Chemical Development & Scale-Up in the Fine Chemical & Pharmaceutical Industries

In 2024, Bec joined Scientific Update as a Senior Process Chemist and then promoted to Scientific Director in November 2025. Prior to this, Bec spent 4 years as a Process Chemistry Team Leader in the Process R&D group at Sai Life Sciences and oversaw a number of route scouting and early phase projects, both in Manchester and India.\u00a0 She was also involved in several training programs at both sites. Her previous process chemistry roles include working in the scale-up lab at Peakdale Molecular (now Concept Life Sciences) and 2 years as an industrial post-doc in the Chemical Development team at AstraZeneca, Macclesfield.\u00a0 Bec has also worked in the Drug Discovery Unit at Cancer Research UK, Manchester where she gained a good understanding of medicinal chemistry and worked on an oncology project through to candidate nomination.<\/p>\n"}" data-popup-custom="Single.tutorsPopupOpen">Dr Bec Newton, Ben obtained his chemistry from the University of Oxford and PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Bristol working with Professor Tim Gallagher. He then completed a postdoc at North Carolina State University with Professor Jon Lindsey before joining the Chemical Development team at AMRI in Albany, New York in 1999. At AMRI Ben worked in the kilo lab and pilot plant developing and implementing process from up to tens of kg scale. He also led a team developing routes and process for first-in-human synthesis. He was also lead chemist for reaction calorimetry, real-time analysis and automation techniques.<\/p>\n

In 2004 Ben joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston where he focused on implementing PAT tools and developing synthesis processes for late-stage and commercial manufacture, including telaprevir for hepatitis C treatment. In 2005 Ben relocated to Vertex San Diego to set-up and lead a new process chemistry team focused on facilitating the movement of candidate molecules from Med Chem to the clinical trials, including cystic fibrosis (lumacaftor, tezacaftor, elexacaftor) and pain. During this time he gained experience in numerous aspects of drug discovery, pharmaceutical sciences, working with outsourcing partners, project and team leadership. He also chaired cross-functional scientific teams implementing advanced manufacturing techniques, such as flow chemistry, biotransformations, and photochemistry<\/p>\n

In 2022 Ben left Vertex to set up his own consulting business which includes joining Scientific Update as Technical Associate,North America & Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n"}" data-popup-custom="Single.tutorsPopupOpen">Dr Ben Littler