Eric Voight, Senior Research Fellow
Title: Synthesis Innovation in Drug Discovery
Abstract:
Excellence in synthetic organic chemistry plays an increasingly important role in drug discovery efforts as small molecule targets become more complex along with accelerated project timelines. AbbVie’s discovery synthesis groups have addressed this need by bridging the gap between discovery and process chemistry, providing new scaffolds and methods to accelerate structure-activity relationship studies, rapidly scaling lead compounds, and collaborating internally and externally across many diverse projects. Case studies from immunology, oncology, virology, cystic fibrosis, and neuroscience projects will showcase the impact of this approach, with asymmetric synthesis and academic collaboration as common themes. Finally, the synthesis-driven discovery of VYALEVTM/PRODUODOPA® for advanced Parkinson’s Disease will be described.
Bio:
Eric Voight is a Senior Research Fellow in AbbVie Global Medicinal Chemistry where he leads the Centralized Organic Synthesis group and serves as a Parkinson’s Disease Project Director. He and his team have contributed to over 35 clinical candidates across immunology, oncology, cystic fibrosis, virology, and neuroscience, including VYALEVTM for advanced Parkinson’s Disease which was approved by the U.S. FDA in 2024. Eric is a coauthor of > 50 publications and book chapters, coinventor on > 25 patents, champions industry-academic collaborations in synthesis, serves on the steering committee for the Catalysis Innovation Consortium, and served as chair of the 2024 Heterocyclic Compounds Gordon Research Conference. Before his current role, Eric was a medicinal chemistry lead in Neuroscience-Pain and spent four years as a process chemist at Merck and GSK. He received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin – Madison with Professor Steve Burke.
Host: Prof. Tehshik Yoon