Medicilon Appoints Dr. Liu Jian as President of Drug Discovery Division

Medicilon, a one-stop pharmaceutical preclinical R&D service platform CRO, recognizes the importance of drug discovery as the cornerstone of new drug innovation. With extensive expertise in modern synthetic chemistry, Medicilon excels in various cutting-edge areas of pharmaceutical research, including chiral drugs, glycochemistry, antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), nucleoside/nucleotide drugs, and oligonucleotide drugs (such as RNAi). Additionally, Medicilon has made significant advancements in PROTAC technology and established a progressively improved BSL-2 laboratory facility.

With the growing pharmaceutical industry and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, the enormous market potential for drug discovery can be forecasted.The participation of Dr.Liu Jian, a seasoned pharmaceutical research scientist, will empower Medicilon Drug Discovery division to revolutionize drug discovery model and bring new imagination to drug discovery.

Recently, Shanghai Medicilon Inc. (Medicilon) appointed Dr. Liu Jian as the President of Drug Discovery Division.

Dr. Liu Jian holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Peking University, a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University, and a Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry and Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Pennsylvania.  In 2018, Dr. Liu Jian served as the President of the Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association (SAPA) and is currently the Chairman of the board of directors of SAPA.  In 2019, he was awarded the "Outstanding 50 Asian American in Business " by the Asian-American Business Development Center in New York and was elected as one of the 12 most influential Chinese-Americans in New Jersey in 2019.

With over 20 years of experience in the field of innovative drug development, Dr. Liu Jian has made significant contributions. Under his leadership, the team has invented and submitted10 preclinical candidates (PCCs), which have entered Phase I, II, and III clinical trials. He has filed over 72 patent applications, with 21 patents already granted.  Dr. Liu Jian also possesses profound academic achievements, having published a total of 47 articles in international academic journals and serving as a reviewer for several international academic journals.

Dr. Liu joined the industry in 2001 and has worked for Merck for nearly 20 years. He has been primarily involved and leading the R&D of novel small molecule drugs for various diseases, including osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, immune disease, antiviral and antibacterial and pain. He started as a Senior Research Chemist and worked his way to the Principal Scientist and External Discovery Chemistry Lead, earning the "Merck Excellence Award" four times. He later served as CSO and Operations Director at Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceutical USA Drug Discovery Center (EBI), where he led the development of new drugs for cancer, immune diseases, osteoarthritis, and neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, he became the CEO of Silexon AI, responsible for building the company's artificial intelligence platform and empowering innovative drug research.

Dr. Liu Jian, President of Drug Discovery Division of Medicilon, said, “It's a great honor to be part of Medicilon. Over the past 19 years, Medicilon has deeply cultivated the preclinical research and development field and established a rare one-stop pharmaceutical preclinical research and development service platform in China. It has also aimed at cutting-edge technologies worldwide and continued to drive technological innovation. In the future, I hope to lead the team in the Drug Discovery Division to focus on efficient and high-quality new drug development, establish and improve various technical platforms for innovative drug research and development, including AIDD and structural biology, peptide and cyclic peptide drug development, synthetic biology, and nuclear medicine development. By realizing Medicilon one-stop service experiment from target research recommendation to IND application, we could empower the discovery of more innovative drugs for the benefit of patients!"

Dr. Chen Chunlin, the Founder and CEO of Medicilon, said, “We warmly welcome Dr. Liu Jian to join the board of President of Drug Discovery Division. We believe that his extensive academic background, outstanding leadership ability and rich R&D experience in the field of drug discovery will bring Medicilon more professional and cutting-edge innovative drug development technology , as well as advanced industry insights and strategic guidance crucial to Medicilon to next stage of development.

About Medicilon:
Medicilon was established in 2004 with its headquarters located in Shanghai. It is a leading Contract Research Organization (CRO) specializing in comprehensive preclinical research and development services in the field of biomedicine. We have established a comprehensive service; technology platform, which integrates compound synthesis, compound activity screening, structural biology, CMC, pharmacodynamics evaluation, pharmacokinetics and toxicological safety evaluation. On November 5, 2019, Medicilon was officially listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, becoming the first pharmaceutical CRO company to be listed on the board (Stock Code: 688202).