions enhance our capabilities to move towards that target."

In his most recent role as Research Director at Aurigene, Dr. Nanduri was responsible for the execution and overall supervision of multiple integrated drug discovery projects – from hit generation through lead optimization. Prior to that, he was a Chief Scientific Manager at Biocon-BMS Research Centre, where he led projects in the therapeutic areas of oncology, obesity and central nervous system disorders. Dr. Nanduri also had worked at Dr. Reddy's, where he led multiple medicinal chemistry projects in oncology and metabolic disorders, as well as a number of natural products projects in the area of anti-cancer therapy. Dr. Nanduri earned a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Sri Sathya Sai Institute in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Dr. Bommisetty joins AMRI from GVK Biosciences Pvt. Ltd. and brings more than eight years of computational chemistry experience to HRC. He began his career as a Research Associate in 2004 while he obtained his Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry from JNTU. He played a dual role in GVK as a Scientific Associate and also as a senior faculty in GVK Bio campus, leading theory classes and lab sessions on Molecular Modeling, Homology Modeling, Structure-based Drug Design and Analogue-based Drug Design.

Bruce J. Sargent, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery, commented, "At AMRI we continue to expand our world-class team of scientists to ensure our customers have access to the most experienced and technically adept experts to address their increasingly complex challenges. With the addition of Dr. Nanduri and Dr. Bommisetty, AMRI expands its global medicinal and computational chemistry capabilities in India, complementing the existing capabilities in the U.S. and Singapore. Strengthening our HRC capabilities is an essential element of our SMARTSOURCING™ strategy, which brings together the right mix of AMRI global services, capabilities and translational expertise, while maintaining the same high standards for performance, quality and productivity."

About AMRI

Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (AMRI) is a global contract research and manufacturing organization offering customers fully integrated drug discovery, development, and manufacturing services. For over 21 years AMRI has demonstrated its adaptability as the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have undergone tremendous change in response to multiple challenges. This experience, a track record of success and locations in the United States, Europe and Asia now provides our customers with SMARTSOURCING™, a full range of value-added opportunities providing customers informed decision-making, enhanced efficiency and more successful outcomes at all stages of the pipeline. AMRI has also successfully partnered R&D programs and is actively seeking to out-license its remaining programs for further development.

Hyderabad Research Centre

The Hyderabad Research Centre, Pvt. Ltd. is located in Hyderabad, India, an emerging technology metropolis located in South Central India. Fully integrated with AMRI's U.S.-based resources, this centre's core areas of expertise are in the areas of medicinal chemistry support, chemical development, custom synthesis of scaffolds and building blocks, process development, GMP analytical services, scale-up and preparation of reference standards. HRC also specializes in combinatorial library synthesis, maintaining AMRI's global benchmarks of excellence in chemistry, productivity and project management.

SOURCE AMRI