Founded in 2002, we are a clinical stage biotech company committed to bringing novel and effective therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.
We leverage our deep expertise in oncology focused drug discovery and development to bring novel therapeutics to cancer patients.
Since inception, we have discovered 18 novel chemical entities for clinical development. We have out-licensed several of these to pharmaceutical and biotech companies, while advancing a few on our own.
We have built comprehensive drug discovery and development capabilities, nurtured a growing team of passionate scientists, and collaborated with partners across the world.
20+
years of experience
80+
integrated drug discovery projects
18
programs in global clinical development
350+
scientists
200+
NCE patents
We aspire to improve the lives of patients by ensuring access to quality cancer medicines through accelerated innovation and strong partnerships.
To positively impact the lives of cancer patients by fostering a culture of mutual respect, innovation, and integrity.
To bring together driven and passionate experts motivated by science with a strong belief in teamwork.
A closer look at our achievements and milestones in the past two decades – with many more to come.
Aurigene gains global rights for AG-636
Multi-program partnership with EQRx for developing drugs for oncology and immune-inflammation
Global licensing agreement with Olema
Aurigene gains global rights for ODM-203
Aurigene initiates Phase 1 clinical trials in India for AUR-103 (oral CD47 inhibitor)
Aurigene initiates Phase 2b clinical trials in the US for AUR-101 (RORgt inverse agonist)
Aurigene initiates Phase 2b/Phase 3 clinical trials in India for CA-170
Aurigene initiates Phase 2a clinical trials in India for ODM-203
Aurigene initiates Phase 2a clinical trials in India for AUR-101 (RORgt inverse agonist)
Separation of services business
Aurigene gains Asia rights for CA-170
Multi-program licensing deal with Exelixis
Aurigene initiates Phase 1 clinical trials in Australia for AUR-101 (RORgt inverse agonist)
Licensing agreement with Agios
Aurigene initiates Phase 2a clinical trials in India for CA-170
Multi-program licensing agreement with Curis
Option licensing deal with Orion Pharma
Partnership with US biotech Mitobridge (currently an Astellas company)
Candidate from the Novartis collaboration enters Phase 1
First biotech partnership with H3 Biomedicine (subsidiary of Eisai)
Several internal programs initiated in IO, epigenetics, and Th17 pathway
Discovery and peptide partnerships with two US/EU-based large pharma
Initiation of the first IO program - peptide antagonist of PD-1
Multi-year, multi-target strategic partnerships with a large US pharma
Multi-year, multi-target strategic partnerships with Endo
Multi-year, multi-target strategic partnerships with Janssen
Multi-year, multi-target strategic partnerships with Novartis and Orion
First early stage licensing and discovery partnership with Merck Serono and Debiopharm groups
First discovery partnership with Novo Nordisk
Achieved breakeven, management change, and addition to Senior Scientific team
Aurigene incorporated
Murali Ramachandra, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Prior to assuming the CEO responsibility, Murali was serving as Chief Scientific Officer at Aurigene. Murali has extensive experience of over 25 years in running successful and innovative research and early development pipelines both at operational and strategic level. He received his PhD from University of Idaho, USA and was a Postdoctoral fellow at DuPont Experimental Station and University of Kansas Medical Centre, Kansas City, USA. He has worked on various aspects of drug discovery at the National Institute of Health, USA and Schering-Plough, USA before joining Aurigene. He has co-authored more than 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor of 24 granted US patents. Murali has been in Aurigene since February 2005.
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Susanta Samajdar, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Susanta received his PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata and subsequently moved to MD Anderson Cancer Centre for a Post-Doctoral training on anti-cancer drug discovery. He has over 20 years of synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry research experience in Indian Industries. Susanta has experience in leading multi-disciplinary drug discovery teams that successfully delivered many preclinical development candidates. He has experience in working with various target classes including GPCRs, Ion channels, Proteases, Kinases and NHRs, across different therapeutic areas like Oncology, Pain and Inflammation, Metabolic Disorders and Neurosciences. He has more than 50 publications/patents to his credit. He has been with Aurigene since March 2012.
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Akhil Kumar, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Akhil leads the clinical development department at Aurigene. After completing his MBBS from AIIMS, New Delhi, in 1995, he completed his residency training in Internal Medicine and Clinical Fellowship in Hematology and Oncology from the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. He has been in the industry for more than 18 years, with both big pharma as well as small biotech companies. He has been part of two successful New Drug Applications to the US FDA. In addition, he has led > 10 IND applications to US FDA and > 5 IND applications to DCGI, India. He established the clinical development department at Aurigene and works with cross-functional teams like pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and toxicology. Akhil has been with Aurigene since 2017.
