Our research team consists of 30% Ph.D., 50% M.S. and 20% B.S. Our Leadership team has more than 60 years of experience with solid state issues at major innovator companies including Merck, Roche, BMS, etc. Our team has managed and supported polymorph screening, API phase selection, crystallization development and solid state characterization for more than 200 new chemical entities (NCEs). Our team members have also authored over 100 publications in top-tier journals and are inventors on over 40 polymorph patents.
Founder & Chief Executive Officer Founder & Chief Scientific Officer
VP Business Development - US & Europe
VP Technology Development
VP Business Development - Asia Pacific
VP Crystallization Development
Alex Chen
Chief Executive Officer
Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Rutgers University
Dr. Chen received his B.S. from Peking University and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Rutgers University. He had 8 years of R&D and manufacturing experience at Merck before starting Crystal Pharmatech. While at Merck, he was in charge of and supported physical characterization and API phase selection and evaluation for more than 50 projects at all stages, from preclinical development to commercialization. He was one of the key contributors to the discovery and selection of final API phases for four marketed products including JANUVIA and ISENTRESS. Dr. Chen's expertise includes solid state characterization, polymorph and co-crystal screening, chiral resolution by crystallization and dissolution, and nanoparticle engineering for drug delivery. He has authored 17 scientific publications and 9 patents, and given more than 20 presentations at scientific conferences.
Yanfeng Zhang
Chief Scientific Officer
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University
Dr. Zhang received his B.S. in Polymeric Materials Science and Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University. He has more than 10 years of research experience in thermodynamics and kinetics of crystallization, amorphous solids and supercooled liquids. He had 5 years working experience at Merck Research Laboratories in the area of drug discovery and development with an emphasis on gaining deep understanding of physical and chemical properties of APIs and formulation to help advance new chemical entities (NCE) in the pipeline. While at Merck, he made important contribution to more than 80 projects in close collaboration with multiple functional areas in API and formulation development. Dr. Zhang authored 8 journal/conference papers and 3 patents, gave more than 20 scientific presentations and seminars and organized two polymorphism and crystallization workshops at IQPC(2009 & 2010).
Robert Wenslow
VP Business Development, US and Europe
Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Wenslow received his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Pennsylvania State University. He directed the API division of the Center for Material Science and Engineering at Merck prior to joining Crystal Pharmatech. He has 14 years of Pharmaceutical R&D, manufacturing and management experience and is an expert in solid state NMR. Dr. Wenslow was responsible of maintaining direct solid-state NMR facility at Merck and established the primary analytical research group in Ireland for Merck.. His recent highlights include designing crystal phase for a Phase III compound, which will incur a cost savings of $50MM at year 5 sales. He also successfully led efforts on dealing with late stage polymorph identification in JANUVIA. Dr. Wenslow was a invited lecturer at over 10 conferences and has author more than 40 patents and publications in top-tier journals.
Tim Kuang
VP Technology Development
Ph.D. in Chemistry from chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr. Kuang received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China. He had 10-year working experience at BMS and Roche in the area of polymorph study and solid state chemistry before joining Crystal Pharmatech. His responsibilities at Roche South Carolina site included managing the solid state Group and establishing a solid state laboratory equipped with a range of state-of-the-art instruments. Dr. Kuang is experienced in salt, polymorph, and cocrystal screening, crystal form selection, crystallization development, solid-state characterization, API release, and solid state stability testing. His expertise also includes designing and executing crystallization protocols to consistently produce crystal forms with desired solids state properties. He has authored 36 scientific publications and 6 patents, and given 19 presentations at scientific conferences.
Lily Li
VP Business Development, Asia Pacific
Ph.D. in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Li received her B.S. from Peking Univeristy and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. She worked at Merck in the drug product analytical chemistry group for 4 years before joining Crystal Pharmatech. During her tenure at Merck, Lily supported several key product value enhancement (PVE) projects and made significant contributions for these projects to reach their critical biocomparison (BC) milestones. Lily's expertise includes analytical methods development and validation, release of clinical trial materials, regulatory filings, stability evaluations, and technology transfer to commercialization. She is also an expert on HPLC, dissolution and mass spectrometry and has participated in writing a chapter in the Encyclopedia of Mass Spectrometry.
Jian Wang
VP Crystallization Development
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Jian Wang holds a B.S. and a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Zhenjiang University and University of Pittsburgh, respectively. In 1994, Jian joined Merck and worked for 11 years in both manufacturing and research divisions. During her tenure at Merck, she focused on tackling bottle-neck challenges in API process development, involving understanding, design, optimization and scale-up of processes for API crystallization and catalytic reactions. Jian's technical expertise lies in the development and scientific understanding of reproducible, scalable and efficient processes. In addition to numerous successes in design and development of challenging API crystallization processes at Merck, Jian was an early pioneer in applying various process analytical technologies (PAT), e.g., FT-IR, Raman, FBRM and PVM, for understanding and developing API crystallization and milling processes. In 2005, she joined Mettler-Toledo AutoChem where she contributed directly to developing broader applications and new generation of PAT tools. Between 2009 and 2011, Jian worked as independent consultant on technology and application. She has strongly promoted broad PAT applications across the industry through her publications, presentations and training seminars. During her earlier research efforts in heterogeneous catalysis, Jian gained skills and experience in preparing nano- crystalline particles. She has co-authored 19 peer-reviewed journal articles, 1 book chapter and 3 patents, and given over 20 presentations at international conferences and global seminars.
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