Q BioMed Inc., a NYC-based biotechnology acceleration company is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Amy Ripka and Dr. Rick Panicucci to its board of scientific advisors.

Dr. Amy Ripka is Executive Director of Medicinal Chemistry at WuXi AppTec. She started her career at Bristol Myers Squibb and over 17 years has worked in various capacities in medicinal chemistry with many small companies, including EnVivo (FORUM) Pharmaceuticals as Head of Chemistry, Infinity, Daiamed, HydraBiosciences and FoldRx. Her current responsibilities include strategic planning in medicinal chemistry, early library drug design utilizing multiple in silico methods, hit optimization and overall screening architectures to advance early stage compounds through Phase I-II clinical development.

Dr. Ripka’s therapeutic specialties include Neuroscience, Oncology, Thrombosis and Anti-Infective Disease areas. She has led multiple early stage programs resulting in four clinical candidates, two of which are marketed drugs. Her career has spanned big pharma, biotech and CROs where she has made significant contributions to each of these.

Dr. Ripka, was elected by her peers to Chair the prestigious Medicinal Chemistry Gordon Research Conference and is currently serving a second elected term as the Industrial Councilor for the MEDI Division of the American Chemical Society.

Dr. Ripka, received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a double concentration in organic and medicinal chemistry, and did her post-doctoral studies with Nobel Laureate K. Barry Sharpless from The Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Ripka will advise Mannin’s scientific development and growth.

Dr. Rick Panicucci is the Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development at WuXi AppTec. He is responsible for providing scientific leadership in the areas of Developability, Formulation Development and GMP Manufacturing.

Dr. Panicucci plays an important role in the early stages of drug discovery for various companies. His responsibilities include solid state chemistry and formulation development of all small molecule therapeutics in early development, and developing novel drug delivery technologies for small molecules and large molecules including siRNA.

Prior to WuXi he held the position of Global Head of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Profiling (CPP) at Novartis from 2004 to 2015, where he led the development and implementation of innovative dosage form designs and continuous manufacturing paradigms. He has also held positions as the Director of Formulation Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Senior Scientist at Biogen.

Dr. Panicucci received his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry at the University of Toronto, and has two post-doctoral fellowships at University of California at Santa Barbara and the Ontario Cancer Institute. Dr. Panicucci will advise our technology partner, Mannin Research Inc.’s development both scientifically and commercially.

Both Amy and Rick have been working with Mannin in the development plan for MAN-01, a novel drug candidate for the topical treatment of open-angle glaucoma. George Nikopoulos, CEO of Mannin stated, “We are very pleased to formally welcome Amy and Rick to the team. Amy and Rick bring unparalleled experience in their respective areas, and their input to our MAN-01 program is tremendously valuable. We are excited to have them both on board and look forward utilizing their experience beyond MAN-01, as we continue to grow our pipeline.”

Denis Corin, CEO of Q BioMed Inc added, “We are very pleased to welcome Amy and Rick and the extensive knowledge and experience they bring to our advisory board and we look forward to their input in all areas of our expanding pipeline”.