Jacobo Cruces – GalChimia
Jacobo Cruces obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. He is the co-founder of GalChimia, where he is currently the Chief Scientific Officer. In his talk “Diversity in drug discovery”, Jacobo will describe the current challenges in discovery chemistry, where compound diversity has become more important than the size of the compound library; he will then continue with “What you need for a process”, where he will cover the different aspects to consider when transferring a synthesis route for a drug (discovery chemistry) into an actual process viable for manufacture at pre-clinic scale (process development). Such transference involves several crucial considerations, from the cost and supply of raw materials to regulatory and safety aspects.
His 18-year experience as an R&D Manager and Chief Scientific Officer has given Jacobo ample expertise in both medicinal chemistry and process development, and a real know-how in the practicalities required for the establishment of successful processes. With this experience in hand, he has launched two further biotech companies.
With the support of two of their professors at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Jacobo co-founded GalChimia with Carme Pampin in 2001. Throughout these years, their drive and passion for chemistry have made of GalChimia a reference company for the pharmaceutical industry in Spain, where Jacobo has managed over 1700 research projects. He is also a member of the International Scientific Committee of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry, where he participates in the decision making regarding the organisation of conferences.
