Blanda Stammen

A highly motivated Drug Discovery Scientist and Research Project Leader with 18 years experience in Pharmaceutical R&D with a proven ability to deliver drug candidates and to build, manage & lead matrix teams. Co-inventor of maraviroc (Celsentri/Selzentry). Medicinal Chemistry design experience across a number of small molecule projects in various therapeutic areas from early discovery through to Proof-of-Concept. Driven by the passion to make a difference to patients’ lives.

Blanda is a highly motivated Drug Discovery Scientist and Research Project Leader with 18 years experience in Pharmaceutical R&D with a proven ability to deliver drug candidates and to build, manage & lead matrix teams. She is a co-inventor of maraviroc (Celsentri/Selzentry). Blanda has in-depth Medicinal Chemistry design experience across a number of small molecule projects in various therapeutic areas from early discovery through to Proof-of-Concept. She has always been driven by the passion to make a difference to patients’ lives.

Blanda is a highly driven Drug Discovery Scientist and Research Project Leader with 18 years experience in Pharmaceutical R&D. As Project Leader she has been accountable for delivery of small molecule projects from early discovery through to Proof-of-Concept and has led matrix team of several discipline leads charged with identification of a once a day oral drug.

As Medicinal Chemist she worked in multiple therapeutic areas, e.g. Antivirals, Antifungals, and Pain, across various gene families like GPCRs, enzymes and ion channels. She was the Senior Medicinal Chemist of a team assigned with the design and identification of the first marketed CCR5 inhibitor maraviroc (Celsentri/Selzentry) for the treatment of HIV for which she received the ACS Heroes of Chemistry Award in. Whilst working on treatments for pain she was the leading contributor of a global team (Japan), responsible for the design and identification of a first-in-class sodium channel inhibitor. During her time as a Medicinal Chemist she directly supervised synthetic chemistry teams with varying levels of individual experience and performance, providing performance evaluation, tailored technical coaching and work plans.

Blanda is an expert on all safety aspects of the Drug Discovery process. She organised and chaired a Safety and Attrition workshop at Pfizer during 2010 which addressed the design of safer drug candidates and was targeted at all partner lines. The workshop was afterwards rolled-out globally to all Pfizer Research sites.

Blanda graduated from the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany in 1989. She obtained her PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) after only two years of research with Professors P Welzel and W. Roth for which she was awarded a student prize from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the leading science funding body in Germany. After 18 months of post-doctoral research with Prof. W. Oppolzer in Geneva, Switzerland, she joined Pfizer in 1993.

Blanda is author or co-author on more than 28 patents and publications.

Expertise
ADME, Antiviral, Chemistry-Medicinal, Pain, Patents, Small Molecule, UK