Experience

Asha Pharma

• United States
• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Founder & CEO

  • May 2018 - 5 years 8 months

  San Diego Asha is a San Diego, CA based company (www.AshaSD.com) specializing in Crystallization and Solid Form Screening & Selection. We offer these services to the pharmaceutical and other industries on a fee-for-service basis. Lab Services: Polymorph, Salt, Cocrystal and Crystallization Screening, Crystallization Process Development, Solid-State Characterization by PXRD, DSC, TGA and DVS (Hygroscopicity Assessment), Solubility Measurement (pH Profile, FaSSIF, FeSSIF, FaSSGF), pKa… Show more Asha is a San Diego, CA based company (www.AshaSD.com) specializing in Crystallization and Solid Form Screening & Selection. We offer these services to the pharmaceutical and other industries on a fee-for-service basis. Lab Services: Polymorph, Salt, Cocrystal and Crystallization Screening, Crystallization Process Development, Solid-State Characterization by PXRD, DSC, TGA and DVS (Hygroscopicity Assessment), Solubility Measurement (pH Profile, FaSSIF, FeSSIF, FaSSGF), pKa Determination, Log P/Log D Determination Show less



Catalent San Diego

• Senior Scientist/Group Leader

  • Nov 2016 - May 2018

  San Diego ● Led the Preformulation Group at the San Diego site (supervised 3 Chemists) ● Responsibilities included o Building the group and training the new team (recruited 3 full time and 3 part time new hires) o Revising workflows, technical reports and proposals, aligning activities with other Catalent sites and technical review of SOPs o Project management to ensure timely completion of all preformulation activities including solid state characterization, pKa, log P/D… Show more ● Led the Preformulation Group at the San Diego site (supervised 3 Chemists) ● Responsibilities included o Building the group and training the new team (recruited 3 full time and 3 part time new hires) o Revising workflows, technical reports and proposals, aligning activities with other Catalent sites and technical review of SOPs o Project management to ensure timely completion of all preformulation activities including solid state characterization, pKa, log P/D, solubility/stability of API and formulation prototypes, excipient compatibility, technology evaluation for enhanced formulations (Spray Dried Dispersions/Hot Melt Extrusion/Lipids) o Advising and supporting external and internal clients regarding preformulation related issues, helping the group interface with colleagues in Formulation, Analytical Development and Business Development Show less



Bristol-Myers Squibb

• United States
• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Research Investigator I

  • Feb 2015 - Nov 2016

  Greater New York City Area ● Leader/Materials Sci. and Engg. representative on cross-functional teams responsible for solid form selection and risk assessment to enable robust drug products ● Responsibilities included o Leading cross-functional teams mentioned above with members at multiple sites and at long term outsourcing partner in India o Polymorph/salt/cocrystal screening and crystallization process development o Tech transfer of crystallization processes to Chemical Development/Kilo Lab/Pilot Plant… Show more ● Leader/Materials Sci. and Engg. representative on cross-functional teams responsible for solid form selection and risk assessment to enable robust drug products ● Responsibilities included o Leading cross-functional teams mentioned above with members at multiple sites and at long term outsourcing partner in India o Polymorph/salt/cocrystal screening and crystallization process development o Tech transfer of crystallization processes to Chemical Development/Kilo Lab/Pilot Plant, collaboration with Analytical Development on API Specs, IPC and FIO testing requirements o Scale down work to troubleshoot commercial manufacturing issues and scale up of jet milling/micronization o Working with outsourcing partners (CROs) and evaluating their performance to build long term relationships, successfully transferred workflows to long term outsourcing partner in India and trained colleagues on them o Continuous improvement of solid form screening workflows in collaboration with other groups in BMS Pharmaceutical Development o Collaboration with universities to evaluate new technologies o Automation/PAT point of contact for the group, implemented use of automated PXRD, automated lab reactors and PAT probes in Materials Science and Engineering Show less



Johnson Matthey Pharma Services

• Staff Scientist/Group Leader

  • Oct 2012 - Jan 2015

  Greater Boston Area ● Led the Solid Form Screening and Crystallization group (since December 2013) which was part of Pharmaceutical Engineering Technologies ● Responsibilities included o Leading the group (supervise 1 PhD and 1 MS Scientist) and actively working on projects ▪ Projects included API solid form selection (polymorph/salt/cocrystal screening), chiral resolution, crystal engineering studies (including wet milling) to control polymorphism or particle size distribution, improving powder… Show more ● Led the Solid Form Screening and Crystallization group (since December 2013) which was part of Pharmaceutical Engineering Technologies ● Responsibilities included o Leading the group (supervise 1 PhD and 1 MS Scientist) and actively working on projects ▪ Projects included API solid form selection (polymorph/salt/cocrystal screening), chiral resolution, crystal engineering studies (including wet milling) to control polymorphism or particle size distribution, improving powder flowability and working on controlled substances o Collaborating with colleagues in Chemical Development, Kilo Lab and Pilot Plant and working on scale up/tech transfer/master batch record review, heat of reaction measurement (Mettler Toledo RC1) and use of thermal screening units (HEL TSU) for reaction safety assessment o Mentoring colleagues in Chemical Development on use of automated lab reactors (Mettler Toledo EasyMax) and PAT (including React IR, FBRM and PVM) for in line process monitoring and robust process development o Collaborating with Analytical Development/QA/QC colleagues in setting API specs and IPC and FIO testing requirements o Advising and supporting external and internal clients regarding form selection and control, writing and reviewing technical proposals and reports o Presenting the group to prospective clients and helping the group interface with colleagues in Chemical Development, Analytical Development, Business Development and the Kilo Lab/Pilot Plant Show less



Ricerca Biosciences

• United States
• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Scientist

  • Nov 2011 - Sep 2012

  Concord, OH ● Preformulation activities including polymorph and salt screening, solid state form selection and crystallization studies ● Performed GLP and GMP activities to support regulated studies



Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Post-Doctoral Research Associate

  • Feb 2010 - Nov 2011

  Greater Boston Area Development of a proprietary continuous crystallization setup for filtration avoidance



Illinois Institute of Technology

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Research Assistant

  • Sep 2005 - Feb 2010

  Greater Chicago Area Polymorph screening and studying concomitant crystallization using patterned substrates of Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) consisting of an array of microscale lyophilic gold islands surrounded by a lyophobic domain Development of a continuous crystallization process for crystallization of APIs for a major pharmaceutical company Development of a semi-automated polymorph screening equipment for Thermo Fisher Scientific Resolution of racemic compounds into pure enantiomers using chiral… Show more Polymorph screening and studying concomitant crystallization using patterned substrates of Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) consisting of an array of microscale lyophilic gold islands surrounded by a lyophobic domain Development of a continuous crystallization process for crystallization of APIs for a major pharmaceutical company Development of a semi-automated polymorph screening equipment for Thermo Fisher Scientific Resolution of racemic compounds into pure enantiomers using chiral SAMs Show less



Boehringer Ingelheim

• Germany
• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Summer Intern

  • Jun 2008 - Aug 2008

  Ridgefield, CT Developed cocrystal screening strategies and suggested a screening workflow and timeline using a model compound Documented a step by step procedure to be used for screening for cocrystals of BI compounds Compared dry-grinding, solvent-aided grinding and solution crystallization as methods to obtain cocrystals