By WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. Published: Tuesday, Sep. 4, 2012 - 1:34 pm SHANGHAI, Sept. 4, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Joseph Vacca, Senior Vice President of the Early Success Sharing Partnerships (ESSP) business unit of WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: WX), a leading research and development outsourcing company serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, was inducted into the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society with more than 164,000 members. The induction was held in August 2012 during the 244th ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia.Dr. Vacca was honored for his outstanding contributions to the discovery of novel therapeutics, including CRIXIVAN™, Isentress™, and many compounds in advanced clinical studies.In the spirit of celebrating excellence, WuXi hosted a special luncheon to honor Dr. Vacca, attended by many colleagues, collaborators, and distinguished guests of WuXi's global network.At the event, several leading chemists praised Dr. Vacca's accomplishments."Dr. Vacca sets the standard of leadership in the discipline of drug discovery," commented Dr. Paul Anderson, former Merck Chemistry Site Head, past ACS President, and winner of the ACS Priestley Medal."Advancing innovative science to effective therapies is an enormous challenge that requires strong partnership between academia and industry," added Dr. Chi-Huey Wong, the 2012 ACS Arthur C. Cope Award recipient, Ernest W. Hahn Professor of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute, and President of Academia Sinica."Expertise from veterans like Dr. Vacca will be vital to speed translation of discoveries into medicines for patients.""We are particularly delighted that ACS has recognized Dr. Vacca's contributions to the chemical society and to industry through his leadership in the discovery of important, ground-breaking therapies," commented Dr. Ge Li, Chairman and CEO of WuXi PharmaTech."Today more than ever, our industry needs a strong collaborative ecosystem to improve R&D productivity for the benefit of our patients.Dr. Vacca exemplifies WuXi's mission of providing the very finest industry expertise across our open-access platforms to enable anyone and any company to discover and develop drugs more efficiently and cost-effectively."Dr. Vacca has had a distinguished career in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. Prior to working at WuXi, Dr. Vacca held positions within the Merck Research Laboratories Chemistry organization as Vice President of Chemistry at the Kenilworth, New Jersey, site and as the Global Head of Structural Chemistry. He retired from Merck in November 2011.Dr. Vacca is the author of more than 100 publications and patents and has received many awards, including the Merck Directors Award given by the Merck Board of Directors (1998); the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Discoverers Award (1999); the Intellectual Property Owners' National Inventor of the Year Award (1997); the European Patent Office's European Inventor of the Year for non-European inventors (2007); the ACS Award for Creative Invention (1999); and designation as a Merck Research Laboratories Presidential Fellow (2008).
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