Sai’s leadership team is composed of experienced executives with backgrounds in business and science. The team is highly complementary and each member brings his or her unique set of expertise and experiences that together provide the important leadership to build Sai into the ideal partner for the biopharmaceutical industry.

Krishna Kanumuri, CEO and Managing Director
Milind Shenvi, Ph.D., Sr. Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry
Hitesh Patel, Ph.D., Sr. Vice President, Business Development
Subrahmanyam (Mani) Vangala, Ph.D., Vice President, DMPK and Toxicology Services
Manjusha Joshi, M. Pharm., Vice President, Formulations
TVSK Vittal, Ph.D., Vice President, Chemical Development and Scale-up
Satya Babu M, Ph.D., Vice President, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs
Gregory Luedtke, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry and Program Management
Sarma BVNBS, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry

Krishna Kanumuri, CEO and Managing Director

Krishna joined Sai in 2004 as Vice President of Business Development and was instrumental in building the client base.  Prior to Sai, he held roles of increasing responsibilities at two Fortune 100 telecom companies (Sprint and Telmex) where he played a key role in launching several new products, developing marketing alliances and supporting M&A activities. Krishna received an MBA in Finance from the University of Kansas and a BE in Chemical Engineering from Mangalore University. ^TOP

Milind Shenvi, Ph.D., Sr. Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry

Milind joined Sai in 2005 as Vice President Medicinal Chemistry and continues to lead the Medicinal Chemistry team. He completed his Ph.D. at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, and conducted post-doctoral work with Prof. H.C. Brown at Purdue University. He started his industrial career with Astra Zeneca in Bangalore where he spent 15 years and worked in the therapeutic areas such as cancer and infectious disease.  Milind has 32 publications and two patents to his credit and his major contributions are in the area of anti-infectives. He has also worked in the area of prostaglandins and developed a commercial synthesis of 15 methyl PGF2a. ^TOP

Hitesh Patel, Ph.D., Sr. Vice President, Business Development

Hitesh joined Sai in August 2007 and currently heads the Business Development team as Sr. Vice President. Hitesh has 13 years of drug discovery experience with leadership roles at Pharmacopeia and Ambit Biosciences.  He was actively involved in overseeing several research and IND enabling programs in the area of CNS, metabolic disorders and oncology.  Hitesh headed up chemistry and was a program manager of AC220, a late-stage clinical program for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia during his tenure at Ambit. Hitesh has 21 publications and 35 patents across several therapeutic areas to his credit. He obtained his Ph.D from the University of Southampton, UK and conducted his postdoctoral studies at Columbia University. ^TOP

Subrahmanyam (Mani) Vangala, Ph.D., Vice President, DMPK and
Toxicology Services

Mani joined Sai in December 2007, and led the effort to build a state-of-the-art preclinical department supporting DMPK and toxicology services.  He received his MS in biochemistry from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India and a PhD in biochemistry and toxicology from Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada. He conducted post doctoral studies in molecular toxicology at the University of Colorado and the University of California, Berkeley. He has 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical companies including American Cyanamid, Wyeth, Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and Shire. He has published 35 research articles and 10 book chapters related to drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, toxicology and biomarkers.  He serves on the committee of Land O' Lakes drug metabolism conferences and for other international conferences related to drug metabolism and toxicology. ^TOP

Manjusha Joshi, M. Pharm., Vice President, Formulations

Manjusha joined Sai in May 2008 and has been instrumental in setting up the formulation labs. She brings over 20 years of experience in formulation development.  She started her career at Emcure Pharmaceuticals where she held positions of increasing responsibilities and eventually attained the position of Vice President, leading a team of 120 scientists.  Manjusha has post graduate training in Pharmacy from University of Pune.  She has experience in handling various dosage forms such as tablets, capsules, injectables, creams and gels.   Manjusha has developed several commercial HIV drugs using controlled release tablets and fixed dose combinations.  With 5 publications and 3 patents, her main focus for formulation patents is on new drug delivery systems such as controlled release tablets and fast-dissolving oral tablets. ^TOP

TVSK Vittal, Ph.D., Vice President, Chemical Development and Scale-up

Vittal is associated with Sai since late 2007 and currently heads up the chemical development team. Vittal completed his PhD from IICT, Hyderabad, and brings over 14 years of industrial experience in process research, development and scale up. Before joining Sai, Vittal was associated with AVRA laboratories (CRO /CMO), Shasun Chemicals (API manufacturing), Dr. Reddys Laboratories (generic drug industry) and lastly as Director at Chembiotek (CRO). Vittal published four research papers during his doctoral training and has three patents that claim non-infringing process routes for clients’ APIs. ^TOP   

Satya Babu M, Ph.D., Vice President, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs

Satya joined Sai in 2004.   He received his Ph.D in Chemistry from JNT University, Hyderabad, and completed an MBA in International Business from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. Satya brings over 14 years of diverse expertise in pharmaceutical quality and regulatory affairs.  Prior to Sai, he successfully handled roles of increasing responsibilities at Dr. Reddy’s and Cadila Healthcare Limited, two major pharma companies in India.  He established himself in the Indian pharma industry as a leading healthcare QA/RA professional and has a proven track of managing numerous regulatory submissions as well as addressing inquiries and responses. ^TOP 

Gregory Luedtke, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry and Program Management

Greg joined Sai in January 2007 from Scios.   During his 11 years at Scios, he was the project team leader for their p38 inhibitor program that produced two clinical candidates in the areas of oncology and inflammation.  He has significant experience in lead generation and optimization. Greg received his PhD from Montana State University from Prof. Tom Livinghouse in the field of natural product synthesis. Greg then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University under Prof. W. S. Johnson.  Greg is an author on 14 publications and an inventor on 6 issued patents and numerous published patent applications. ^TOP

Sarma BVNBS, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry

Sarma joined Sai in Jan 2003 and presently heads the medicinal chemistry site at Hyderabad. Sarma received his PhD from Osmania University/Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India. He went on to do his post-doctoral work at Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, Ottawa, Canada. His expertise includes synthesis of carbohydrates, asymmetric synthesis, nucleosides, pegylation/conjugates & steroids. Sarma has nine publications & one book chapter. ^TOP