Scientist II

Location:

Ahmedabad , GJ, 382359, India

Salary:

4,50,000 Rs

Posted:

March 05, 2011

Contact this candidate

Resume:

Akash A. Savaliya

Email: *****.********@*****.***

Phone: +91-982*******

Permanent Address:

D/21, Asharam Society

Thakkarbapanagar road

Ahmedabad, Gujarat (382350), India

Phone : +91-937*******, +91-937*******

CAREER FOCUS

To employ my ability and high grasping power in learning new technologies and have a consistent uphill success in profession by effectively utilizing my skills both technical and interpersonal and achieve success in whatever I endeavor.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Physiochemical characterization (pKa, Log P, solubility, intrinsic dissolution) in preformulation studies

• Generation and screening of various solid forms viz. polymorphs, pseudo-polymorphs, amorphous form and salt forms and characterization thereof

• Phase transformation monitoring studies of different forms

• Formulation challenges for the molecules with poor pharmaceutical portfolio (solubility, stability, bioavailability), preferentially via conventional delivery (oral solid dosage form)

• Moisture science in pharmaceutical product development, e.g. hygroscopicity studies, hydrate formation kinetics etc

• Drug-excipient compatibility studies

• Solid state stability studies and forced degradation studies in solution/solid state

ACADEMIC RECORD

Qualification University/College/School Year of Passing Remarks

M. S. (Pharm), Pharmaceutical Analysis National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), SAS Nagar, India June,2009 8.46 CGPA (10 point scale)

GATE Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India 2007 All India rank 262 (98.43 percentile)

B. Pharm Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, India 2007 64.73%

Intermediate in Science Gujarat Board, India 2003 78.46 %

Matriculation Gujarat Board, India 2001 89.43 %

PROFESSIONAL AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Current Position :

Formulation analytical scientist in the Pharmaceutical Development Group, Torrent Research Centre, Bhat, Gujarat, India (August 2009 - till date)

Key Responsibility:

a) Preformulation activities and solid state analysis: Evaluation of drug-drug and drug-excipient compatibility studies, polymorph and salt form screening experiments, solid state characterization by various techniques (DSC, TGA, PXRD, normal and polarised light microscopy as well as hot stage microscopy), amorphous form generation and stabilization, solid state degradation studies, phase transformation monitoring studies

b) Dissolution studies: Conducting IVIVC by using various biorelavent dissolution media such as SGF, SIF, FaSSIF and FeSSIF; Evaluation of effect of surfactants on solid form changes and in turn, effect on dissolution behaviour of solids; Understanding the rate limiting step in In-Vivo studies by determination of either solubility and/or dissolution-limited oral absorption; Evaluation of dissolution profile for immediate release, sustained release and controlled release oral solid dosage forms, phase transformation monitoring during dissolution studies by DSC, TGA and microscopy as well as monitoring of chemical changes by HPLC and LC-MS etc

c) Formulation assay: Determination of assay values for different dosage formulations

d) Impurity profiling and stress degradation studies: Stress degradation experiments, HPLC method development and validation, Characterizations of degradation products, process impurities and residual solvents

Project work during M.S. (Pharm.)

“Screening of marketed Indian ayurvedic/herbal healthcare products for the presence of synthetic PDE-5 inhibitors, steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as adulterant using LC-MS/TOF”

Miscellaneous projects handled during M.S. (Pharm.):

• Generation of amorphous form and method optimization thereof to obtain physically stable amorphous form. Various methods such as quench cooling, freeze drying, spray drying, rapid precipitation and solvent evaporation were tried for the same

• Influence of stereoisomerism, polymorphism and co-formulated drugs on moisture gain behaviour of solids. This study reflected that the quality of solid dosage forms may change significantly due to even small change in any of these factors

• Influence of humidity, temperature and presence of other solid forms on phase transformation behaviour of polymorphic and amorphous form

PUBLICATIONS

• Detection and characterization of synthetic steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in ayurvedic/herbal products using LC-MS/TOF. Akash A. Savaliya, Bhagwat Prasad, Dhara K. Raijada, Saranjit Singh. Drug Test. Analysis 1 (2009) 372-381.

• Screening of Indian aphrodisiac ayurvedic/herbal healthcare products for adulteration with sildenafil, tadalafil and/or vardenafil using LC/PDA and extracted ion LC–MS/TOF. Akash A. Savaliya, Ravi P. Shah, Bhagwat Prasad, Saranjit Singh. J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 52 (2010) 406-409.

• Strategies for characterizing sildenafil, vardenafil, tadalafil and their analogues in herbal dietary supplements, and detecting counterfeit products containing these drugs. Saranjit Singh, Bhagwat Prasad, Akash A. Savaliya, Ravi P. Shah, Vikrantsinh M. Gohil, Amandeep Kaur. Trends Anal. Chem. 28 (2009) 13-27.

• A research article on “Mechanistic explanation for differential stability behaviour under solution and solid state of clopidogrel bisulphate” (Under preparation).

