Xiang Yang Yu, PhD
Dr. Xiang Yang Yu has successful experience in drug discovery, pre-clinical & clinical studies and global regulatory filing strategies with a broad understanding of new drug development trends. Dr. Yu is an expert on MedChem Compound Design based on SAR, preclinical development & CMC.
Dr. Yu has been head of chemistry at Lysoway leading drug discovery programs since October 2020. Dr. Yu was a program manager at Accellient Partners with responsibilities for API and drug product CMC manufacture as well as for regulatory filings. She was also involved in multiple clinical trials from Phase I to Phase III in multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to that, she was a principal investigator at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals where she successfully led drug discovery and development programs in multiple therapeutic areas as well as efficiently and strategically managed external drug discovery and development collaborations in the US, Europe and Asia. Prior to joining Ironwood, Dr. Yu was director of medicinal chemistry at Epix Pharmaceuticals leading successful drug discovery programs. She was the chemistry project leader for S1P program licensed to Amgen for highly potent, selective and orally active agents for autoimmune diseases leading to $20 million upfront payment and $307 million milestone payment in a record 9 months. Dr. Yu was also a chemistry project leader for a GSK collaborative discovery program which resulted in $5.5 million upfront payment in 7 months. Before joining Epix, she led multiple anti-infectious programs at Activbiotics and Cubist Pharmaceuticals.
She obtained her MS and PhD degree in Organic Chemistry from Florida State University and received her undergraduate degree from East China University of Science & Technology in Shanghai. Dr. Yu is a board director and president of the Chinese American BioMedical Association (CABA) since 2014 (a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit professional organization. She was the president of CABA – (2013-2014). She is a co-chair in MassBio Forum at MassBio and a BayHelix member.