George Hlass, MBA, has been named director of Business Development for North America at Fareva API. He will assume responsibility for marketing Fareva’s custom synthesis and manufacturing services to pharmaceutical innovators and biotechnology companies.

Fareva’s services include the manufacture of high potent and cytotoxic APIs at EXCELLA GmbH in Feucht Germany, a SafeBridge-certified facility to manufacture both API and oral solid dosages. Mr. Hlass will also promote manufacturing services at Fareva’s VALDEPHARM site in Normandy France, which has special technology for processing API under aseptic conditions. He reports directly to Hans-Dieter Zeitz, vice president, API Sales.

Mr. Hlass has spent the last 10 years in business development roles of increasing responsibility at CROs/CMOs that specialize in API products and services. Most recently, he worked for PharmaZell, a German CMO, for three and half years in a similar position. Before that, he was with Scynexis Inc., for more than six years. Mr.Hlass’ responsibilities included marketing, analyzing competitive and market intelligence, and selling both bioanalytical and cGMP process chemistry services. Before Scynexis, he worked as a microbiologist for three years in the field of gene therapy.

Mr. Zeitz remarked, “I am very pleased to have George Hlass join our team to lead our business development efforts for the North American market. This is the largest market in the world for pharmaceutical activities and George has a strong understanding of the competitive landscape, including the types of services that drug development companies are looking for.”