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Brijesh Kumar Karnani
Chief Financial Officer
Brijesh is a Chartered Accountant with 20+ years of experience in Accounting, Financial Management, Internal Auditing and Project Management. He has also completed Certified Internal Auditor certification from The Institute of Internal Auditors, USA. Prior to joining Aurigene, he has worked for around 12 years in Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited in Hyderabad in various roles including as Head of Internal Audit. His earlier experience includes stints with large audit firms in Hyderabad and Bangalore. He has been in Aurigene since Feb 2020.
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Sanjeev Giri, PhD
Senior Vice President and Head – Early Development
Sanjeev has over 18 years of experience in the field of drug discovery and clinical research. He has successfully led multidisciplinary teams including DMPK, PRD, Pharmaceutical Development, ARD, Quality, and Early Development to support projects starting from Hit to IND/ Ph II clinical trials. Sanjeev has led and contributed to the success of several INDs and ANDAs applications in various therapeutic areas such as oncology, inflammation, metabolic disorder, and anti-infectives. His experience is spread across multiple Indian pharma & CROs including Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Reliance Clinical Research Services, and Jubilant Biosys where he worked on various generics and Drug Discovery projects. Sanjeev received his PhD in Chemistry from VBS University, and MBA from IIM Bangalore, India. He has co-authored over 25 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor of couple of USA patents. Sanjeev joined Aurigene in March 2014 and leads the Early Development research.
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Subir Dubey
Vice President, Business Development
Subir has more than 28 years of experience in international business development and formulation of business strategy. He has worked across various geographies i.e., US, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Africa and has the experience in Finished formulations, API, Biosimilars and Pre-clinical drug discovery services business. He has worked with companies like Jubilant Biosys Ltd, Intas Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, DeVats India Pvt Ltd and Ace Laboratories Ltd. He has done Ex. Masters in International Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi.
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Veerendra Patil
Vice President and Head – Human Resources and Administration
Veerendra, as the Head of Human Resources at Aurigene, is responsible for envisioning and driving the human resources strategies in-alignment with business plan and strategic direction of the organization. Veerendra has over 19 years of diverse industry experience from Pharma/Biotech, ITES, Infrastructure and Power sectors with exposure to Strategic HR, Organization Development, Talent Acquisition & Management, Performance Management, Compensation & Benefits, HR Analytics, Rewards & Recognition, Employee Engagement, Learning and Development, HR Process Excellence and Compliance & Risk Management. Prior to Aurigene, Veerendra worked with GMR Group, Macmillan India Ltd. and RMZ Corp.
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G V Prasad
Chairman of the Board
G V Prasad is the Co-chairman and Managing Director of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. He is widely credited as the architect of Dr. Reddy’s successful global generics strategy. He envisioned new business platforms such as the custom pharmaceutical services business and specialty pharmaceuticals, and is dedicated to building the innovation side of the business. He is also a champion of sustainability thinking. Prasad earned his degree in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (USA) in 1982 and his Masters in Industrial Administration from Purdue University (USA) in 1983.
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Satish Reddy
Director
Satish Reddy is the Chairman of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. He joined the company in 1993 and since then, has held positions of increasing responsibility. Satish led the organization’s transition from a uni-focused manufacturer of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) to a company that moved up the value-chain with a diverse product portfolio of finished dosage formulations. He oversaw the expansion and establishment of a strong footprint for Dr. Reddy’s finished dosage products in Russia, CIS countries, and other emerging markets.
Satish holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Osmania University (India), and an MS in Medicinal Chemistry from Purdue University (USA), where he received the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
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Parag Agarwal
Director
Parag Agarwal is the Chief Financial Officer of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited. He joined Dr. Reddy’s from London-based Reckitt Benckiser PLC, where he was the CFO for Health. In a career spanning over 33 years, Parag has held several leadership positions, contributing significantly to the financial performance of his organizations. With over 10 years of working experience in several countries outside India, he brings deep global experience in leading business and financial strategy, transforming finance function, as well as in M&A strategy and execution.
He has expertise in driving performance management of investments, financial result delivery, and driving operating margin improvement through revenue and cost optimization across the value chain. Parag has held leadership positions in diverse cultural contexts and has driven large-scale change management programs in ambiguous and dynamic environments. Prior to his nine-year stint at Reckitt, Parag was associated with organizations such as Unilever, GSK Consumer Healthcare, and Genpact. Parag is a Chartered Accountant and a Company Secretary.
