Dr. J. Ramachandran founded Gangagen Biotechnologies in the year 2000 and established a research laboratory with the aim to find novel solutions to address the increasing menace of antibiotic resistance.

Dr. Ramachandran brings to the company over 40 years of rich and distinguished executive experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Ramachandran was Head, R &amp; D of AstraZeneca, Bangalore. He served as President of Astra Biochemicals Private Ltd and of the merged entity AstraZeneca India. During his tenure with Astra and AstraZeneca, he established state-of-the art R &amp; D programs for discovering and developing novel therapies for the treatment of tuberculosis and antibiotic resistant infection.

In 1988, as Vice President of research at Neurex Corporation in Menlo Park, California, he spearheaded the development of highly selective neuronal calcium channel antagonists derived from the venoms of marine, fish-eating cone snails.. Clinical trials including two pivotal phase III trials were completed successfully and SNX-111 received approvable status under the name Ziconotide in June 2000.

Dr. Ramachandran started his career in the biotech industry at Genentech, Inc. where he pioneered the molecular cloning and expression of several important cell surface receptors (including the human insulin receptor). Prior to this, he was on the faculty of the University of California as a member of the Hormone Research Laboratory and the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics where he became Associate Professor (1972) and Professor (1978).. Dr. Ramachandran received his Ph.D.in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, holds an MS degree in Chemistry from De Paul University in Chicago and Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) with Honours from the University of Madras.