Simulations Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLP), a leading provider of simulation and modeling software for pharmaceutical discovery and development, today announced that Michael Lawless, Ph.D., will transition to the Marketing and Sales team as Business Development Manager, Cheminformatics Solutions. In addition, the company announced the appointment of Vijay K. Gombar, Ph.D., to the position of Team Leader for Cheminformatics Studies.
John DiBella, Vice President for Marketing and Sales at Simulations Plus, said: “Michael joined us in 2011 as Team Leader, Cheminformatics Studies, and over these past four years he has managed the group responsible for developing many of the predictive models in ADMET Predictor™, while serving as our lead scientist on several internal and external projects, including the management of collaborations with the FDA and NIEHS. He has been supporting marketing efforts by hosting company-sponsored webinars and giving both oral and poster presentations at numerous scientific conferences. With his technical knowledge of the products and great communication skills, we’re excited that his move into a business development role will help us continue to build on our established customer base and penetrate into new markets, as will Vijay’s coming on board.”
Dr. Vijay Gombar earned his Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry at Panjab University in Chandigarh, India, attending Oxford University as a Royal Society Exchange Fellow. Vijay began his career in industry at Health Designs, Inc., where he was Director of Research & Development. He went on to become Vice President for R&D at Oxford Molecular, Plc., after that company acquired Health Designs, Inc. His subsequent experience in the pharmaceutical industry included several years as a Senior Research Investigator and, most recently, as a Research Advisor at Lilly Research Laboratories.
Dr. Robert Clark, Director of Cheminformatics at Simulations Plus, said: “We are happy to announce that Vijay is joining us to assume leadership of our Cheminformatics Studies Team, which is responsible for creating new absorption, distribution, excretion, metabolism, and toxicity models in our ADMET Predictor™ software program. I have known Vijay for many years. He brings over 25 years of industrial experience in anticipating the kinds of toxicological and pharmacokinetic problems that can derail drug development. Dr. Gombar is widely respected in the ADMET prediction community, not least because of his authoritative publications dealing with predictive toxicology and related presentations that he has given at national and international scientific meetings. We look forward to the contributions he will make to our science and our software, but we are equally excited by what he will bring to our marketing and networking efforts by his participation in scientific meetings around the world.”
Dr. Ted Grasela, president of the combined Simulations Plus and Cognigen Corporation, added: “With the pending release of exciting new versions of our two highest revenue-producing programs, GastroPlus™ and ADMET Predictor™, the transition of Dr. Lawless to sales and marketing and the addition of Dr. Gombar to our scientific team, we expect to bolster our positive momentum in revenue growth. Both Michael and Vijay will be introducing our technology to new markets and working to continue progress in the cross-promotion of consulting services with Cognigen.”