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Patrick Aghanian
Director
Patrick Aghanian is the Chief Executive Officer for European Generics at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited and a member of Dr. Reddy’s Management Council. Patrick joined Dr. Reddy’s from Zentiva in Prague (Czech Republic). Before becoming Head of Zentiva in 2017, he worked for multinational pharma companies such as Sanofi, GSK, and Novartis, where he held various leadership roles in Eurasia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Patrick earned his Masters of Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management (USA), and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles (USA).
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Dr. Bruce Carter
Independent Director
Dr. Bruce LA Carter is an independent member of the board at Dr. Reddy’s for the past seven years. He started his long and illustrious career in the biopharma industry at G.D. Searle & Co. In 1986, he joined ZymoGenetics as Vice President of Research and Development and then went on to head the company as Chief Executive Officer from April 1998 to January 2009. During this period, ZymoGenetics was acquired by Novo Nordisk A/S, where he served as Corporate Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer from April 1994 to October 1999.
Dr. Carter led the negotiations that established ZymoGenetics as an independent company from Novo Nordisk in 2000. He has also been a part of academia, as a Lecturer/Professor at Trinity College, University of Dublin, and University of Washington. He received a BSc with Honors in Botany from the University of Nottingham (UK) and a PhD in Microbiology from Queen Elizabeth College, University of London (UK).
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Hariharnath Buggana
Independent Director
Hariharnath Buggana is the Managing Director of InvAscent India – a private equity firm focused on Indian healthcare, pharma, and medtech industries. Prior to this, Hari was a consultant with McKinsey & Company. During his stint at McKinsey, Hari primarily worked with life sciences businesses in the US, Europe, and India on a variety of issues ranging from corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, product-market strategy, R&D productivity, organizational effectiveness, and operations improvement.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Hari worked as a scientist in the pharmaceutical products division of Abbott Laboratories (USA). Hari has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and an MS in Chemical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (USA).
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Dr. Shubhada Chiplunkar
Independent Director
Prof Shubhada Chiplunkar Former Director of the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre, Navi Mumbai and the Head of Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Research Group at ACTREC obtained her PhD from University of Mumbai (1983) and post-doctoral fellowship from Max Planck Institute, Freiburg Germany. Her specific expertise is in the areas of cancer immunobiology. She has dedicated over 35 years of research career in understanding immune dysfunctions in the tumor microenvironment of cancer patients. She employed this experience in development of immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer using Gamma Delta T cells. As an adviser within a national consortium on therapeutics, she is involved in guiding the development of cell-based therapeutics, including CART cells and other immunotherapeutic modalities.
She has widely published and continues to actively pursue her scientific interests through diverse platforms. She is the member of several scientific advisory and review committees of national research institutes, DBT, DST, BIRAC, ICMR. She has served as Member of the Board of Governors NIPER- A and Academic Council of Universities and as Senate member of IIT-B. She is the President of Immuno-oncology society of India (IOSI) and Mumbai Immunology Group (MIG). At present she is also the member of the Education Committee of International Union Immunological Societies (IUIS).
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Dr. Kumar Srinivasan
Independent Director
Kumar Srinivasan, Ph.D., MBA, in his most recent role served as executive vice president and chief business officer at Turning Point Therapeutics with responsibility for corporate strategy and business development, including collaborations and alliances where he successfully lead the sale of the company to Bristol Myers Squibb for $ 4.1 billion.
Kumar has over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, most recently as vice
president and global head of business development for the BioPharmaceutical business unit of AstraZeneca.
During his 9-year tenure at AstraZeneca, Dr. Srinivasan was responsible for all in- and out-licensing, business development and alliance management activities within several therapeutic areas on a regional and global scale. During the pandemic Kumar lead the licensing and global supply agreements for the AstraZeneca’s vaccine and mAb cocktails and contributed significantly to the success of both these programs which made a tremendous impact on global health.
In addition, he previously held executive level business development roles at Wyeth; Vivoryon (formerly known as Probiodrug), a publicly traded biotech based in Germany; and Torrey Pines Therapeutics. Earlier in his career, he held scientific roles at biopharmaceutical companies, Sibia Neurosciences and Genta.
He has a Ph.D from Case Western University in chemistry, did his postdoctoral work at Caltech under Nobel Laureate Professor Frances Arnold and has an MBA with a concentration in finance and strategy from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
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Corporate Social Responsibility Committee
Independent Director
Director
Chairman of the Board