James Wesley

Biography

James A. Wesley, Ph.D., Executive Director, Eli Lilly and Company, is a graduate of Wayne State University, where he received a B.S. degree in Pharmacy and was a registered pharmacist employed at Read Drugs in Roseville, MI. He then obtained a doctorate in Pharmaceutics from Purdue University. After graduation, Jim worked at Zeneca (AstraZeneca) Pharmaceuticals, utilizing powder X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, and microscopy techniques for polymorphic form identification and the formulation design of oral solid dosage forms.

He next joined Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals (Pfizer) in Ann Arbor, MI, as a group leader, supporting discovery and development efforts in the areas of physical characterization, high-throughput screening methods for physical property determination, and Phase I formulations for FHD dosing. At Pfizer, he also served as Pharmaceutical Sciences Team Leader (PSTL), leading cross-functional development teams for drug synthesis, formulation development, regulatory submissions, and clinical supply manufacturing.

Jim has worked at Eli Lilly and Company since 2007. His first position was in translational pharmaceutics, where he provided leadership in the development and use of absorption-enabling technologies and innovated the use of extemporaneous preparations to support early-phase clinical development. He later progressed to formulation and process development, where he was responsible for the commercialization of numerous late-stage assets. He is currently the Scientific Team Leader (STL), responsible for the early technical plans of a portfolio of small molecules that enable the registration and commercialization of new drug products and the manufacture of clinical trial materials.