Uroš URLEB

Dr. Urleb worked in academia during the first part of his career, focusing on the organic synthesis of heterocyclic compounds in the group of Professor Branko Stanovnik. Later he was engaged in medicinal chemistry and drug design, including discovering new thrombin inhibitors, new hypolipidemic, and novel antibiotics at the University of Ljubljana, the University of Graz, and the University of Heidelberg. He has been a visiting professor at universities in Paris, Philadelphia, Halle, Heidelberg, and Graz. In 2000 he joined Lek Pharmaceuticals company and in 2002 Novartis, where he holds several high-level functions, including a member of the management board of management responsible for R&R, executive director of the Drug Discovery Unit, Chief Scientific Officer for Global Product Development of Sandoz-Novartis, and Global Head of Technical Development Biopharmaceuticals, where he was also responsible for the technical development of biosimilars. Eight biosimilars are marketed in Europe and the USA, and USA Novartis was the first company to launch biosimilar and complex biosimilar medicine.

Dr. Urleb’s most important scientific work encompasses drug design, synthesis and structure elucidation, and binding on molecular targets.

1980 Degree, majoring in synthesis of heterocyclic compounds PhD in synthesis of heterocyclic compounds

2000 Professor medicinal chemistry University of Ljubljana

2000 Member of Management Board, Lek Pharmaceuticals

2008 Chief Scientific Officer, Sandoz International, Germany

2012 Global Head, Technical Development Bioharmaceuticals Sandoz-Novartis company

Important Works

Urleb U et al. (2007) Recent Advances in Serine Protease Inhibitors as Anticoagulant Agents. Curr. Pharm. Design 13:287-312.

Urleb U et al. (2007) Amidinophenlyalanine derivatives as thrombin inhibitors. US 7,285,547.

Humljan J, Urleb U, Gobec S et al. (2008) Novel naphthalene-N-sulfonyl-d-glutamic acid derivatives as inhibitors of MurD, a key peptidoglycan biosynthesis enzyme. J. Med. Chem. 51:7486-7494.

Selected Awards

1989, 1996 Alexander von Humboldt Fellow: postdoctoral research

2012 Sandoz Excellence Award