Olivier Dirat, PhD, is an Associate Research Fellow and Group Leader in Chemical Development Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. In 2006, he joined Pfizer’s Chemical Research and Development Department in Sandwich, UK. He focuses on late stage development projects (from Phase 2b to commercialization) and is currently a group leader and API project manager involved in route scouting, route development, technology transfer, QbD, Science of scale and regulatory submissions. He is also member of Pfizer’s impurities council with a specialization in genotoxic impurities. Dr. Dirat has co-authored 19 peer-reviewed publications and three patents.

Dr. Dirat was born in Paris in 1971 and received two degrees, one in Physics and one in Chemistry and a MS degree in Chemistry from ESPCI (Paris) in 1996. In 1999, he received a PhD from the Université Paris-Sud (Orsay) under the guidance of Professor Yves Langlois on the topic of the application of diastereoselective [3+2] cycloadditions to the synthesis of naturally occurring ß-lactones. He then moved to Stanford University for a post doctorate with Professor Barry Trost, where he completed the total synthesis of epi-Hygromycin A and the first total synthesis of Callipeltoside A, establishing thereby its relative and absolute stereochemistry. In 2002, Dr. Dirat joined Merck Sharp and Dohme at Terlings Park in the UK as team leader in Medicinal Chemistry, where he focused on lead optimization programs in the field of neuroscience.

In 2006, after the Terlings Park site closure, he took the opportunity to change careers and moved to process chemistry.