Best Agrolife Ltd announces appointment of new R&D professionals

In a big push towards making its R&D future ready, Best Agrolife Ltd (BAL), one of the leading agrochemical company in India, has roped in a team of highly experienced R&D experts for its wholly owned subsidiary Best Crop Science Pvt Ltd.

The team includes Dr Rajendra Kharul, Dr Uday Gokhale, Dr Rajendra Jagdhane and Dr Mahadev Patil. All the four hired R&D experts are highly experienced PhD’s and post doctorates from reputable foreign and Indian institutes in the area of Synthesis Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

A PhD in Organic Chemistry from NCL, Pune and Post doctorate from University of Canada Mr Kharul has worked with  Zydus Cadila for more than 20 years. He will be designated as the General Manager of the R&D department of the company. Mr Kharul has published four patents and over 20 publications in international journals. Other than successfully leading internal as well as collaborative projects Mr Kharul has also guided candidates for PhD and masters. He comes with an extensive experience in patent-bursting, design, synthesis of NCEs, building SAR relationship and progressing these NCEs through various stages of Drug discovery, especially till pre-clinical development.

Dr Uday Gokhale is a PhD in Organic Chemistry from University of Alberta, Canada and a Post Graduate in Organic Chemistry from Poona University. He has published 10 patents and over 20 publications in leading scientific journals. Mr Gokhale holds 35 years of experience in companies like Ciba Geigy, Glaxo, Sharda Crop and Sajjan India etc. He provides his consultancy on Pharma API /Agrochemical TGAI off-patent and patented product development in the areas of R&D; DMF / registration, manufacturing process, troubleshooting, intellectual property and patent mining . He has in-depth regulatory knowledge of patents and  strategies for avoiding patent infringement in the agrochemical industry with particular emphasis on EU regulation. He will be associated as Director-Analytical Chemistry with BAL.

Dr Rajendra JagDhane is a PhD in Organic Chemistry from NCL, Pune and Post doctorate from University of Canada whereas Dr Mahadev Patil has done his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Bangalore University and Post doctorate from University of Finland. Dr Jagdhane has over 10 years of experience with Glenmark Pharma whereas Dr Patil holds a total experience of 10 years with Redox Scientific. Mr Patil has published 3 patents and over 16 publications in international journals. He will be recruited as Assistant Manager R&D.

Commenting on the appointments Mr Pramod Narayan Karlekar, MD Best Crop Science Pvt Ltd, said, ″BAL is focused on building a team of highly experienced and passionate R&D experts for robust chemical synthesis R&D and large scale manufacturing of agrochemical intermediates. The company believes that the strength of the R&D is the combined experience and passion of the team driven by the objective of creating new chemistries not done so far in India.This way the company is committed to help the noble objective of ‘Make In India’ in a major way. All the four hired R&D experts are accomplished leaders and highly regarded researchers with an extraordinary track record of publishing patents and I am confident that their experience and leadership will strengthen our team and will accelerate our R&D efforts further.″

It is noteworthy that BAL recently appointed Mr Lalit Kumar Sharma as the Head - Quality Control and R&D of its another wholly owned subsidiary, Seedlings India Pvt Ltd.