Ajith Kamath's Biography

Ajith Kamath, Head, Pfizer Inc

Dr. Ajith Kamath is the Head of Strategic Research Partnership, India, a part of Pfizer’s External R&D Innovation. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from IISc and carried out postdoctoral studies at the University of Texas- Austin and Stanford. In 1993, Dr. Kamath joined Pfizer’s R&D in the US and worked there for 13+ years. He was the Associate Director of the Protein Science department in Cambridge, where he helped establish and manage the protein production and biophysical characterization and X-ray crystallography groups. He played a key role in the successful implementation of gene family approach for phosphodiesterases and kinases at this center. In 2007, Dr. Kamath returned to India and joined Jubilant Biosys as Head of the Structural Biology department. His team delivered a large number of ligand-bound protein structures and impacted many drug discovery programs for clients. Dr. Kamath also oversaw many drug discovery programs and successfully delivered one preclinical candidate. In 2012, he rejoined Pfizer. In his current role, he will explore opportunities to partner with Indian pharmas/academics to discover and develop new molecules/platforms for various diseases. He has received many awards, including Pfizer’s PGRD Achievement Award and Jubilant’s Leadership Award.