Preclinical DMPK lead

DMPK Department with Early Respiratory & Immunology

Hays Life Sciences is now looking to recruit a Preclinical DMPK Lead to join the DMPK Department with Early Respiratory & Immunology for 1-year contract assignment at AstraZeneca in Gothenburg.

Are you a scientist with expertise in drug discovery? Would you like to apply your expertise in a global company that follows the science and turns ideas into life-changing medicines? Then you could be the new colleague we are looking for! Join us as a Preclinical DMPK Project Lead!

We are now looking for an experienced and motivated individual to join our team as a Senior Research Scientist or an Associate Principal Scientist, depending on your level of professional experience and capabilities. You will be part of the DMPK Department within Early Respiratory & Immunology (R&I) and this position is placed at AstraZeneca's vibrant R&D site in Gothenburg, Sweden, one of AstraZeneca's three strategic science centres.

At AstraZeneca Respiratory & Immunology (R&I), we're proud to have an outstanding workplace culture that encourages innovation and teamwork. We are united by our vision to push the boundaries of DMPK science to transform ideas into medicines for R&I patients. Employees are empowered to express diverse perspectives - and are made to feel valued, energized and rewarded for their ideas and creativity.

What you'll do
In the role you would work collaboratively with discovery project representatives from other fields including medicinal chemistry, biology, safety and pharmaceutical sciences. You will influence drug design and optimization of ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, toxicity) properties. Hence, it is your responsibility to ensure delivery of all DMPK related activities, including in vitro ADME, biotransformation, bioanalysis, preclinical PK and PD. Using your knowledge and experience to translate and incorporate all of this information into a framework underpinning human dose prediction on discovery projects from target selection to candidate drug selection.
We believe that you have a solid understanding of DMPK and chemistry and that you will be able to provide expert advice and interpretation of complex drug discovery data.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

* Responsible for leading all DMPK related activities, including coordinating and engaging with internal and external DMPK colleagues and collaborators, on project related activities
* Deliver DMPK input and data to projects within agreed timelines and to the right quality to ensure that DMPK challenges are thoroughly assessed and resolved
* Contribute to the design of preclinical in vivo PD studies to answer crucial project questions
* Accountable, together with other functions such as Medicinal Chemistry, Bioscience and Safety, for compound design and effective cross-discipline optimization
* Apply an understanding of DMPK and PKPD to support/influence project progression and strategy as well as providing the framework for human dose predictions
* Prepare clear presentations related to the above for internal governance interactions

Essential for the role

* Degree/MSC in chemistry, biopharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics or equivalent experience in a relevant field
* Formal training or proven experience of working with pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism and a good understanding of pharmacodynamics
* Understanding of physicochemical properties and their influence on ADME properties and the ability to apply this understanding to design of new molecules
* Have (at least) basic PK modelling skills, experience of human PK and dose prediction, as well as an understanding of disease biology and PKPD
* Experience of working in preclinical DMPK
* Experience from drug discovery, cross-functional working and molecule/project progression
* Ability to engage and collaborate across boundaries with a problem solving attitude and focus on delivery
* Strong communication skills