Takeshi Yura, Ph.D., has been appointed vice president of Discovery and Development Services, Asia. Dr. Yura will report directly to AMRI’s chairman, president and chief executive officer Thomas E. D’Ambra, Ph.D. Dr. Yura has also assumed leadership of AMRI’s Discovery and Development efforts at the company’s Hyderabad, India site.
 
Dr. Yura joined the company in January 2011 and most recently served as senior director of Drug Discovery services in Singapore, leading the chemistry and biology teams for integrated drug discovery operations in Asia. Dr. Yura has more than 22 years of scientific and leadership experience in discovery research, project management and business development. Before joining the company he was a director at Dishman Japan Ltd., responsible for sales and all business development activities for contract manufacturing services. He has also served as discovery chemistry research head at Pfizer Japan and section head, medicinal chemistry at Bayer Yakuhin in Japan.
 
Dr. D’Ambra said, “AMRI’s Singapore and Hyderabad operations are important and growing businesses for AMRI and conduct projects for customers located all over the world. With the ongoing evolution of outsourcing and a growing focus from customers on strategic relationships, we believe that Dr. Yura’s leadership, his focus on excellence in scientific research and his dedication to quality and the integrity of our customers’ intellectual property will provide integration under one leadership of what we are referring to as ‘AMRI Asia.’ This new alignment will enable seamless transfer and execution of projects within and between sites to consistent high standards and provide more effective project management and development of key talent.”