Po-Wai Yuen

Dr. Po-wai Yuen has been Senior Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry since he joined the company in June 2010. Previously, he was the Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at PsychoGenics Inc. from 2007 to 2010.

Dr. Yuen received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1982 and a doctorate degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University under the Nobel Laureate Professor E. J. Corey from 1987 to 1990. After his postdoctoral studies, he joined Warner-Lambert Company (later became Pfizer) in Ann Arbor, Michigan as a Senior Scientist. He rose to the position of Associate Research Fellow at Pfizer. While at Warner-Lambert and Pfizer, Dr. Yuen contributed to drug discovery programs in both psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases areas. Through his collaboration with Northwestern University, Dr. Yuen contributed to the successful drug discovery effort that led to the development of Lyrica®, a blockbuster drug for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, fibromyalgia and seizures control. Dr. Yuen also led medicinal chemistry and drug discovery efforts that resulted in the identification of several development candidates in the CNS area; two of them have advanced into clinical trials.

Dr. Yuen has authored more than 50 scientific publications and is also the inventor of more than 60 US patents and patent applications.