Zhihua Sui, Ph.D. is Chief Scientific Officer, Head of Preclinical Research and Development (R&D) at SK Life Science Labs as well as Co-Chair of the Global Research and Development Committee at SK Biopharmaceuticals. Zhihua was the first scientist who joined Proteovant Therapeutics (precursor of SK Life Science Labs) and helped build the R&D Team.

Before joining SK Life Science Labs, Zhihua was VP, Head of Chemistry and Strategic Outsourcing at Agios Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA for eight years. Prior to his role at Agios, Zhihua was Sr. Scientific Director/Sr. Janssen Fellow at Johnson & Johnson for 20 years.

Prior to joining industry, Zhihua completed his postdoctoral research on the discovery of HIV protease inhibitors and biochemistry of cytochrome P450s at UC San Francisco. Zhihua received his Ph.D. in chemistry at Heidelberg University, MS/BS in medicinal chemistry, and medical certificate in China.

Zhihua is an experienced drug hunter and a proven executive leader in pharmaceutical R&D. Zhihua built winning teams in both big pharma and biotech. His teams discovered and advanced more than 20 compounds to clinical stage for oncology, rare genetic diseases, reproductive/urology disorders (men’s and women’s health), inflammation, and metabolic diseases. Zhihua has extensive experience in drug discovery platforms such as SBDD, FBDD and mechanism-based designs as well as protein degradation. He is a co-author or co-inventor on more than 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals, invited lectures and patents.