• A review article on: “Factors affecting moisture gain behaviour of solids and their consequences on the quality of pharmaceutical products” (Under preparation).

• A review article on: “Assessing solid state stability: A new insight” (Under preparation).

• Presence of sildenafil in herbal drugs in India miniscule: Study. News in PHARMABIZ, 18th December, 2008.

PRESENTATIONS

• Understanding the stability behaviour of various solid forms. Dhara K. Raijada, Saranjit Singh, Arvind K. Bansal, Asit K. Chakraborti, Akash A. Savaliya, Jukka Rantanen (Poster presentation at 4th annual PSSRC symposium, 2010, Cambridge).

• Strategies for characterizing sildenafil, vardenafil, tadalafil and their analogues in herbal dietary supplements, and detecting counterfeit products containing these drugs. (Oral presentation at 20th International Symposium of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2009, Agra, India).

• Screening of aphrodisiac Indian herbal formulations for the adulteration of Sildenafil, Tadalafil and their analogues. Akash A. Savaliya, Ravi P. Shah, Bhagwat Prasad and Saranjit Singh. (Presented at 60th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress, 2009, New Delhi, India).

SKILLS AND EXPERTISE

• Direct handling experience and thorough understanding of various analytical tools like HPLC (Agilent, Shimadzu, Waters), LC-MS/TOF (Bruker Daltonics), LC-MSn (LTQ-XL, Thermo Scientific), normal and polarized light Microscope with hot stage, Karl-Fisher apparatus (Mettler), UV-Visible spectrophotometer (Perkin Elmer and Shimadzu), Polarimeter (Perkin Elmer and Autopol IV), IR moisture analyzer (Mettler), Dissolution testing apparatus (Electrolab and Varian).

• Critical understanding of effect of polymorphism on product performance; solid state transformations during pharmaceutical processing and regulatory implications thereof.

• Practical experience of polymorph generation by various techniques such as spray drying, freeze drying, solvent evaporation, quench cooling, anti-solvent addition approach etc.

• Expertise in solid state characterization by DSC, PXRD, FT-IR and Normal and polarized light microscopy, hot stage microscopy, stability studies (both in solid state and solution state).

• Critical understanding and appreciation of various regulatory guidelines like USFDA (INDA, NDA and ANDA), Safety guidelines of USFDA for metabolites, WHO guidelines, ICH guidelines, etc.; Good understanding of GMPs and GLPs.

• Well versed with various scientific software like Mass frontier (for prediction of fragmentation pattern and chemical characterization), Chemoffice, Elemental composition calculator, Endnote (reference management), Pallas (for pKa determination), TOPKAT (Toxicity analysis), Sigmastat (Biostatistics), Met-predict, MetWork and Met-id software (for prediction of metabolites) etc. Dexterous in information retrieval from internet including patent search, literature search, Sci-Finder, etc.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES DURING M.S. (PHARM.)

Courses Undertaken

• Solid-State Pharmaceutics, Dosage Form Design Parameters, Pharmaceutical Product Development, Instrumental Techniques for Evaluation of APIs and Drug Products, Topics in Pharmaceutical Analysis, Separation Techniques, Spectral Analysis, Quality Control and Quality Assurance, Stability Testing, Pharmacopoeial Methods of Analysis, Pharmacological Screening and Assays, Biotechnology in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biostatistics, Fundasmentals of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Standardization of Natural Product Drugs/Formulations

Seminars Delivered

• Solubility and dissolution rate limited absorption

• Advancement in stability chambers and comparison of marketed stability chambers

• Excipient hydrolysis and ester formation increase pH in a parenteral solution over aging

• Critical comparison of various tests given in IP, BP, EP and USP

• Mass spectrometry and related technologies

• Capillary electrophoresis: A potential separation technique

Extra courses Undertaken

• Online introductory course on intellectual property rights managed by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva

• A course work on the “Pharmaceutical Material Sciences” held at NIPER and offered by Dr. Eric Munson (University of Kansas), Dr. Nair Rodriguez-Hornedo (University of Michigan) and Prof. Raj Suryanarayanan (University of Minnesota)

• A course work on “Drug development” held at NIPER and offered by Prof. Anil Gulati, University of Illinois, Chicago

ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

• Active member of innocentive problem solver group and selected for Innocentive award of 15,000$ in 2008 for giving the best solution on the problem entitled “Rapid phytosterol analysis in plant oil samples”

• Secured 11th rank at all India level in National Level Pharmacy Talent Search Examination 2007

• Standing committee member of AAPS (American Association of Pharmaceutical scientists) student chapter, NIPER

• Participation in Pharma-Quiz competition organized by NIPER

• Various prizes and awards for sports like football, cricket etc.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Indian, male, single, languages known: English, Hindi and Gujarati

REFERENCES

1. Dr. Saranjit Singh

Professor & Head

Dept. of Pharmaceutical Analysis

Dean NIPER, SAS Nagar (Mohali) Punjab-160 062, India

E-mail: ******@*****.**.**